THE TRAGEDY AND THE WALL By Wilton Strickland, Lt Col, USAF (Ret)
The tragedy of the Vietnam War is exceeded by only slavery and the Civil War as this nation’s greatest tragedy. Not only were thousands of fine, young Americans sacrificed needlessly, sent into harm’s way by a government with no commitment to a resolution to the conflict, the conflict divided the country like nothing else but the Civil War. The tragedy is best illustrated by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the black granite wall in Washington, DC, which has etched into it more than 58 thousand names of the real heroes of the war. Members of their families are also heroes who still suffer from the perpetual absence of their loved ones who have never returned. Thousands of children have grown up never knowing their fathers and grandfathers, and thousands of children and grandchildren of the victims have never been born and never will be. Many families have waited 45 years and more not knowing the fates of their lost loved-ones, and many will never know. The suffering continues. To get a proper feel for this tragedy and to help us better understand and to remember, every American should visit the Memorial, study those names etched into it and think very seriously about how they got there. Let me quickly review some of the events and policies that put them there, starting with the French, who have had a strong influence and presence in the areas of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam since the mid 1800‘s. For many years, the area was even known as French Indochina. During WWII, the area was captured and occupied by the Japanese. After WWII, the French tried to reassert control, but meanwhile, a Communist insurgency led by Ho Chi Minh had gained strong influence, and a civil war erupted. The United States began to provide military aid to the French in Vietnam in 1950, but the Communist forces defeated the French at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, and Viet Nam was divided into North and South Vietnam along a demilitarized zone just south of the 17th parallel with a Communist government in the North and a government friendly to the United States in the South. South Vietnam immediately began asking the United States for support against Communist influence and insurgency from the North - the first being given in 1955. The insurgency in the South was originally conducted by local forces friendly to the North and were known as Viet Minh (also Viet Cong). Later, many North Vietnamese troops were also directly involved. As the insurgency increased, the United States gradually increased aid to South Vietnam, including military supplies, equipment and military advisors working closely with the South Vietnamese Army and Air Force. By late 1962, I was living in Georgia as an Air Force lieutenant on a B-52 combat crew. There I spent about a third of my time on alert with B-52’s loaded with nuclear weapons ready to launch at a moment’s notice and strike targets in the Soviet Union. By 1963 and ‘64, I began to see articles in the “Atlanta Constitution” newspaper about American military advisors being killed in Vietnam. This was very disturbing to me. I could so easily remember the stalemate that dragged on for years in Korea without a resolution only 10 to 12 years or so before. I was afraid that the conflict in Vietnam would get bogged down into the same type of indecisiveness. I felt that, because of the way that it was going to be conducted, i. e., piecemeal and haphazardly, we should not get involved in Vietnam, but if we were going to be involved, we should be quick and decisive about it. We were easing into a war that most Americans didn’t even know about. Those who did know about it didn’t seem to care as long as it was somebody else’s son, brother, husband, cousin or friend who was getting killed, hurt or taken prisoner. Then in Aug of ‘64, there were two incidents that led to much greater American involvement - American war ships in international waters in the Gulf of Tonkin off of N. Vietnam were confronted and fired upon by several N. Vietnamese torpedo boats. The American ships returned fire and sank one of the boats. A couple of nights later, nervous and “antsy” RADAR operators on the American ships in the same area saw what they thought were the N. Vietnamese boats again and the Americans fired wildly on them. Thorough investigation years later confirmed that there were no N. Vietnamese boats there that night - they turned out to have been imagined - caused by spurious returns on the ships‘ RADAR and anxious operators. Meanwhile, Congress passed the Gulf of Tokin Resolution that granted President Johnson authority to assist any Southeast Asian country whose government was considered to be jeopardized by "Communist aggression.” Johnson used this resolution as legal justification for greatly increasing and deploying additional U.S. forces to the area and to begin open warfare by American units against North Vietnam. Johnson immediately ordered air strikes on certain targets in N. Vietnam. These Air strikes gradually increased