Posted on 05/29/2002 5:31:03 PM PDT by ALOHA RONNIE
The Vietnam War dragged on for a decade, playing out on television screens across America in a litany of death, destruction and confusion. But perhaps no other battle galvanized attention on the war as much as Khe Sanh, a 77-day siege for control of a base with minimal strategic value.
UNSUNG HEROES examines one of the most perplexing battles from the conflict that many Americans--including those fighting it--had difficulty understanding. It was a political chess game with soldiers used as pawns. The fighting was so intense and prolonged that skeletons of the enemy dead were suspended in barbed wire lines surrounding the base. But no matter how bravely the defenders fought, the sheer numbers of the NVA attackers ensured that they would ultimately have to abandon Khe Sanh.
Through archival footage and recollections from the soldiers who were there, UNSUNG HEROES tells the story of the siege that, for many, came to symbolize the entire war in Vietnam.
Allied personnel in the Khe Sanh area numbered less than 1,000 men. Among these were the CIDG force at Lang Vei and the Marines’ Combined Action Company Oscar, located between Khe Sanh Village and the combat base and within mortar range of the latter. (III MAF created the Combined Action Program to increase the ability of the local Vietnamese militia units to defend their own villages. These units included Marines who lived, worked, and conducted operations with their Vietnamese counterparts. The company at Khe Sanh formed in February 1967 and was unique in that its indigenous forces were Montagnards rather than Vietnamese) The Khe Sanh combat base housed Company B, 9th Marines, reinforced by an aggregation of support detachments, and a Marine reconnaissance platoon. Organic artillery support for these units came from Captain Glen Golden’s Battery F, 12th Marines, which replaced Battery I on 5 April. While the allied forces were too small to be a deterrent to major enemy incursions, they did serve as an advance unit.
...Our Central Highland 'Yards, known as Degars, numbered over 3.5 Million when the Communist Bullies from the North took over the South and have always been in the way of the Ethinic Vietnamese from taking complete control of the Highlands.
...Thru their superior ethnic sterilization, terrorism and genocidal methods on the Degars ...only 600,000 are left and still sinking.
...Former Vietnam Veteran and Senator JOHN KERRY (D) is personally blocking a Vietnam Human Rights Bill HR-2833 from leaving his Senate Committee to go to the Senate Floor for a vote that would SANCTION Communist Vietnam for its purposeful genocide of the Diggers.
...Let's let him have it with our phone calls to ask him WHY..???.
NEVER FORGET
...Mrs. JULIE MOORE...
...was just ..Outstanding today on...
..-The Judicial Watch Radio Show- heard Live online on..
.. www.JudicialWatch.org ..-&-.. www.usaradio.com ..
Radio Broadcasts are as follows:
LIVE ----
WCVC AM 1330 Tallahassee, FL.
WGRA AM 790 Cairo, GA.
KCCB AM 1260 Corning, Ark.
WCLW AM 1130 Reedsville, N.C.
WPEP AM 1570 Taunton, MA.
TAPE DELAYED ------------
WAXY AM 790 Miami, FL. 507 AM
WNTY AM 990 Hartford, CT. 6-8 PM
WBCF AM ....Florence, AL 7-9 PM
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KKGT AM 1150 Portland, Ore. Afternoon drive time
NEVER FORG
Actually this story made the Chicago Tribune today, which I was quite happy to see. The Chicago Tribune is a pretty good newspaper, all the major editors (editorial board) are moderate Republicans. It is also good that Schippers is working on the case, being that he is orginally from the area.
FBI Agent Fans Flames With Charge
By: Todd Lighty
Tribune staff reporter
Published May 30, 2002
A veteran FBI agent in Chicago is accusing his supervisors of mishandling terrorism investigations and is suggesting that the bureau be stripped of such responsibilities.
In what could amount to an unusual public spat between an active-duty agent and the bureau, Robert Wright Jr. plans to air his complaints Thursday during a news conference in Washington.
"The FBI has proven for the past decade it cannot identify and prevent acts of terrorism against the United States and its citizens at home and abroad," Wright wrote in a statement he shared with the agency weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks.
In it, he also said a top-to-bottom review should be conducted of the bureau's hiring procedures, mission, investigative procedures and organizational structure.
Wright's planned news conference follows an announcement Wednesday by U.S. Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft that the FBI will undergo a broad reorganization of its "structure, culture and mission."
Wright, an agent since 1990, has had other public battles with colleagues and the bureau.
He has been investigated for allegedly harassing an Arab-American agent and for allegedly sexually harassing a female agent.
Wright filed a lawsuit in June 2001 against the female agent, alleging that her "false and malicious" charges resulted in his removal from the International Terrorist Squad. A U.S. District Court judge last October dismissed the lawsuit.
This month, Wright sued the bureau for blocking publication of a 500-page book about what he described as bungled investigations during the 1990s into fundraising by militant Islamic groups such as Hamas.
Agent John Vincent, a 27-year veteran, said the fact that Wright has had run-ins with co-workers and disagreed with his supervisors does not make him disloyal.
"Agent Wright is not a disgruntled employee," Vincent said. "Everything he has said is for the betterment of the job."
Wright is being represented by lawyer David Schippers, who served as the chief investigative counsel for the House Judiciary Committee during the impeachment of President Bill Clinton, and by Judicial Watch, a Washington-based public interest law firm that often sues the government.
Schippers could not be reached for comment. But Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, said Wright has repeatedly made his concerns known to supervisors about how the bureau allegedly mishandled terrorism investigations.
Copyright © 2002, Chicago Tribune
The movie is not in most theaters anymore. It actually has not grossed what was expected.
May 30 8:03 PM ET
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — A popular Vietnamese actor criticized for playing a Communist commander in the Mel Gibson movie "We Were Soldiers" says he'll take no more roles in foreign-made films about the Vietnam War.
Vietnam's state-controlled newspapers have described the movie as biased and have accused actor Don Duong of accepting a role that presents Communist soldiers in a poor light.
Duong said he didn't regret performing in the movie and had learned from the experience.
"I was very proud to play a character in a movie with Mel Gibson. It was up to the director, not me, to determine the nature of the movie," he said in a telephone interview.
"But I'm really sad about the criticism, and I swear never to play any role in other foreign-made movies about the Vietnam War."
The movie depicts a bloody three-day battle in Ia Drang valley between the North Vietnamese army and U.S. troops in November 1965.
It is based on the book "We Were Soldiers Once ... and Young" by retired Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore.
Duong said director Randall Wallace and Moore had described the character he played, Commander Nguyen Huu An, as a brave and direct man who led Vietnamese soldiers to victory.
...in .."WE WERE SOLDIERS"..!
...Too Bad the Vietnamese People are no longer Free to enjoy his performance like most of us in the rest of the world are...???
...I will NEVER FORGET his magnificient pounding drums theme in Composer ..NICK GLENNIE-SMITH's.. Sountrack Musical Score a la ..CLANN an DRUMMA.. style.
...What a Rush.
.. www.WeWereSoldiersFILM.com ..
If you have a ping list, I would love to be added on.
By the way, I just got back from seeing Insomnia, with Al Pacino, and that was a great movie, if you are looking for one. I think that Al Pacino is the greatest : )
-archy-/-
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