V A L O RThe Veterans of Vietnam

A Publication of the National Vietnam Veterans Committee

Volume 2, Issue 1 - Spring 2007

Highlights FromThe Third Annual

National Memorial Day Parade

Rewriting the Vietnam WarBy Mark Moyar

Good Morning, VietnamA Presentation by Adrian Cronauer

The First Shot DownAn Excerpt from Veterans Chronicles

Featuring LCDR Everett Alvarez

For the thousands of patriotic Americans like yourself who re-ceive Valor, it goes without saying that you believe in honoring thebrave men and women who servedour country in Vietnam. Unlike anyother publication, Valor is devotedto letting the veterans of Vietnamshare their own experiences, in theirown words. The National VietnamVeterans Committee is honored tohave your support in this effort, andwe hope that you enjoy readingValor as much as we enjoy bringingthese first-hand accounts to you.

However, there is so much beyondthe printing of this publication thatyour support enables the NationalVietnam Veterans Committee, andits parent organization, the Ameri-can Veterans Center, to do. This support was most recently dem-onstrated as we put on the third annual National Memorial DayParade, held along the National Mall in Washington, DC. Here,an estimated 250,000 spectators gathered to thank those who haveserved, and remember those who have been lost—all in the de-fense of freedom. The parade featured veterans from across thegenerations, and was covered by network and cable news chan-nels and dozens of newspapers from around the country. It wasalso filmed to appear in the IMAX film, Proud American, to bereleased nationwide in 2008.

The Grand Marshals of the 2007 National Memorial Day Paradewere a contingent of our wounded heroes who have served inAfghanistan and Iraq, and were joined by actor and veterans ac-tivist Gary Sinise. The parade also featured Frank Buckles—oneof only three remaining veterans of the First World War. The

theme of the parade was a celebration of the 60th anniversary ofthe U.S. Air Force, with the event including such legendary aerial

units as the Doolittle Raiders, Flying Ti-gers, and Tuskegee Airmen.

This celebration of America’s heroeswould not be possible without the sup-port of thousands of individuals who,like you, care passionately about hon-oring their sacrifices. Thanks to you, theNational Memorial Day Parade hasquickly become a tradition our entirecountry can take pride in.

Our mission to provide a forum forAmerica’s veterans to share their ex-periences continues year-round. In ad-dition to the National Memorial DayParade and Valor, our projects include

the two weekly radio series Veterans Chronicles and Proudly We Hail,which feature the stories of American heroes in their own words.We are also currently planning our 10th annual conference, to beheld Veterans Day weekend, at which our country’s greatest vet-erans will gather to share their experiences with hundreds of highschool and college students, as well as an admiring public. Finally,your support also allows us to continue sponsoring periodic din-ners for our wounded service members currently at Walter ReedArmy Medical Center, giving them an opportunity to get awayfrom the hospital to enjoy a nice evening out.

It is a tremendous honor to help bring the stories of courage andsacrifice of our nation’s service members to the public, especiallytoday’s younger generations. And as we continue our work, wewish to thank you, once more, for your gracious support.

VALOR

Valor: The Veterans of Vietnam - Issue 5.

A quarterly publication of the National Vietnam Veterans Commit-tee, 1100 N. Glebe Rd, Suite 900, Arlington, VA 22201. Telephone:703-302-1012. Fax: 571-480-4140.

The National Vietnam Veterans Committee is a division of theAmerican Veterans Center. Valor is mailed to donors to the NationalVietnam Veterans Committee who make a contribution of $50 ormore per-year. Contributions help to fund the Committee’s variousspeaker conferences, student programs, the National Memorial DayParade, documentary and oral history projects, and this publication.To make a contribution or subscribe, call 703-302-1012.

