On Memorial Day in the U.S. Monday, we look back at an article written by the late Don North, a former ABC Vietnam War correspondent, on a little remembered incident in that war.
This is an exact copy of how the article appeared on May 29, 2016.
Exclusive: Memorial Day is exploited by politicians glorifying war and armed services recruiting new soldiers, but it should be a time to reflect on the ugly reality of warfare and the tragic valor of the combatants, says war correspondent Don North.
By Don North
It was known to local missionaries as “the Hill of Angels,” but to the occupying Marines, Con Thien was a little piece of hell. Just two miles south of the Demilitarized Zone (the DMZ dividing line between North and South Vietnam), it was a barren, bulldozed plateau of red dirt 160 meters high and ringed with barbed wire, studded with artillery revetments and crisscrossed with trenches and sand bag-covered bunkers.
To the east stretched the “McNamara Line,” the 600-meter-wide “barrier” ordered by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara which the Marines had cleared and sowed with seismic and acoustic sensors and minefields.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara leaving Saigon, September 1967 following one of his many trips to gauge the war in Vietnam. He shakes hands with U.S. Ambassador Maxwell Taylor. (Photo credit: Don North)
At Con Thien in 1967, American commanders in Vietnam failed to recognize that loyalty should flow downward as well as upward. The commanders’ loyalty should have been to their Marines facing the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) as much as to their superiors in Washington. U.S. Marines died in droves at Con Thien; they deserved better of their commanders.
I was there. My ABC News team – consisting of cameraman Nguyen Van Quy, soundman Nguyen Xuan De, and myself – was next on the list for an assignment out of Saigon. We drew Con Thien, the most dangerous place in Vietnam that week. Nearly a half century later, as Memorial Day 2016 approached, I thought back on that assignment.
In that part of Quang Tri Province, the McNamara Line was anchored in the east by Firebase Gio Linh and in the west by Con Thien. Secretary McNamara, ever on the lookout for clever, logical and arms-length solutions for defeating the enemy, floated the idea of the barrier in March 1966, at a meeting of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff.
High-ranking U.S. military professionals pretended to take his myopic vision seriously and construction began in April 1967. But anchored by those two fire bases, the McNamara Line could be flanked on either side of the combat bases. And the North Vietnamese side of the DMZ was off-limits from U.S. ground attack. NVA divisions, operating within range of their 135mm artillery, were free to target firebases and roving Marine patrols with deadly accuracy.
A Flawed Strategy
So, why was there a base at Con Thien in the first place? Simply because the 160-meter hill, if taken by the NVA, could have facilitated hits on the key U.S. staging area at Dong Ha. Aside from denying the hill to the enemy, there was little reason to protect Con Thien. But its vulnerabilities also made it an inviting target.
North Vietnamese General Vo Nguyen Giap
The commander of NVA forces, the renowned General Vo Nguyen Giap, victor of Dien Bien Phu in 1954, was trying to replicate that victory along the DMZ. But the battle doctrines he followed were based on a rigid command structure and similarly rigid thinking, reflecting someone “unschooled in the art of war,” according to Marine historian Eric Hammel. Nevertheless, Hammel concluded that “all of Giap’s flaws as a planner and leader were more than compensated by the self-defeating policies and attitudes in the camp of his enemies. At least Giap took responsibility for his setbacks.”
My news team found the First Battalion, Ninth Marines at Con Thien suffering from blazing heat and choking dust as they were targeted by snipers and under constant threat of ground attacks.
What made duty at the outpost a special misery was the hail of artillery from NVA batteries tucked away in the northern hills of the DMZ. The 135mm guns were well camouflaged and sheltered in caves; the NVA quickly rolled out the artillery to fire, then just as quickly rolled them back again to shelter. Although Americans retaliated with artillery and air strikes of their own, they were not able to stop the hundreds of shells that each day took a toll of Con Thien’s defenders.
