There Wasn't a Single Communist North Vietnamese Army Soldier inside a then Free South Vietnam

Lead elements of the under strength 450 man 1st Bn, 7th Cavalry air assault into a small clearing in scrub jungle below the 2300 foot Chu Pong Massif. Within an hour, a fierce battle is underway between the American Air Cav troopers and the aggressive 9th Bn of the 66th Regiment of the Peoples Army of Vietnam - North Vietnamese Regulars. The American Commander, Lt. Col Moore, fighting on the ground with his men, is faced with three on-going tasks to be accomplished simultaneously:

* Shuttle in the rest of his men from 14 miles to the rear on 16 Huey helicopters
* Holding onto the clearing so that the Hueys can land and take off
* Carry the fight to the numerically superior force as far into the jungle as possible so as to control the edges of the clearing

It is quickly apparent that the enemy force is determined to overrun and kill every American on the field. The afternoon is consumed in a desperate fire-storm battle for survival in 100 degree heat for Moore and his men as the PAVN commander throws the 7th Bn of the 66th and a composite battalion of the 33rd Regt in a furious attack against the 7th Cavalry left flank and center. In the action, a 29 man Cavalry platoon is surrounded by 200 enemy. Employing massive air and artillery fire support, the disciplined Cavalrymen hold onto the landing zone clearing against 7-1 odds and cause the PAVN units to fall back and break contact by late afternoon. During the action, brave Huey pilots land their choppers under fire during the action to bring in ammo and water and carry out wounded. A reinforcing Cavalry company flies in just before dark.

During the fighting that day, the 1st Bn, 7th Cavalry is reduced to approximately 340 officers and men; none missing. PAVN casualties are much higher due to awesome American fire support; six enemy are captured and evacuated.

Before dawn, Moore orders his company commanders to meet him prior to an attack to rescue the still cut-off platoon. Before this meeting takes place, the PAVN launch a heavy attack which shatters the early-morning stillness like a huge explosion. The attack is carried out by the 7th Bn, 66th Regiment and the H-15 Main Force Viet Cong Bn.

C Company of the Cavalry Battalion bears the brunt of the assault and is soon involved in hand to hand combat. The right portion of D/1/7 is also struck. The code word "Broken Arrow" is sent out over the radio by the Battalion Forward Air Controller. Within minutes, all available fighter bombers in South Vietnam are headed for X-ray to render close air support to "an American unit in grave danger of being overrun". A 3 hour battle that features non-stop 105mm artillery (8" artillery also participated), aerial rockets, and determined American Infantrymen, results in Charlie Company holding it's ground in a stunning display of personal courage and unit discipline. But it pays a terrible price - no officers left and only 49 men unhurt. 42 officers and men killed; 20 wounded. Scores of slain North Vietnamese and their weapons litter the bloody battleground.

"An as their firin' dies away, the 'usky wisper runs, from lips that 'aven't drunk all day: The guns! Thank Gawd, the guns!"
- Rudyard Kipling

At noon, the 2nd Bn, 5th Cavalry marches into X-ray from a landing zone 2 miles east. Joining with the 7th Cavalry parent company of the cut-off platoon, it continues out unopposed, rescues it, and brings it back with all wounded and dead. Of the 29 man platoon, 9 killed and 13 wounded. When reached, the platoon, which had lost its Platoon leader, Platoon Sgt, and one Squad leader killed, had ammo left to fight with under the leadership of a 3 stripe "Buck Sergeant" Squad Leader (SGT Savage).

C Co 1/7 Cav survivors are replaced on line by the fresh B Co 2nd Bn, 7th Cavalry. The battalion now forms a strong perimeter and prepares for more action in the night. All American dead and wounded are evacuated.

The PAVN Commander, knows that he had severely weakened and damaged the defenders in the Charlie Co sector the previous morning. What he does not know is that a fresh company - B Co 2nd Bn 7th Cav, had taken over the position after that engagement. That company, unmolested the previous afternoon, had cut fields of fire, dug new foxholes, fired in artillery concentrations, carefully emplaced it's machine guns and piled up ammunition.

The PAVN assaults four separate times beginning at 4:22 AM. The last is at 6:27 AM. They are stopped cold, losing over 200 dead. B Co has 6 wounded. At 9:55 AM, a sweep outward is made which results in more enemy dead and the position secured.

At 10:40 AM, the 1st Bn, 7th Cavalry, having lost 79 men killed and 121 wounded is ordered back to the rear for reorganization. By 3:00 PM, 1/7 CAV had turned over X-ray to the 2nd Bn, 5th Cav and the 2nd Bn, 7th CAV and is flying back to the Camp Holloway airfield at Pleiku City.