Valor: The Veterans of Vietnam

National Vietnam Veterans CommitteeBrig. Gen. R. Steve Ritchie (USAF-Ret) - Honorary Chairman

James C. Roberts - PresidentTim Holbert - Editor/Program DirectorJim Michels - Director of Development

Michael Paradiso - Publisher

www.vietnamvetscommittee.orgwww.americanveteranscenter.org

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From the Editor

Thank YouBy Tim Holbert

The Grand Marshals of the 2007 National Memorial Day Parade- our wounded warriors from Operation Enduring Freedom andOperation Iraqi Freedom - pass by the National Archives. They

are joined by Honorary Marshal Gary Sinise.

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The Third Annual

National Memorial Day ParadePresented by the American Veterans Center

On Monday, May 28 2007, an estimated250,000 spectators gathered along Consti-tution Avenue in Washington, DC, for thethird annual National Memorial Day Parade,presented by the American Veterans Cen-ter—the parent organization of the NationalVietnam Veterans Committee. The paradefeatured nearly 3,000 individual participants,including marching bands, military units,youth groups, and veterans from across thegenerations, and proved to be a moving trib-ute to those who have fought, and died, inservice to our country.

The Grand Marshals of the 2007 National Memorial DayParade were a contingent of our wounded service memberswho have served in Operation Enduring Freedom and Op-eration Iraqi Freedom. These brave young men and womenrepresented all of those from this current generation who havesacrificed so much to defend our country. The Grand Mar-shals rode alongside Honorary Marshal Gary Sinise, star of“CSI: New York” and best known for his film role as “Lt.Dan” in Forrest Gump. Mr. Sinise (pictured left with several ofthe Grand Marshals) has been a tireless supporter of our mili-tary, coming straight to the parade from a three-week tourvisiting the troops in Iraq.

The crowd cheered wildly as these wounded heros proceeded down the parade route.Said Army Captain D.J. Skelton, who was one of the Grand Marshals, “They trulyneed America’s support. When you look at them, you are forced to be reminded ofthis amazing group, who allows us to live in a safe democracy.” He continued, “Itmeans a lot to know that America is still engaged and still cares and still recognizesthat we sacrificed for something — the greater good.”

A special theme of the 2007 National Memorial Day Parade was honoring the 60th

anniversary of the United States Air Force. The parade featured some of the mostlegendary veterans and units from the Air Force’s history, as well as active dutyelements (pictured top), the Air Force band, and an Air Force flyover. Serving as thereviewing official for the parade was Secretary of the Air Force Michael W. Wynne(pictured right with Committee president James C. Roberts).

Photo by Ron Engle

Photo by Ron Engle

Photo by Jose David

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Prior to the start of the parade, spectators and partici-pants were led in the singing of the Star-Spangled Ban-ner, as well as the Pledge of Allegiance by several ofAmerica’s greatest heroes—Medal of Honor recipientsfrom the Vietnam War John F. Baker, Jr., Roger C.H.Donlon and Robert L. Howard (pictured left with Ameri-can Veterans Center president James C. Roberts).

Performing his new song “For My Country,” prior to theparade was music legend Pat Boone (below). “For MyCountry” was written to be the official ballad of the Na-tional Guard, who have bravely served America both athome, and abroad, since colonial times.

Photo by Ron Engle

Perhaps the highlight of this year’s National Memorial DayParade was the inclusion of 106-year-old Frank W. Buck-les—one of only three remaining American veterans of theWorld War I-era, and the last to serve in Europe during thewar. Buckles (pictured below), was presented the U.S. ArmyFreedom Salute by Maj. Gen. William Monk, III as he passedthe parade reviewing tent to a standing ovation from all inattendance.

Photo by Ron Engle

Joining Frank Buckles were hundreds of veterans fromacross the generations, including a great many veteransof Vietnam. They were led by Honorary Marshal for theVietnam War Brig. Gen. R. Steve Ritchie, the HonoraryChairman of the National Vietnam Veterans Commit-tee. A great many veterans groups were also represented,including Vietnam Veterans of America, Veterans of theVietnam War, Inc., as well as veterans of the 82nd and101st Airborne and the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile).

Photo by Ron Engle

Photo by Ron Engle

Among the most touching moments of the parade was whenveterans of the ARVN, marching down Constitution Avenue,passed by the reviewing stand to receive the salutes of theirformer comrades in arms (pictured right). The enthusiasticreception they received from the many American veterans inattendance demonstrated how, more than 30 years later, thesebrave Vietnamese still command our respect and admiration.