over several years, but Johnson continued to maintain tight control over what targets could be struck - he even boasted once that, “Nobody can bomb an outhouse in Vietnam without my permission.” By 1965, American forces in Vietnam were increasing drastically, and by 1968, there were a total of over 500 thousand American troops in South Vietnam. Several times, I sat outside the B-52 alert facility at Robins AFB, GA, and wept as I watched large C-141 aircraft loaded with Army troops from Fort Benning, Fort Gordon or Fort Stewart, GA, take off and head to Vietnam, knowing that some of those men would never return. Throughout the many years of the conflict, targets and action continued to be severely restricted by the President and Secretary of Defense; many hills and villages were taken, and every battle was won; hills and territory taken at great cost of American lives were often immediately returned to Viet Cong (Communist) control. The enemy was also allowed to take sanctuary in Cambodia and Laos; bombing campaigns were on for a while and then off for a while. American aircraft were not allowed to hit surface-to-air missile sites unless they were fired upon first. They were also not allowed to hit fighter aircraft on the ground, fighter airfields, or missile storage facilities, etc. Such as this went on and on for years. Meanwhile, more and more brave young Americans were killed, badly wounded and/or taken prisoner. B-52’s were first committed to the bombing campaign in an operation called Arc Light in 1965, but they were used mainly as long-range artillery pieces striking targets mostly in the South, such as troop concentrations, enemy storage depots, and supply routes. Many thousands of tons of bombs were dropped on thousands of acres of jungle and made a lot of “toothpicks” as I called it. All of this was very frustrating to those of us very familiar with the awesome capabilities of the B-52. We thought that much of this effort was being wasted, but many of these missions, of course, were also of great help to American troops on the ground, and B-52 air crewmen take great pride in having been able to provide such help when needed. Many ex-ground troops continue to offer their sincere appreciation for having received some B-52 aid in time of dire need. These B-52 missions did not end until 1973. I did not get directly involved in the war until July of 1972. I was on a B-52 crew at Kincheloe AFB, MI, and went to Guam and Thailand on temporary duty to fly B-52 missions to Vietnam. From July to mid-December, I flew 70 Arc Light missions to South Vietnam and in N. Vietnam up to the 20th parallel. Then on 18 Dec, 1972, because of a stalemate at the Paris Peace Talks, President Nixon ordered an all-out, no-holds-barred bombing campaign known as Linebacker II. B-52’s and many other Air Force, Navy and marine aircraft were to strike major targets in and around Hanoi - targets that had been “off limits” previously. During the eleven-day campaign, 15 B-52’s were shot down by N. Vietnamese surface-to-air missiles (SAMS) in the Hanoi area. ‘Had some very close calls, myself. Thirty B-52 air crewmen from the downed aircraft were rescued immediately, 30 were killed, and 30 were captured and held as POW’s until they were released in Mar ’73. Twelve other American aircraft of various types were also lost during the campaign; 10 of their crewmen were killed, 8 were captured and 11 were rescued. I flew six of the B-52 Linebacker II missions to Hanoi and Haiphong, and on the last one, the last night of the eleven-day campaign, while departing the Hanoi area very late on the night of 29 Dec 72, a mission that was in great contrast to my five previous missions into the area, I was very aware of the significance of the campaign. It was as quiet as a training mission back in the States; not a single missile nor round of anti-aircraft artillery (AAA) was fired at my aircraft. I had seen photos of the complete destruction in the areas struck by B-52’s since the 18th and did not think there was another target left in North Vietnam worthy of a B-52 strike. They were out of ammo, and we were out of targets. For eleven days/nights, we had finally fought the war the way many of us thought it should have been many years before – strategically, overwhelmingly and decisively. We had conducted the most intense bombing campaign ever against the most heavily-defended complex in history. I was confident that the campaign was over, that it had been won and that the war was finally ending as we departed Hanoi for the last time. I was elated by the victory, but I was deeply saddened by thoughts of the more than 58,000 Americans and many thousands of Vietnamese who had been sacrificed needlessly. The campaign completely destroyed North Vietnam’s ability and will to wage war (at least, temporarily). It would be two years before the North Vietnamese could mount another significant offensive. By the end of the campaign, North Vietnamese officials were anxious to sign an agreement, something they had been unwilling to do for years while our government was uncommitted to achieving any