[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?

[LS]

I wish I could recall where I read this stuff about Vann, but the gist of it wasn't very flattering---that he ignored warnings from the ARVNs on one occasion and had them drop right into a very hot zone that killed a lot of them. He denigrated them at the very moment that several ARVN chopper pilots were making runs to hold off the commies and get their guys out. It was a totally different portrait of Vann.

[Vetvoice]

Your second sentence went to the lie that is the premise of this and other pieces by this author. John Paul Vann is buried in Arlinton National Cemetery with our other heroes as a Lieutenant Colonel. He was no Major General in equivalent rank, brevet rank or using monopoly rank. I knew Vann and he was a truthful man when dealing with me. He would be appalled that some tinhorn is trying to make a name and reputation by elevating his rank to one he despised.

Vann died as a civialian while in the pay of an American civilian agency. In no way did any Americans ever command anything Vietnamese in Vietnam.

Even on our Special Forces camp we flew the flag of South Vietnam. Their Special Forces, the Luc Long Dat Biet, were our counterparts and we were their advisors. That would have been the case if they ever left their compound. In their absence, we took care of things. But we did not run up the Stars and Stripes and call the camp an American installation or ourselves commanders of Vietnamese citizens. That entire notion belies why we were in Vietnam.

[mrustow]

Given that Vietnam history is such a political minefield, can you gentlemen recommend any works to me? I grew up during the war, and turned 17 three or four months after the last American chopper lifted off from the roof of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, which remains one of the enduring images of my life. And yet, I know almost nothing reliable about the war.