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Joining the heroes of Vietnam were veterans from World WarII, Korea, and the Gulf War. Each segment was led by an Hon-orary Marshal—a distinguished veteran of that era. FollowingHonorary Marshals for World War I and World War II, FrankBuckles and Col. Walker “Bud” Mahurin, was Honorary Mar-shal for the Korean War James McEachin (below). Decoratedwith the Silver Star and Purple Heart, Mr. McEachin went onto a long career as an award winning author and actor, and wasthe first black American to star in his own TV series on NBC,in Tenafly. His current project in which he stars and directs, ashort film called Old Glory, which seeks to salute all who haveserved in our armed services

Photo by William Moss

The Honorary Marshal for the Gulf War was Col. PaulT. Johnson, one of only two recipients of the Air ForceCross for his valor in leading an operation to rescue adowned airman. Included in the Gulf War section was atribute to Spirit 03, the AC-130 plane that went down inthe battle for Khafji, resulting in the Air Force’s singlegreatest loss of life during Operation Desert Storm.

The National Memorial Day Parade featured a number offloats, sponsored by generous donors such as TriWestHealthcare Alliance, Argon ST, AMVETS, Raytheon,Phillips International, Lockheed Martin, Fund Raising Strat-egies, Inc., the National Rifle Association, and the DodgeJones Foundation. Additional support was provided byWMAL 630 Radio, the Greenwich Workshop Gallery, theAmerican Postal Workers Union, Marriott Hotels, McDonald& Eudy Printers, and Mountain Reserves.

Photo by Ron Engle

Photo by Ron Engle

Of special note was a float sponsored by the Embassy ofthe State of Kuwait, which featured young Kuwaitis thank-ing America for the liberation of their country during theGulf War. The Kuwaitis joined veterans and immigrantsfrom France, the UK, Canada, Taiwan, and South Viet-nam in an effort to demonstrate the appreciation theircountries feel for the American military standing besidethem through the years to defend freedom.

Photo by Ron Engle

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The National Memorial Day Parade strives to tie together the lega-cies of America’s uniformed personnel from every generation—todemonstrate that the ideas of service, valor, and honor continue,from the Greatest Generation to the latest generation. And receiv-ing perhaps the warmest welcome of all were those who are cur-rently defending America abroad. Following the veterans of WorldWar II, Korea, Vietnam, and Desert Storm were active duty ele-ments from the United States Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines (pic-tured below), Coast Guard, and National Guard.

Perhaps the most moving moment of the 2007 parade wasthe National Moment of Remembrance. At exactly 3:00PM, the entire parade was halted, as lone buglers stationedalong the parade route played taps in honor of those whohave fallen (bottom right), and Air Force helicopters flewlow down Constitution Avenue. The National Moment ofRemembrance, held in conjunction with the White HouseCommission on Remembrance, seeks to remind citizens ofthe sacrifices made by generations of Americans to pre-serve freedom.

Photo by William B. Moss

Photo by William B. Moss

The National Memorial Day Parade began in 2005, follow-ing the success of 2004’s “Parade Salute to World War IIVeterans,” which coincided with the dedication of the WorldWar II Memorial. For nearly 70 years, Washington, DC—our nation’s capital and headquarters to the military—waswithout a parade on our armed forces’ most hallowed day.At the same time, many Memorial Day parades in cities intowns across the country have been fading away in recentyears, as our veterans become older and the public’s atten-tion turns elsewhere.

Since its inception, the parade has grown tremendously, be-coming the tradition that the nation’s capital lacked for solong. And on a day when all eyes are on Washington, the pa-rade has helped to draw attention back to the true meaningof Memorial Day—the service and sacrifice of American ser-vice members of every generation. With 250,000 spectatorsand coverage on major television networks and newspapers,the National Memorial Day Parade will continue to serve asa public reminder of the valor of our military men and women.