sort of victory. During the following two years, however, after US forces had withdrawn, Congress gave away what had been so dearly won. By withholding support for the South Vietnamese and by not allowing the President to commit the B-52’s again, Congress, in effect, told the North Vietnamese that they could take whatever they wanted without interference from the United States. These actions by Congress made the already tragic sacrifices of too many even more tragic. By its lack of a commitment to any plan for a resolution; by its gradual escalation, which gave the enemy time to adjust; by its on-again-off-again bombing policies, which gave the enemy time to recover and rearm; and by its ridiculous restrictions on engaging the enemy on the ground and in the air, which gave the enemy sanctuary, the government effectively played at war. I don’t mean to belittle anyone’s contribution to the war effort in any way whatsoever - far from it. The vast majority of Americans who fought in Southeast Asia during the seventeen years or more of our involvement fought valiantly and heroically, many giving their lives, others spending years as POW’s or getting severely wounded and scarred for life, but the most significant and decisive time of the entire war was those eleven days in December 1972, when the President finally allowed the military to commit overwhelming power to accomplish a clear objective – destroy North Vietnam’s ability and will to wage war. Even North Vietnam’s military commander, Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap, agreed with me - of course, I never had to ask him - I knew it for myself the night of 29 Dec 1972. The following is quoted from his memoirs in the Vietnam War Memorial in Hanoi: “What we still don’t understand is why you Americans stopped the bombing of Hanoi (in Dec ‘72). If you had pressed us a little harder, just for another day or two, we were ready to surrender! It was the same at the battle of TET in ’68. You defeated us! We knew it, and we thought you knew it. But we were elated that your media was helping us. They were causing more disruption in America than we could on the battlefields. We were ready to surrender. You had won!” General Giap merely confirmed what many Americans already knew. The Vietnam War was not lost on the battlefields in Vietnam — it was lost at home by public opinion and given away by Congress. So please visit the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial in Washington if you can, meanwhile visit the Traveling Memorial if you have the opportunity; study those 58,000 names etched there and think seriously about how they got there. It is the most moving experience I’ve ever had. I visited the Memorial in Washington on the afternoon of April 29, 2003. There was a significant crowd of visitors, including several small groups of high school and college students, up and down the walkway in front of the wall. The mood, as usual, was very quiet, subdued and reverent. Because I have trouble walking, a friend was pushing me in a wheelchair. As we moved slowly along the walkway looking for the panels bearing the names of my deceased comrades, we could hear only the occasional whispering as visitors quietly conversed to find the names of their lost loved ones or friends. Other than their stepping slowly aside to allow us to pass, I didn’t think that anybody else in the crowd was aware of our presence. My friend and I found the appropriate panel and stopped in front of it. My friend pointed out the names we were seeking down near its base. I left the chair and knelt in front of the panel. As I arose, I realized that, in those few seconds, a large crowd had gathered closely behind me and to my side. As I stood at attention and saluted all of those heroes named on the wall, I could not help but notice the silence, broken only by muffled sobs from several in the crowd and me. I returned to my wheelchair, we moved silently back along the walkway to find the names of other friends, and the crowd dispersed as quickly and as silently as it had formed around me, each person returning to his or her own private memorial thoughts. In those few seconds, in great contrast to the way the war had divided the nation, a close-knit crowd of a hundred or more strangers had formed spontaneously and without any verbal communication to join me in silent tribute to all of those listed on that hallowed wall. In the same way the two sides of the wall are joined solidly and silently at the vertex, we were united, also at the vertex, to remember and to offer firm hope that we can prevent another such tragedy. I hope that you will also remember that each and every one of them listed on that wall was somebody’s son, father, grandfather, grandson, husband, brother, cousin or friend; we should not forget, either, that also listed there are several daughters, sisters and aunts - all loved by someone. Twenty percent of them were less than 20 years old; many of them were less than a year out of high school - they should have lived for another 60 or 70 years.
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