At the conclusion of X-ray, the sister battalion of 1/7 CAV, 2/7 CAV, was ordered to march to Landing Zone Albany for extraction from the battle area and to get out of the beaten area for an impending B52 strike. The fight of 2/7 CAV at Albany is the next chapter of the Ia Drang Campaign.

A B-52 strike of 800 500 pound bombs (200 tons) is headed for the near slopes of Chu Pong Mountain above X-Ray early on 17 November scheduled to drop at 11:17 AM. To get out of the danger zone, both Cavalry Battalions are ordered out of X-Ray. 2/5 CAV leads enroute to the Artillery position at LZ Columbus. 2/7 CAV follows with orders to break off shy of Columbus and head for a small clearing 1.5 miles to the Northwest. 2/5 CAV reaches Columbus and goes into position without any problems. The head of the 2/7 CAV column captures two PAVN soldiers at 11:57 AM 100 yards east of Albany.

The battalion column stops while the prisoners are interrogated. The lead Company Commander, A/2/7, puts out observation posts. Weary troopers in the column, after over 50 hours without decent rest or sleep, sit down and take a break. Some light up cigarettes, some remove packs, radios, mortars, etc. Others lie down. Visibility in the 3-5 foot high grass is extremely limited.

The 2/7 CAV Battalion Command Group and A Co 2/7 CAV reach Albany after interrogating the two PAVN prisoners. All Company Commanders are called forward and begin arriving at the clearing. The column is 550 yards long. C Company and A/1/5 put out flank security. PAVN soldiers of the fresh 8th Bn, 66th Regt (which had not seen action) deploy down the Northeast side of the column. Survivors of the 33rd PAVN Regiment deploy at the head of the 2/7 column.

At 1:20 PM, PAVN mortar rounds explode in the clearing and down the length of the column of American companies followed by a violent assault which fragments the column into small groups.

When the firing begins, the Cavalrymen drop into the tall 3-5 foot high elephant grass where it is impossible for the soldiers of either side to identify friend or foe except at extremely close range. Within minutes, the situation becomes a wild melee, a shoot-out, with the gunfighters killing not only the enemy but sometimes their friends just a few feet away. When the firing begins, Captain George Forrest, commander of A Co 1/5 CAV (attached to 2/7 CAV), turns on his heels with his 2 radio operators, runs back 500 yards to his company and "circles the wagons". His two radio operators are killed beside him during that run.

For the next two hours, the battle roars. A-1E Skyraiders are brought in dropping napalm and 250 pound bombs which slow down the enemy actions, and the fire slackens. Artillery is brought in. By dark, B Co, 2/7 CAV had landed to reinforce Albany. There is now a small perimeter at Albany and one at the tail of the column. In between are American survivors being hounded and killed throughout the night. Also, in the night, a few isolated Americans escape and evade; trying to make it to the artillery position at Columbus.

When daylight breaks on the morning of 18 November, it is a quiet and tense battlefield. Survivors begin the grim task of recovering American dead from the intermingled bodies of both sides. One platoon leader describes the scene down the 2/7 column as "a long, bloody traffic accident in the jungle". Wounded and dead are evacuated.

By the 19th, evacuation of the wounded and dead is complete. On 20 Nov, after 3 days and nights on that bloody, hellish, haunted battleground, the survivors of 2/7 CAV are airlifted out. 403 PAVN dead are reported and an estimated 150 wounded. Total American casualties at Albany: 151 killed, 121 wounded and 4 missing in action. In April 1966, the remains of all 4 of the missing are recovered.

The first two Communist North Vietnamese Regular POW's of the Battle of IA DRANG fresh from LZ X-RAY are escorted from Helicopter to Helicopter at LZ FALCON by members of the HHC, 1/7 Cav. Associated Press Photographer is running to the right to get in front of them to take the picture that is in 'WE WERE SOLDIERS ONCE....AND YOUNG.' Shadow of me taking this picture is at lower left. I consider this Picture one of the best. Notice M-16 POW wounded knee on one of the POW's in the middle of the picture.

What on earth!!???? Is this TRUE?