Photo by Ron Engle

Photo by Ron Engle

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The National Memorial Day Parade, along with all of theprogramming of the American Veterans Center and NationalVietnam Veterans Committee, seeks to build an appreciationof the ideas of service among today’s young people, and tohelp carry on the legacy of those who have come before. Par-ticipating in the parade were hundreds of high school stu-dents from over two dozen marching bands from around thecountry, as well as kids from the Young Marines and NationalGuard Youth Challenge programs, who carried parade ban-ners and flags, as well as assisted veterans along the paraderoute.

The National Memorial Day Parade is, in short, a place where Americans of all generations can come together tocelebrate those who served and remember those who died. None of this would be possible without the support ofthousands of Americans from around the country who believe that freedom is worth defending, and that those who havegiven everything defending it deserve to be remembered.

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Mark Moyar is the author of the widely acclaimed new book, Tri-umph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954-1965. Already re-garded by many leading historians as oneof the definitive works on the VietnamWar, Triumph Forsaken is necessaryreading for those who wish to gain a betterunderstanding of America’s role in Viet-nam. Dr. Moyar is currently an associateprofessor at the U.S. Marine Corps Uni-versity.

My interest in the history of the Viet-nam War began in the early 1990swhen, as an undergraduate atHarvard, I took a core curriculumcourse on the war. I was struck bythe extent to which Harvard facultyand students considered the VietnamWar closed to debate. In the course,historical works that did not conformto the mainstream interpretation ofthe Vietnam War received little atten-tion and still less respect. The courseterm paper, however, afforded me the opportunity to findother books in the dimly lit corridors of Widener Library,and it was there that I first began to sense that somethingwas seriously amiss.

That term paper led to a senior thesis and then to the pub-lication of Phoenix and the Birds of Prey: The CIA’s SecretCampaign to Destroy the Vietcong (Naval Institute Press, 1997).Focused on counterinsurgency programs in South Vietnamduring the late 1960s and early 1970s, the book challengeda great deal of conventional wisdom on the village war.Phoenix and the Birds of Prey touched at various points onthe history of Vietnam before 1965. And after the bookcame out, I decided to look further into the early years ofthe war. I found unanswered questions and inconsisten-cies. Extremely skeptical of the existing scholarship, I re-solved to check other historians’ primary sources for accu-racy whenever possible and to seek out new primary sourcesto help fill the gaps in the existing literature. The result of

that work is Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954-1965 (Cambridge University Press, 2006).

While I wrote Triumph Forsaken sev-eral important revisionist books ap-peared. In a thousand-page tomeon the two Indochina wars, ArthurDommen offered much new infor-mation and analysis.1 C. DaleWalton reexamined America’s stra-tegic options, while Michael Lindused secondary sources to producea broad critique of the orthodoxschool.2 Several other historians re-interpreted the government of NgoDinh Diem and its demise.3 In ad-dition, a number of excellent workson the latter part of the waremerged.4 Unfortunately, this col-lection of books did not receive therecognition it deserved from otherscholars. David L. Anderson, thepresident of the Society for Histo-rians of American Foreign Rela-

tions and a historian of the Vietnam War, exemplifiedthe thinking of many scholars when he pronounced inhis recent presidential address that Vietnam War revi-sionists merely argued on the basis of emotion, whereasorthodox scholars relied on rational analysis of the evi-dence.5 It is my hope that Triumph Forsaken will makeclearer the preposterousness of such accusations.

I went back long before 1954 in order to understand tra-ditions that might have left cultural imprints on the 20th-century Vietnamese. Numerous scholars and punditshave contended that Vietnam has a long history of fight-ing wars against foreign invaders, especially the Chinese,which allegedly shows that American intervention inVietnam was utter folly for two reasons. First, ancienttensions inevitably precluded China and North Vietnamfrom maintaining a durable partnership in spreading com-munism across Asia. Second, the devotion of the Viet-namese people to fighting foreigners ensured that the

Rewriting the Vietnam WarBy Mark Moyar

Vietnamese communists would keep fighting the UnitedStates until the Americans quit.