Heavy Casualties
On July 2, 1967, the Marines’ Alpha and Bravo Companies launched Operation Buffalo, a sweep in the area north of the base. But faulty reconnaissance and inadequate observation allowed an undetected NVA force to ambush the Marines.
Eighty-six Marines of Bravo Company were killed and 176 wounded; only 27 members of the Company walked out of the battle unaided. An estimated 1,290 NVA were killed, even so, by anyone’s definition, including that of the Marines, it was the enemy’s victory. Although American casualties in Vietnam were rarely specified, the Marines acknowledged that it “was the worst single disaster to befall a Marine Corps rifle company during the Vietnam War.”
U.S. Marine tank is used to transport dead and wounded Marines from engagement with NVA forces surrounding Con Thien 1967. (Photo by Robert Stokes)
The NVA were well aware of the U.S. Marines tradition of not leaving their dead behind, and they prepared for the Marines’ return. On July 3, air strikes and Marine artillery were directed to the battle area in preparation for retrieval of the bodies. Marine reinforcements lifted off from the carrier USS Okinawa, and early the morning of July 4, they attacked on a six-company front to reach the dead. Marine Skyhawk attack aircraft lay down suppressing fire as our ABC crew recorded the recovery operation.
As we slowly advanced with two battalions, it soon became obvious that the NVA had pulled out during the night but left numerous booby traps behind to further bleed the Marines. Many bodies had been rigged with grenades and almost all had been mutilated or desecrated in some way. The bodies were spread over a wide area of low bushes. Two days lying in the blistering sun had bloated the bodies and burned them black. One dead Marine had his genitals cut off and sewn to his face, with a photo of his girlfriend stabbed to his chest.
Many of the recovery teams wore gas masks as some protection from the ghastly stench, other Marines retched and vomited. They placed the corpses in green rubber body bags and carried them to a clearing where the remains were loaded on Marine tanks. Personal effects were collected and placed in upturned helmets.
Many in the work party made it forcefully known they were not pleased that a TV news crew was accompanying them on a mission to reclaim their dead. We shot sparingly and from a distance so as not to upset them. In any event, those grisly scenes would never be used in a U.S. news program.
The Aftermath
The next morning, our ABC News crew entered the base at Con Thien. It felt like being at the heart of the war. We could look north across the Ben Hai river which marked the Seventeenth Parallel and see the North Vietnamese flag waving from a tall pole. We could look beyond the flag to see puffs of white smoke and hear the rumble of shells being fired in our direction, giving us about 20 seconds to find the nearest bunker.
Don North of ABC News crossing stream in Mekong Delta with US Army 9th Division.
Late in the afternoon, one of the Marine artillery pieces took a direct hit; its crew had not been able to retreat to a bunker in time. As rockets and shells continued to drop in, an Army Special Forces medic jumped out of a bunker and joined a half dozen Marines trying to save the life of a badly wounded comrade. They took turns pumping his chest to strengthen a weak pulse and giving him direct mouth-to-mouth resuscitation while shouting encouragement. “C’mon Sidell, you can make it buddy! Don’t give up!” Lance Corporal Jimmy Sidell from Atlanta, Georgia didn’t respond with either a gasp or a pulse as his Marine buddies worked on him for almost an hour.
Another NVA shell hit with a deafening impact just a few yards away. Our film camera was blown off the cameraman’s shoulder; Sidell’s buddies recoiled from the concussion but never missed a beat pumping his heart. Finally with the body growing stiff, it was clear Sidell wasn’t coming back. Through sobs and curses, the Marines tied an identification label to his boot laces and carried him to a tank waiting outside the wire that would serve as his hearse.
I cried too, even as I tried a “standupper” to conclude my report. In New York, ABC News located Sidell’s parents in Atlanta and warned them the report of their son’s death would be on national TV the following evening.
It was clear that what motivated these Marines to endure the daily hell of Con Thien was not victory or satisfying the chain of command but their strong devotion to each other.