1971 -

The day after Tricia Nixon's wedding the Washington Post and the New York Times began printing THE PENTAGON PAPERS. They were leaked by dissenting intelligence specialist Daniel Ellsberg. Ellsberg was on the staff of defence secretary Robert MacNamara when McNamara ordered a fact paper drawn up explaining step by step just how the U.S. managed to get in as big a mess as Vietnam. The papers revealed publically such damaging secrets as the U.S. had been fighting alongside the SouthVietnamese much earlier than the "Tonkin Gulf Incident" of 1965 while saying we were neutral. That the ship that was fired on in the incident (the U.S.S. Maddox) was ordered to violate Vietnamese waters and hopefully provoke a communist attack, and that the opinion of the Pentagon Joint Chiefs was that we knew we couldn't win as early as 1968, yet we stayed in anyway until 1973. McNamara said recently he himself never got around to reading the Pentagon Papers but had a copy in his garage.

Aloha,

I'm really confused here. THIS speech below, this is the Daniel Ellsberg, intelligence specialist, that leaked the Pentagon Papers? Didn't he ever get charged for that? And why is he speaking in foreign countries about our operation plans and how he influenced them?

Am I confused or is this inappropriate?

Daniel Ellsberg, who revealed the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times during the Vietnam War, speaking in Tel Aviv, Israel on 13 October 1996 at a conference chaired by Joseph Rotblat in support of Mordechai Vanunu, the world's longest imprisoned anti-nuclear activist, described what he calls
"the most evil plans that have ever been made in the history of humanity."

Broadcast by Co-op Radio, CFRO Vancouver, on 30 November 1996, from a tape made by Mordechai Briemberg of the Vancouver Committee to free Vanunu.
(Transcribed by David Morgan)

''In 1961 I drafted a question for the president, John F.Kennedy, to ask the Joint Chiefs of Staff(JCS). I was in the process of drafting for the Secretary of Defense, Robert MacNamara, the Kennedy Administration Annual Operating Plans for General Nuclear War. I wrote a twenty-page top-secret draft, which was adopted totally by MacNamara, who sent it to the JCS, thus changing completely the general war plans from those of the Eisenhower Administration. I was very proud of doing that for reasons that you will see in a moment; I thought the Eisenhower plans were disastrous and that those I had drafted were much better. I can still say that they were better, but I fooled myself that they were that much better. They were still disastrous, and I bear that on my conscience. But in the course of drafting these new plans, I was in a very good position as a consultant to pose the following question for the President to give to the JCS:

"If your plans, i.e., the Eisenhower plans, which were still in effect in early 1961, were executed as planned (and weren't disrupted by some typhoon, total incompetence or some pre-emptive attack by the Soviets) how many people would die in the Soviet Union and China?"

Now I actually asked that question believing that they did not have an answer. I had been working with the planners for some time had asked the same question, but they had never seen any such estimate done by the Air Force staff, and I didn't think that it existed. I assumed that they didn't WANT to know how many people they could kill. So I thought that they would either have to waffle and admit that they didn't have an answer, which would be very embarrassing for a bureaucrat and would put them off balance, and less resistive to my revisions, or they would come up with some fast estimate that would be absurdly low, and thus have the same effect.

Actually they did have an answer. It was addressed, "for the President's eyes only," but since I had written the question, they showed it to my eyes. So I held in my hands a very unusual piece of paper, a one-page sheet with a graph on it. It showed the number of people they expected to be killed in the Soviet Union and China alone--which is what I had asked, since I didn't want them to have an excuse for delaying by saying "we don't have the figures for Albania, give us another month."

So I had the graph for the Soviet Union and China. It was an ascending line, a simple graph, starting with the immediate deaths the first day and the deaths from fall-out over the next six months, and the total figure was three hundred and twenty million (320,000,000) dead. So they knew what their plans entailed!

It was obviously a computer model. They had done the calculations, so I figured let's ask the rest then--how about the rest of the Sino-Soviet block?
Well I won't go through the whole thing, but there were 100 million in West Europe if the winds blew the wrong way over our NATO allies; 100 million in East Europe; neutral countries adjacent to the Soviet Union, like Finland, Afghanistan, Austria, Japan were wiped out by fallout from our attacks, without getting into any calculation of what Russian retaliation to our first strike, might have done. So the total body count over the next couple of weeks was about 600 million (six hundred million)--that means one hundred holocausts!

I asked myself how colonels and majors that I drank beer with, saw in the evening, worked with every day, how they could have written such plans. These were not just hypothetical plans--they were the estimates used for the targeting of planes that were on alert all over the world, misssiles, submarines, all the machinery was out there. This was not ten years in the future, this was next week if we went to war. This is what would have happened if we had gone to war over Cuba, which was really possible in 1962, or Berlin in 1961. Six hundred million people!

I thought they were the most evil plans that had ever been made in the history of humanity and I've spent the thirty five years since trying to understand how humans, how Americans, had created such plans and such machinery.''

Daniel Ellsberg, 13 October 1996, Tel Aviv, Israel

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