I found, however, that from the end of the 10th centuryto the middle of the 20th century, the Chinese foughtthe Vietnamese on only three occasions, and in all threeinstances the Vietnamese initiated the war. Close inspec-tion of Vietnamese history also reveals that the Viet-namese spent far more time fighting against each otherthan against foreigners. The conflict between North Viet-nam and South Vietnamfrom 1954 to 1965 wasnot a war between Viet-namese and foreigners,but rather the newest ofcountless Vietnamesewars in which Vietnam-ese factions fought eachother with the assistanceof outside powers.

The widely accepted viewof the Vietnamese as his-torically fierce opponentsof would-be imperialpowers was first propa-gated by prominentAmerican journalists. In-deed, journalists such asNeil Sheehan, DavidHalberstam, and StanleyKarnow, all three of whom wrote best-selling books onVietnam and received Pulitzer Prizes, shaped the main-stream interpretation of the war. In those books theyportrayed themselves as detached observers. But in ac-tuality they were key actors at certain times during thewar, particularly in the critical year of 1963, when theU.S. embassy instigated a coup against President NgoDinh Diem. During 1963, in contrast to later years, thesereporters favored American involvement in Vietnam butbelieved that the South Vietnamese president had to bereplaced before the war could be won. Brazenly attempt-ing to influence history, they provided information toDiem’s opponents in the U.S. government, both privatelyand in print, and they undermined Diem’s prestige inSouth Vietnamese eyes with their highly negative articles(Vietnamese elites generally regarded American pressarticles as official statements of the U.S. government).

The reporters’ actions contributed mightily to the coupthat ousted Diem on November 1, 1963.

Because the war went very poorly for the South Vietnam-ese after the coup, the journalists soon faced accusationsthat they had been accomplices in a colossal blunder thatwrecked the South Vietnamese government and seriouslyharmed U.S. interests. Sheehan, Halberstam, and Karnowdealt with this problem masterfully. According to their sub-sequent writings, Diem wrecked the war effort through

terrible political and militarymistakes. Their interpreta-tion caught on, and it be-came so dominant in theUnited States that eventhose sympathetic to Diemhave adopted it.

This interpretation ofDiem’s final year is highlyerroneous. The principalpolitical mistakes attributedto Diem in 1963 concernedhis handling of Buddhistprotests. According to theAmerican media, Diemused a heavy hand to sup-press the Buddhist demon-strators, rather than concili-ating them by addressingtheir grievances. In truth,

Diem did attempt conciliation initially, but the Buddhistsresponded only by accelerating their protests, enumerat-ing fictitious grievances, and demanding Diem’s removal.The Buddhists’ unopposed insolence caused Diem to loseface, which no Vietnamese leader could afford for long.Moreover, communist agents had infiltrated the Buddhistmovement. In the end, Diem had no choice but to crackdown on the Buddhists if his government were to survive.

In the military realm, a great number of previously un-tapped sources—including many from the communistside—support several revisions of the standard account.For instance, the South Vietnamese war effort did not at-rophy over the course of 1963, but instead gained muscle.Diem’s strategic hamlet program, which involved fortify-ing South Vietnamese hamlets and stocking them withgovernment cadres and militiamen, hurt the communiststo a far greater extent than Americans have been led to

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Ngo Dinh Diem is welcomed to the United States by President DwightD. Eisenhower. Contrary to popular history, Diem proved to be aneffective ruler whose assassination had devastating consequences for

South Vietnam.

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believe. Further, the journalists’ own reports in 1963 indi-cated that the South Vietnamese government was prosecut-ing the war skillfully and vigorously prior to the Novembercoup. The image of military collapse in the last stages ofthe Diem regime would not be painted until after Diem wasdead.