High-Level Complaints
The MACV Commander General William Westmoreland was not satisfied with the effort the Marines were putting into making the barrier work. In October 1967, he complained, “the barrier has not been accorded a priority consistent with operational importance.”
Engineer companies showed enormous courage working in daylight hours, in the open with heavy equipment and suffered a higher percentage of casualties than the rifle companies at Con Thien.
Dean Rusk, Lyndon B. Johnson and Robert McNamara in Cabinet Room meeting February 1968. (Photo credit: Yoichi R. Okamoto, White House Press Office)
Another part of the problem was that Marines are traditionally an offensive organization. Building in-depth defenses is not their forte, especially questionable ones like the “McNamara Line.” Marine Corps generals complained that the barrier plan was a constant irritant. Holding static defensive positions prevented the Marines from conducting “pacification programs” and from attacking the enemy’s infiltration routes.
Major General Rathon Tompkins, commander of the Third Marine Division, referred to the McNamara Line as “absurd.” Lt. General Robert Cushman, the Marine commander in Vietnam, later admitted, “We just weren’t going out getting everyone killed building that stupid fence.”
After the Tet offensive which began on Jan. 30, 1968, and demonstrated the resilience and determination of the NVA and the Vietcong, Secretary McNamara agreed to step down. At the end of February 1968, a broken and distraught McNamara attended a farewell luncheon at the State Department and spoke tearfully of “the futility, the crushing futility of the air war.” Perceiving him as growing soft on the war, President Lyndon Johnson quietly arranged for McNamara to take over the presidency of the World Bank.
General William Westmoreland was replaced on June 11, 1968, as commander of MACV. On Oct. 22, his successor General Creighton Abrams ordered all construction associated with the McNamara Line halted. The fate of the barrier was finally sealed on Nov. 1, 1968, when President Johnson announced a bombing halt in the DMZ and North Vietnam. Marine units were under orders not to set foot or even fire into the DMZ.
Tallying Up a Folly
During the period of the McNamara Line construction from September 1966 to October 1967, 3rd Marine Division casualties were 1,400 killed in action and 9,000 wounded.
Forty-six years later, I am reviewing my scripts, video and notes from Con Thien. I see now that the anger I felt at the misguided strategy and the compassion we felt for the Marines’ suffering was not fully expressed. It should have been much clearer that the U.S. strategy was not only flawed but resulted in an unnecessary waste of lives.
Graves at Arlington Cemetery
I am reminded of an observation by Chris Hedges, a former war correspondent for the New York Times: “Reporters who witness the worst of human suffering and return to newsrooms angry see their compassion washed out by layers of editors who stand between the reporter and reader. The creed of objectivity and balance … disarms and cripples the press and transforms reporters into neutral observers or voyeurs.”
As Marine historian Eric Hammel concluded, “Americans were bound by the moral poverty of their political leaders, and the North Vietnamese were bound by the intellectual inflexibility of their Communist Doctrines. The soldiers of each side suffered mightily in the stalemate that ensued.”
We need to pay tribute this Memorial Day to those who served at Con Thien and learn from their sacrifice. It can be fairly said that anyone who seeks glory in battle would not find it in the mud and heat of Con Thien, but anyone who seeks tales of extraordinary valor need look no further.
Don North is a veteran war correspondent who covered the Vietnam War and many other conflicts around the world. He is the author of Inappropriate Conduct, the story of a World War II correspondent whose career was crushed by the intrigue he uncovered.
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I am very touched by this article. I’ve been blessed and never had to fight in a real war with guns and ammunition. I want the same to be true for my children.
If I had – fought in a war – I don’t know what I would do. Maybe just piss my pants, but after that I think I would be a killer. Kill or be killed when you get to the bottom of it in a war. That is why the crew around you in the heat of battle is what matters most and it rings so true when the author says: “devotion to each other”.
