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derivative filename/jpeg
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363-07205 to 363-07217.pdf
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Digital Object Identifier
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363-07205 to 363-07217
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Title
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Article about how U.S. Army and Navy forces in Vietnam
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Description
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Original title: "ROLES", Keever's title: "'This War is Upside Down', U.S. Veterans see Paradoxes", Article draft about how the Vietnam War is being fought by American units performing unusual roles, for the Christian Science Monitor
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AI Usage Disclosure
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Draft transcripts were automatically generated via Google Document AI and are currently under review. Please report significant errors to Archives & Special Collections at archives@unl.edu.
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Transcript
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- Page 1
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zcze sag
yy-1jp
ROLES 1 (Normass/Deepe)
SAIGON, DECEMBER 11--A veteran Marine Corps officer visiting
from Washington: "I couldn't believe it. The American strategic bombers
S
are being used for close-in tactical support for ground troops--and
the tactical fighters are being used for strategic bombing of North
Vietnam."
A senior U.S. Navy officer, veteran of World War II and Korean
"This war is upside-down. In the Mekong Delta, the Navy is based on
SHIPS.
land and the Army is based on boats.
More Reuter
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zczc sag
yy-1jp
ROLES 2 (Normass/Deepe)
A U. S. Army commander:
traditional land war along the DMZ,
"The Marines are fighting a
which is what the Army is
trained and equipped to do. And the Army in the Mekong Delta
is an amphibious strike force, which is the historical forte
of the Marines."
A young Navy seaman in the Mekong Delta: "I goofed.
I enlisted in the Navy for four years to sail the oceans blue.
But, here I'm in the jungles just like the Army doggies and these
draftees have only two years service.
More Reuter
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zczc sag
yy-ljp
ROLES 3 (Normass/Deepe)
These statements reflect the bewilderment of even
veteran American servicemen at the growing number of military
paradoxes in this war studded with plenty of po paradoxes.
paradoxes are created by three factors.
First, the traditional roles of the American
HAVE SHIFTED
Some CASESO
These
military services are shifting
A
Second, the unconventional
side of Vietnam's
"twilight"
war has opened up new
requirements for which
the military services were either previously unprepared or un-assigned.
Third, fresh--sometimes passionate-assessments are being
made within each military service about its preparedness to
fight future Vietnams.
More Reuter
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2030 sag
yy-1jp
roles (normass/deepe)
A mini-battle has been percolating here for the papast
of bottles
This
five years behind the day-to-day headlines fexum about the
war against the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese troopers.
mini-battle revolves around the numerous and frequently heated
rivalries between the four American x military services-Army, Navy,
Air Force and Marine-accompanied by debate within each of these
services.
These frictions may survive even after the Vietnam war
ends but currently Vietnam is the place for each service to grab
as much of the
counter-guerrilla pie as possible.
MoreReuter
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2020 sag
yy-1jp
roles
(normass/deepe)
Vietnam becomes sort of a double mirror for these rivalries.
First, the American services here simply reflect the rivalries of
their superior commands at the Pentagon level, where the ultimate
decisions are made. Second, the testing and evaluation of
equipment, ideas and tactics in Vietnam addb fuel to the arguments
axhim at the Pana Pentagon level.
new
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zozo sag
yy-1jp
roles 6 (Normass/Deepe)
Inter-Service
The current eye of the rivalries now hovers over the
American land-war forces--the Army and Marines. In 1966, the
Pentagon authorized the establishment of the mobile riverine for ce--
a strike force of ground troops carried into battle by U. S. Navy
escorted by
troop carriers and baby battleships called Monitors.
The newly
developed tactical unit, the first American unit into the
flooded, rice-rich Mekong Delta, marked the first time since the
American Civil war that the U. S. Navy had come waged a
river war.
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zczo sag
yy-1jp
roles 7 (normass/deepe)
The Marines wanted to be the ground unit to operate
with the newly-designed miniature Navy, but by that time the f
Marine area of responsibility had already been deliniated in the
northern provinces. aongmthm The demilitarized zone actions demanded
that any extra Marines allocated, for Vietnam be sent to reinforce
diverted to
the north, rather than the swamps of the Mekong Delta.
SO
the U. S. Army was granted by the Pentagon the task of coordinating
w
Living
and fighting with the U. S. Navy-the first time since the
battle of the Mississippi river basin in the American Civil War
that the Army and Navy had conducted long-term coordinated operations
of this sort.