Another weakness ofthe standard interpre-tation relates to themilitary power of com-munist forces in theSouth in 1964 and early1965. Historians, eventhose specializing inmilitary affairs, havelargely ignored com-munist battlefield per-formance during thisperiod. Triumph For-saken examines specificbattles in order togauge the importanceof North Vietnam’s lo-gistical assistance tothe communist armedforces in the South.The communists’ important victories during this period—the victories that compelled the United States to enter theground war—could not have been won without the use ofheavy weapons, such as 70mm pack howitzers, 75mm re-coilless rifles, 81mm mortars, and 12.7mm heavy machineguns. Most of the communists’ heavy weapons were im-ported into South Vietnam from North Vietnam, and there-fore North Vietnamese support played a decisive role inforcing the United States to send combat forces into thewar.

Historians have usually dismissed Lyndon Johnson’s dominotheory, emphasizing that South Vietnam’s defeat in 1975did not topple the Asian dominoes. Yet in 1965 the leadersof every country in Southeast Asia and its environs, otherthan China’s few allies, believed the domino theory andstrongly supported American intervention in Vietnam. TheseAsian leaders appreciated the military and political dimen-sions of the communist threat as well as anyone. In the caseof Indonesia, moreover, the anti-communist generals mostlikely would not have overthrown the pro-communist Presi-

dent Sukarno and wiped out the Indonesian CommunistParty in late 1965 had America not made a stand in Viet-nam. Other evidence suggests that American failure in Viet-nam would have wrecked American relations with Japan,the only Asian domino of greater strategic value than Indo-nesia. Sources from the communist side, meanwhile, reveal

that in 1965 Chinaand North Vietnamfirmly intended to col-laborate in knockingover the dominoesonce they finished offSouth Vietnam,which could not besaid of China andNorth Vietnam in1975.

The standard interpre-tation is faulty inmany other ways, in-cluding such mattersas the extent of na-tionalism among theVietnamese Commu-nists; the reasons forthe insurgency’s initial

successes; the merits of South Vietnamese military tacticsand organization; the suitability of liberal governance to Viet-nam; and the viability of alternative U.S. strategies. Maybeit is time for proponents of the mainstream view of the warto ask whether it is they—not the revisionists—who areslaves to emotion.

1 Arthur J. Dommen, The Indochinese Experience of the French and the Americans: Nationalismand Communism in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam (Indiana University Press, 2001).

2 C. Dale Walton, The Myth of Inevitable U.S. Defeat in Vietnam (Frank Cass, 2002);Michael Lind, Vietnam, The Necessary War: A Reinterpretation of America’s Most DisastrousMilitary Conflict (Free Press, 1999).

3 Francis X. Winters, The Year of the Hare: America in Vietnam, January 25, 1963-February15, 1964 (University of Georgia Press, 1997); Philip E. Catton, Diem’s Final Failure:Prelude to America’s War in Vietnam (University Press of Kansas, 2002).

4 For example, Lewis Sorley, A Better War: The Unexamined Victories and Final Tragedyof America’s Last Years in Vietnam (Harcourt Brace & Company, 1999); John NortonMoore and Robert F. Turner eds., The Real Lessons of the Vietnam War : ReflectionsTwenty-Five Years After the Fall of Saigon (Carolina Academic Press, 2002); and MarshallL. Michel, The Eleven Days of Christmas: America’s Last Vietnam Battle (EncounterBooks, 2002).

5 David L. Anderson, “One Vietnam War Should Be Enough and Other Reflectionson Diplomatic History and the Making of Foreign Policy,” Society for Historiansof American Foreign Relations Annual Meeting, College Park, Maryland, June 24,2005. The address was reprinted in Diplomatic History 30 (2006): 1–21.

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The Vietnam War memorial in Westminster, California pays tribute to both Americansand Vietnamese who fought to keep South Vietnam free.

On November 11, 2006 - Veterans Day - famed Vietnam diskjockey Adrian Cronauer addressed the American Veterans Center’sNinth Annual Conference in Arlington, Virginia. Mr. Cronauer,who was portrayed by Robin Williams in the movie Good Morn-ing, Vietnam, spoke to an audienceof several hundred students and fel-low veterans. The presentation was car-ried by C-Span television. In this is-sue, we print the transcript of hisspeech.

