[LS]

Recently I was reading a Vietnam-era book---can't remember the source now---but it was saying that the Vann/Sheehan myth of the Vietnam War was total crap. For ex., it said that Vann's claim that the ARVNs were "cowards" and would "tip off the enemy" so they wouldn't have to spring an ambush was BS---that Vann routinely disregarded ARVN intelligence that showed him exactly where the VC were. The author didn't like Vann at all.

[robowombat]

John Paul Vann was both a very slippery and very talented fellow. He certainly wasn't a Major General retiring in the grade of LTC. He could get remarkable mileage out of the ARVNs and his undoubted skills both as a planner and troop leader landed him positions as a civilian US assistant to various SVN generals. When he was killed in a copter crash in 72 he was the de facto commander of the ARVN II Corps forces. The de jure commander MG Dzu was a man who could manage to be both incompetent and corrupt on the same day but who nursed no ambitions seizing power in a coup. Dzu was happy to operate his various remunerative businesses and have the annoying burden of command lifted from his shoulders by Vann. At the same time competent professional ARVN staff and field officers recognized JPV's skill and his capacity to function in the snake pit of ARVN politics.

Sheehan self important liberal presstitute that he was could never forgive Vann for making a monkey out of him and turning Sheehan into John Paul Vann's megaphone back in the early days of the war. So his magnum opus 'Bright and Shining Lie' is full of this myopic spite that someone had actually 'lied to a journalist' and gotten away with it. That rec lama aside the book is a fascinating picture of an intelligent sociopath who was the perfect man for the job in South Vietnam. Now where can we find a few John Paul Vann's to operate the new Iraqi Army and police forces?