More Reuter
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zozo sag
yy-lja
roles (normass/deepe)
The Marines believed they were the natural service for
are anne integral part
the mobile riverine force because they
of the U. S. Navy and because their combat training and historical
AnD KOREA.
experience in amphibious operations in World War II. They were
worried that the special amphibious doctrines and eliteness of the
Marine Corop Corps would be lost. More than that, some Marines,
including those of high rank, have expressed the long-standing fear that
after Vietnam, the U. S. Army would seek--as it has attempted in the
past--to have the Marine Corps either abolished or else ne integrated
in intoast of Army.
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zczc sag
yy-ljp
roles 9 (normass/deepe)
In another Delta operation, called Game Warden, the
U. S. Navy is based on land and patrol the major branches of the Mekong
River in river patrol boats, a souped-up, high powered cabin
cruiser often used for water skiing in the United States. In these
river operations, the seamen are as exposed to the Viet Cong
guerrillas firing from the treelines as are the infantry troops.
More Reuter
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ZCZC sag
yy-1jp
roles 10 (Normass/Deepe)
The first hurricane of inter-service rivalries in
Vietnam centered on the air war-with the Army and Air Force
competing for control of the smaller transport planes capable
of landing on short dirt strips.
on strategic aircraft and missiles,
The Air Force, having concentrated
was unable to fulfill the Army's
logistical needs-so the Army quickly moved in with their small
Otters, Beavers and Caribous. The conflict grew more heated in 1963
with the arrival of the Army's armed helicopters, which directly
competed with the Air Force's old World War II tactical fighter
then in VIETNAMO
aircraft,
More Reuter
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2020 sag
yy-ljp
roles 11 (Normass/Deepe)
At that time, Army advisors preferred to use armed
helicopters for machine gun and rocket passes on enemy positions
near friendly troops because the helicopters could operate closer
thef troop lines with a greater margin of safety. In some
to
cases,
the pilots and crews of the armed helicopters were so jealous
of their new weaponry they refused to talk with Air Force officers,
and the Air Force was afraid it would its tactical fighters would
become obsolete they returned the Army's coolness.
More Reuter
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2020 sag
yy-1jp
roles 12 (Normass/Deepe)
Now.
The conflict has abated this year with the following
decision: the Air Force has been authorized a new counter-insurgeny
jet fighter, called F-5 Freedom Fighter, and it has been delegated
control of the short-strip transport aircraft the Army once operate
operated. The Army, Navy and Marines all have armed helicopters
to support their individual surface forces, with the Army having
by far the best, fastest, biggest and most of them.
The giant, eight-engine Strategic Air Command bombers
SUPPORT
are used for tactical/missions more than two miles away from the
positions of Allied ground troops engaged in with large v
Communist units protected by labyrinths of mud-baked tunnels and bunkers.
More Reuter
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2020 sag
yy-1jp
roles 13 (Normass/deepe)
Reliable sources report the SAC bombers are not often
used for strategic bombing raids over North Vietnam for fear a
Soviet-made surface-to-air missile will knock one from the sky,
thus handing the Communists a notable propaganda victory.
The conventional versus unconventional war discussion
within the Ex services was exemplified by a U. S. Navy officer
"This war in Vietnam is different. I feel this is
the type of war America will fight in the future. But the people
this way:
We could have a
there is the same
in the Navy Department won't listen to me.
war just like this in South America, where
river complexes and the conflict between the haves and have-nots.
But the regular Navy looks at our river operations here as a bad
dream. The blue-water sailors can't understand why the navy should
also be operating eighty miles inland. I think this is a short-sighted
view; the Navy can't simply stand at rigid attention
while guerrillas move into the world's river networks.
(Hank: Strout is here today,
tomorrow. I'll plan on cabling Wednesday;
"
leaving honkongwi se
perhaps Beb will cable
tomorrow though she's still in Delta. Regards).
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Date
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1967, Dec. 11
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Subject
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Vietnam War, 1961-1975; Strategy; Tactics; United States. Army; Veterans
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Location
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Saigon, South Vietnam
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Coordinates
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10.8231; 106.6311
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Size
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20 x 26 cm
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Container
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B7, F5
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Format
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dispatches
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Collection Number
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MS 363
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Collection Title
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Beverly Deepe Keever, Journalism Papers
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Creator
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Keever, Beverly Deepe
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Collector
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Keever, Beverly Deepe
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Copyright Information
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These images are for educational use only. To inquire about usage or publication, please contact Archives & Special Collections.
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Publisher
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Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries
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Language
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English