How many of you have seen themovie Good Morning , Vietnam?Well that does wonders for myego, probably doesn’t hurt mybank account either. Because ofthe ubiquity of that film on latenight television, my 15 minutesof fame has stretched well be-yond 15 years. And over that pe-riod of time I have found thatthere are certain things people al-ways want to know; about GoodMorning, Vietnam, about ArmedForces Radio, and about Viet-nam. And I thought that I would,before I get into the meat ofwhat I wanted to say, the seriousstuff, answer some of those ques-tions. And the number one question people always ask, ishow much of that movie is real? Well I see a number ofuniforms and a number of people I am sure are veterans,and anybody who has been in the military or has had anyconnections with the military would know, that if I didhalf of the things that Robin Williams did in that movie Iwould still be in Fort Leavenworth. There’s a lot of Hol-lywood exaggeration and outright imagination in themovie. For example, yes there was someone there namedAdrian Cronauer, and yes he was a disc jockey in Viet-nam, and yes I did teach English during my off duty time.I did not teach my class how to swear and use New York

street slang and I wasn’t teaching because I was trying tomeet this particularly beautiful Vietnamese girl, at leastnot one particular beautiful Vietnamese girl. I did try tomake it sound like a state-side radio station, and I did

have trouble with censorship,and I did start each program withyelling “GOOOOOD MorningVietnam!”

Now I did not get thrown out ofVietnam. I stayed for my fullone-year tour and was honorablydischarged, thank you. None ofthe characters in the film arebased on actual people for legalreasons like invasion of privacyand slander and so forth, so theyare all stereotypes. But as is truewith any good stereotype, youname any character in the filmand I could probably think ofhalf a dozen people that I knewduring my four years in the AirForce and I suspect that any ofyou could too. In the movie itshows bags and bags of fan mailcoming in and a whole bank oftelephones just ringing off thehook with requests. Never hap-

pened. I mean think about it. There just aren’t telephonebooths out in the rice paddies. Where are they going tocall? But I did find out when I went out into the field todo interviews that sometimes people would recognize myname, other times they wouldn’t. I would say“GOOOOD Morning” and they would say “Oh yeah,how about playing a record for me?”

At the time I didn’t recognize how much Armed ForcesRadio meant to the people. It has happened now, severaldozen times, at a veterans event, a veteran would comeup to me, shake my hand and quietly say, “thank you, for

Good Morning, VietnamA Presentation by Adrian Cronauer

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Adrian Cronauer addresses the audience at the NinthAnnual Conference.

helping me get through ‘Nam.” And that’s pretty reward-ing.

One of the questions people always ask is what is RobinWilliams really like. The answer is, I don’t know, becausehe is always on. You walk up to him say ‘Hello’ and hestarts doing a routine for you. Well, I am a lawyer, not apsychiatrist, so what do I know, but it’s my layman’s analy-sis that he’s really a very shy, bashful, introverted person.And he does all of these imitations and routines and shtickas a way of building awall around himself soyou can never get in tohurt the real Robin.And the only time Ihave ever seen himdrop that was when hewas with his own littlekids, playing with them,because you see, theyare not a threat to him.

Now, people ask, areyou as funny as RobinWilliams? I have al-ready amply demon-strated that I am nothalf that funny. If Iwere I would be out in Hollywood going “NA NU NANU” and making a million dollars. But, on the other hand,I think I was a better disk jockey. To give you an example,he did the opening sign on all wrong. He just went “GoodMorning Vietnam!” Which is not the way you really didit. The way you really did it was you stressed the word‘good’ for a very practical reason. Because if you were amorning Disc Jockey, it’s not a matter of if, it is a matterof when, you are going to eventually oversleep and whenthat happens you come tearing into the station at the verylast minute half dressed half asleep and you don’t haveyour records pulled, you don’t know what’s going to hap-pen, you don’t have your contact lenses, you don’t haveyour tapes queued up, and as you walk through the doorto the studio you hear the news man saying ‘That’s thelatest from the Armed Forces Radio News Room, nextnews in one hour.” Now you’ve got to do something. Soas you find our headphones and get everything set up yougo “GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD

(all while pulling records from the shelves, putting in con-tacts, organizing tapes etc) Morning Vietnam!” That’s theway we really did it.