In memory of those who lost their lives on the battlefield.
The citation of Hammel’s nauseating equation of American imperial arrogance with the courage and determination of the Vietnamese to defend their country is appalling:
“Americans were bound by the moral poverty of their political leaders, and the North Vietnamese were bound by the intellectual inflexibility of their Communist Doctrines. The soldiers of each side suffered mightily in the stalemate that ensued.”
The soldiers and civilians of Vietnam suffered horrendously because of American war crimes. Remember the Phoenix Program? The marines were involved in the planning and implementation of that abomination.
Someone once observed that if the Vietnam Memorial included the names of the Vietnamese dead, the Wall would be over four miles long.
Pardon me if I can’t find tears to shed for a few dead marines.
Semper fidelis.
Mortuum semper.
Yo’ SKIP, I’m not sure you are asking me personally but Yes far too many Americans are too fat, lazy and numbly happy to rock the boat besides being terrified of their own government. I can rattle off several names, Pat Tillman, Julian Assange, all the whistle blowers trump has fired, all of them in prison, it’s getting to be quite the list you know.
The FBI has proven it lies maybe as much as the CIA. It is worth noting that not respecting the long arm of the corrupted DOJ will ultimately get you roasted in your own home.
AMERICA has been roasting it’s own since George Washington ordered settlers to be burned out then they settled land the founding father has stolen in the name of the good ole USA. Ludlow Utah comes to mind.
It’s time for ALL Americans think about Ruby Ridge, Waco Texas and the super roast in Philadelphia Pa. where police dropped a satchel charge on a neighborhood.
Federal law enforcement in it’s many forms has a long history of mass killing in the name of the law.
Thanks CN.
“What Americans know as “South Vietnam” never existed as a nation either. It was a creation of the CIA/Pentagon in a failed attempt to establish an American colony in southern Vietnam.”
Like most all, if not all, of the illegal wars our government is responsible for.
This mass murder of the Vietnamese by the United States, like so many other mass murders and the destruction of so many other sovereign countries around the world since then, was/is an ongoing crime not a “mistake”. Our responsible government officials must be brought to trial in International Courts unless we want to see this behavior continued into the future. Once and for all it must be determined if these acts were murderous “mistakes” or murderous “crimes”! Manslaughter or Murder?
Killing JFK was a cold blooded crime right wing nati0nalist committed and got away with clean or so it seems.. JFK would have not fought that war. His murder was eviscerating to much of the U.S. population. They didn’t want to lose him but they were not up to fighting the status quo. Life was too good, don’t rock the boat, be a team player, this all still applies for at least a while longer.
That Americans did not rise in total disgust as the result his murder speaks volumes about the U.S. population. I have written here before, for instance ,that Ken Burns “History of Vietnam” is a white wash of what really happened. Still Ken get s great reviews. So what is that all about? A society that cannot come to grips with the reality of its being gets hornswoggled again by PBS.
I believe if JFK would have lived unharmed by the attack in Dallas this would be a vastly different world today. It is painful for me to accept that Americans allowed themselves to be so deceived, the warnings were there after JFK’s died and the facts are now trickling out.
Until the truth come out about everything CIA from 1947 to present we are captive of our country’s fake hist0ry.
You all will think what you want regardless of what is written here. I can accept the fact I don’t see things eye to eye with almost anyone.
But then few of us do. The difference is that I know what a terrible shape the country and the planet are in, most still think we are exceptional. To Hell with that!
Such has been my life but I don’t do evangelical christian hate, Israeli hate, or Donald Trump’s white supremacist racist, fascist hate.
Many who join the military these days do it out of ignorance or financial desperation, the crusading evangelicals join out of misguided hate themselves, they are many in number, are not of sound judgement and very few possess solid moral compasses. Which is to be expected given few Americans possess a valid moral compass themselves to begin with.
I’m 71 Dosamo now again how old are you?
