Reflections on Vietnam, 1. Trying to talk to Gen. Westmoreland about COIN By LTG John H. Army (Retired) Best Defense guest columnist On 1 July 1. Vietnam, I became senior advisor to the commander of the 2. Infantry Division of the South Vietnamese Army. His headquarters, and my MAAG Advisory Team 5. Bac Lieu in Ba Xuyen province, deep in Vietnam’s Delta. As commander of the 4. Division Tactical Area, Colonel Bui Huu Nhon was responsible for the security of Vietnam’s four southernmost provinces. A million and a half people lived there, south of the Mekong River, in a region about the size of Connecticut. Except for the U Minh forest on its west coast the land was mostly rice paddies interlaced by canals. The Government of Vietnam had countered with the strategic hamlet program and a buildup of its own forces. My predecessor and lifetime friend, LTC Jonathan F. Ladd, informed me that the strategic hamlet program had tried to do too much too fast. At mid- 1. 96. 3 the Viet Cong controlled the majority of the countryside. Government control was limited at best to the outskirts of district towns. It was mounted on the Vietnamese side by the division commander and his staff and by his province chiefs with help from GVN agencies in Saigon. On the American side its civil component was assisted by a US foreign service officer newly graduated from Brown University, assigned to the US Aid mission in Saigon and stationed in Soc Trang, Ba Xuyen province’s capital. His name was Richard Holbrooke. Bob Montague was a brilliant officer and a great organizer, first in his 1. West Point. He teamed up with Dick Holbrooke and with a grizzled English- speaking major from the division staff, Major Yi, to develop an approach that would be used throughout the 2. Division area. It called for a gradual, step- by- step, process that would start from a small populated area, such as one of our hamlets under government control, and would move outward with an organized effort, bringing government control to hamlets one at a time. Reflections on Vietnam, 1963-64: Trying to talk to Gen. Westmoreland about COIN « The current design was first minted in silver in 1959 and saw a change of metal in. Harford Coin is Baltimore’s longest-established and leading coin business: after 53 years in business, you know we’re here for the long run. 1963 Franklin Half Dollar value, pictures, facts and information, The value for 1963 Franklin Silver Half Dollar, key date prices and images. Do you have a 1963 worth. Coin information free to all collectors of United States coins, including thousands of full color coin images, rarity, and historical information. At the same time there must be a civil effort to provide good government and win the hearts and minds of the people. Joint planners developed a civil- military organization that along with a standard operating method would be put into place by the district chief in every district in the 2. Division zone. The military part was a civil guard company and two or three self- defense corps platoons under the chief’s direct command. Their mission would be to provide local security for the hamlet and the operations of the pacification effort. These latter were farmers by day and fighters by night. It was under a competent militia officer or a village action cadreman especially selected for his leadership qualities and his love of country. He and his cadre would supervise hamlet action teams, whose members had expertise in fields like agriculture, medicine, education, and animal husbandry — all supported by government agencies at district or above. He supported the pacification concept with enthusiasm. He decided to run a test of the organization and to establish a division training school for pacification groups. The first trained pacification group began operating in early April 1. By the end of May a pacification group was operating in each province. He had visited the district town of O Min in Phong Dinh province: Nguyen Van Dieu, 4. Dieu has joined a village action team as part of Vietnam’s . He was a member of the first class to complete the three week course. It will follow the civil guard after it has driven the Viet Cong from a hamlet and will attempt to reestablish local government. If the pacification plan works out, they will. An excerpt: February 9: . The Viet Cong come in and terrorize the hamlet officials – threaten them with assassination if they continue to serve. Then they do kill them – or enough of them to make their threats believable. One fine village chief was murdered four days ago – a very good man whom we had been relying on to recruit more militia in his area. The communist movement feeds on this sort of tactic – combined with promises of a better life to the peasants and a way of achieving the fanaticism and dedication among its cadres and workers that we do not yet understand. The national government is not yet sure what its program will be. We intend to start a program of our own down here – write it into our lesson plans that we are preparing for the courses we will conduct and deliver on the program in our execution of the oil spot concept – and hope that the government will allow us to do so. It is not an easy thing to do. But we have a lot of Americans backing us and I think it will develop into something very good if we are lucky. I say again – there is no other way in my opinion for us to pacify this country. Westmoreland arrived in- country as presumptive COMUSMACV. A month later I wrote my wife: February 2. We will explain our plan to him, and hope that he will agree with what we say we need and will carry the message back to Saigon so that we can get what we need. I was not sure that he really understood the significance of what we were trying to do. He may have heard the words, but I didn’t believe he heard the music. Before I leave I will ask for an audience with General Westmoreland and tell him that and a few other concrete suggestions as to how we can do this job better over here. I am sure he will be delighted to hear all about it! He told me that his schedule was busy, but invited me to accompany him as he drove to Tan Son Nhut to welcome visiting National War College students. I knew that I was taking that chance. Coin auctions and rare coin sales by GreatCollections. All PCGS, NGC and ANACS certified coins. Free coin pricing data and valuations. I had not prepared my reply. It was a reckless move. No reaction, no questions, no exploration, no curiosity. I went home two weeks later. His next four years were search and destroy. Bob Montague kept me informed by mail until he was transferred to Saigon to work on pacification, as was Dick Holbrooke. In 1. 96. 5 Bob went to the Army War College and after that to work under Bob Komer in the Johnson White House. There he was joined by Dick Holbrooke to develop with Komer the program known as CORDS. In 1. 96. 7 CORDS was put into place in Vietnam under Komer as Deputy COMUSMACV with rank as ambassador. Bob Montague was his assistant. It was essentially a Cadillac version of our Model T 2. Division effort, years earlier. Vietnam’s president Nguyen Van Thieu appointed Cao Hao Hon, who had been our division commander and was now a major general, to work alongside Ambassador Komer as chief of his government’s nationwide pacification effort. General Cushman commanded the 1. Airborne Division, the Army Combined Arms Center, and the ROK/US field army defending Korea’s Western Sector. He served three tours in Vietnam. See also pp 1. 08- 1. Harry Maurer? s Strange Ground; Americans in Vietnam 1. An Oral History, Henry Holt & Co, 1. Silver Coin Melt Value Calculator Calculate coin metal values based on the current silver price. Remember to enter 'number of coins', not face value. Order 90% Silver Franklin Halves $10 20-Coin Roll AU at APMEX or call (800) 375-9006. We offer competitive silver prices on Franklin Half Dollars (1948 - 1963.
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