The Village Idiot from Crawford Texas lied on live prime time tv and I have railed against him and his Daddy incessantly ever since. 43 wanted a war to repay a dictator for threatening his father and both political parties stepped into the fight in lock step with his bull shit.
I didn’t, what he did was a big mistake for the country. A deliberate move based on lies but his views are not mine and not those of many others. 43 ‘s war to make 41 feel loved has divided the country maybe fatally. It was a big mistake, miss-step a decision in error, the raving of another mad man in view. But then these super wealthy are a handful to deal with in a land where the dollar is king.
How old were you when 911 something that the U.S. could have avoided. A mistake of some magnitude I’d say, or did it happen on purpose because of you or me?
Then we got Barrack, what was it that happened to all the hope and change. Maybe Barrack didn’t feel that getting himself killed and becoming a martyr, especially once he experienced first hand just how much racism exits in the country. The fix is in. Just as when Kennedy got killed, the fix was in. Those who revel in their extreme wealth have become the worlds biggest problem.
Kids the fix is in and if we all don’t get it together the fix will always be what we get instead of a decent government.
You are angry, I am angry many Americans are angry but we all damned well sure need to certain we are angry at the right people.
Currently those we should be angry with are the rot at the top, the “FIXERS”.
During the last 50 years I’ve come to realize, ” I’ve been had” as have you , by the system. I hate it that my taxes go toward killing helpless people all around the world, people I don’t know who I don’t want to be killed. The innocents always pay the highest price.
Electing the 74 year old ass$%#@& with a comb over and a spray tan, was that a mistake? I damned sure think it was, I didn’t vote for him but lots of people voted for him. They made a conscious decision based on biased racist beliefs and low or no moral values because being the hard ass contrarian makes them feel warm and fuzzy. I feel they all qualify for the funny farm myself, but electing this BOZO was a mistake for the country made on behalf of the Deep State and billionaires.
Suffice to say we just observed “Memorial Day” or I did. I didn’t celebrate that would be sick. Just as kicking around the dead is sick.
Taking the “high ground” is always desirable, holding onto it is another matter.
Thanks to CN
They don’t call us the walking dead for nothing.
The way our government treated us then was only a prelude to the way it treats us all, now. Expendable.
Thank you very much Jimmy for the smidgen of pure truth.
Ironically in these times of plague this truth speaks volumes.
I want to ask you one question: why do Americans tolerate a government comprised mostly of ‘chickenhawks’ to perpetrate this treatment on us? Are we truly a nation of cowards cowering behind the facade of “the good life”?
The major battle of “Operation Buffalo” was called the Battle of Two July. One rifle company was overrun and the following one pulled back leaving 34 Marines MIA. This was one of the major battles lost by the US military in Vietnam. More here:
www (DOT) youtube (DOT) com/watch?v=g75i4S19P14
The DMZ in Vietnam was created by our Pentagon, it was never agreed upon as part of an agreement between parties. Yet the Pentagon complained whenever their mythical boundary was crossed. What Americans know as “South Vietnam” never existed as a nation either. It was a creation of the CIA/Pentagon in a failed attempt to establish an American colony in southern Vietnam.
“What Americans know as “South Vietnam” never existed as a nation either. It was a creation of the CIA/Pentagon in a failed attempt to establish an American colony in southern Vietnam.”
Like most all, if not all, of the illegal wars our government is responsible for.
The reality is that the warriors on both sides of the conflict deserve to be honored. When a country starts a war it had better d–ned well be for a really good reason. The United States has started some of the most misbegotten wars since the end of WWII. Not a single one was to protect the United States, not a single one was for a good reason. They were all a misbegotten effort to impose our ideology on somebody else which is about the worst [deleted] reason I can think of. And the bad news is that we continue to do it today.
And, Mr. Williamson, in October of 1968 I raised my right hand and solemnly swore myself into the USAF so I know the military mindset. But I’ll give you a hint. It’s not those who have died that need to find peace; they’ve found it. It’s the living who returned who need to find peace.
May 1968 sworn into the Army. No Vietnam but Berlin Germany, I was a very lucky guy. Not long ago a group of friends and I sat and counted the number of Vietnam vets we knew who had died prematurely since returning home. It was a wake up call. Some adjusted some not so well, most never completely. I could not agree with you more.
We have lived witnessing a life of meaningless war you and I. I will not speak for you but the pain of knowing our society has learned nothing from those fights is painful and angers me. But I did predict that unless and until America comes to grips with it’s warring behavior problem we will not more on and improve ourselves as a society. This last 20 years has been exceedingly painful.
When it is deserved I try diligently to tread lightly on innocent souls, the living and the dead.
That said I’m a dyslexic, insomniac, agnostic who lies awake at night wondering if there really is a DOG!
Thanks to CN and the vision of Bob Parry which benefits us all so much!
Jeff, we must have been in th military at th same time only you were a little ahead of me. USAF, 1969-1976; pilot, C-141, then Minuteman Missile Crew Commander. I agree with all of your comment.
That should read:
The war was a mistake that happened and victimized every person connected with the war.
. . . and a still very young DEEP STATE whose members are responsible for . . .
This is Memorial DAY . . .
Dos you cannot place soldiers of that era in the same basket as America’s corrupted political leadership of that time.
Look where they have” led” us!
I have a question. How old was “Dosamuno” in 1967 -68? You do realize these men were sent to war during a time of the draft, 50 – 55 years ago.
The war was a MISTAKE that happened and victimized every person in that war. The war would have not happened in the fashion it did with out the ~20 year young burgeoning MIC and the still very you DEEP STATE many of whom who are responsible for the murder of JFK.
This Memorial Day youngster you won’t make many friend feasting on low hanging fruit to post this comment.
Vet’s NEVER forget and when the shit finally hits the fan in this country you best be hoping that all America’s vets aren’t right wing nationalist.
Thanks CN May those who died find peace!
Mistake?
“No. It was a crime. The US supported a coup, invaded a foreign nation, dropping, in the course of its attack, more tons of bombs than had been dropped by all sides in World War II, and expanded the war by illegally invading Laos and Cambodia, and killing four million people, mostly non-combatants. Only in the US, with its Presumption of Immaculate Intentions, could this thirteen year orgy of murder be described as a “mistake.” Oops, we attacked a country that had done nothing to us, bombed it flat, massacred its civilians, invaded its neighbors and did the same to them. But it was a mistake! So sorry. Our bad.
Seriously?”
Justin Schartz,
Comment on QUORA
www (dot) quora (dot) com/Was-the-Vietnam-war-a-mistake-Why-or-why-not
NO mistake. A deliberate decision made out of the usual US hubris and deeply rooted view that IT is in charge of the world and how each country in it acts and is governed.
Error. Mistake. These are the typical tripey “excuses” the US ruling elites (political, financial, capitalist, military) always, always trot out.
Oopsy doopsy. Sorry, didn’t mean to bomb you into the Stone Age, poison your soils with chemicals, depleted uranium, slaughter millions of you, starve you to death. No. Those were all accidents. Unintentional. That’s why we had our military and all of its hardware with them so that they could and did use it to reduce your country and people to ruins. Sorry. But don’t stick your hand out for compensation; don’t expect our politicos, military to stand trial for any of the barbaric war crimes we have committed against you. F*** that. We determine what is legal or not according to our desires. Don’t expect us to apologize. Instead we shall glorify (!) our so-called heroes.
After Vietnam, its obvious futility and moral bankruptcy, I have continued to be appalled that people still join the military. Yeah, I know it’s an economic draft, but flipping burgers or dealing drugs would be more honorable.
The imperial occupying army got what they deserved.
The people who should be honored on this day are the Vietcong and NVA for courageously defending their country against the American invaders.