There is one other inaccuracy and that is, it shows that Istarted my program promptly at 6 o’clock, which of courseis, as I just indicated, not true, because we had five-minutenews every hour on the hour. Most of the time I was inthe studio before they started the newscast. And I canremember how the newsman would begin it. He would

say, “it’s 6 o’clockhere in Saigon.That’s for those ofus in the Air Force.For the Army, that isO-six hundredhours, for the Navy,that is 6 bells and forthe Marines listen-ing, Mickey’s littlehand is on the six.”Actually I have a lotof good friends thatare Marines, or atleast I did before Istarted telling thatjoke. I have a lot ofrespect for the Ma-

rines because all of the blood sweat and tears honor andglory are summed up in that motto, Semper Fidelis—al-ways faithful. We in the Air Force of course had our ownmotto, Semper Cocktailis. Every service has somethingthat makes them unique. The Coast Guard is the small-est, the Army is the largest, the Marines are the most gung-ho, the Navy has the silliest looking uniforms, and ofcourse the Air Force has the most intelligent men of theservices. I mean think about it, it is the only one wherethe enlisted men send the officers out to get killed. Putthem in the cockpit; pat ‘em on the back… “Go get ‘emsir, I’ll be here when you get home, and if you are late Iwill be over at the club.”

People have asked what my reaction to the film was, andI was very, very happy. It was never intended to be anaccurate point-by-point biography; it was intended to bea piece of entertainment, and it certainly was that. AndRobin Williams wasn’t as much playing me, as he was

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© Christian Simonpietri/Sygma/CORBIS

playing a character named “Adrian Cronauer,” who sharedsome of my experiences in Vietnam. But in reality he wasplaying Robin Williams, and we all know that. But I takea lot of pride in the number of people who have told methat they believe this was the first film that began to showAmericans in Vietnam as they really were, rather thanmurderers, rapists, baby killers, dope addicts andpsychotics. I am here to tell you that I went out into thefield close to a dozen times and interviewed hundreds ofAmericans, and you know what, I never met a single mur-derer, I never met asingle rapist, I nevermet a single babykiller, I never met asingle psychotic, andI never met a singledope addict. Who Idid meet were a num-ber of honorable menand women whomight not have beenso pleased withwhere they foundthemselves, but weredetermined to dotheir duty as well andas honorably and ef-fectively as theycould. And that isthe story that is not being told by the media. We look atthe image of veterans today, and what is it we are beingportrayed as? Oh, the Vietnam veteran is this lonely char-acter, hanging around the street corners, alcoholic drugabusing loser, in dirty camouflage Vietnam fatigues; butin reality the Vietnam veterans are the back bone of soci-ety. They are the doctors and the lawyers, the truck driv-ers the mechanics, the nurses and the people who makeour society run. And that again, is not the story that isbeing told properly.

A large problem is with the portrayal of Vietnam veter-ans and the war in the media. For example, WalterCronkite, one of the most respected men since EdwardR. Murrow, went to Vietnam during the Tet Offensive in1968. Any reputable military historian would tell you thatthe Tet Offensive was a monumental victory for our side.The Viet Cong expected the South Vietnamese people to

rise up and join them, which never happened. Instead theViet Cong’s forces were decimated. It took them years tocome to the same amount of force. Yet, Walter Cronkitecame back and told the American people that it was aterrible defeat for us and we should get out of Vietnam.That’s the kind of source that we get so often when itcomes to military matters, about war and peace. Now thisis not a partisan issue. Everybody from Joe Lieberman onthe left to William Bennett on the right attacks Holly-wood and the media. Now they attack them for their nega-

tive values, like drugsand sex and violence.But I think the mediatoday, the main-stream media, arealso derelict in theirduty to promote posi-tive values. Positivevalues like patrio-tism, love of God andlove of country. Re-spect for the flag andthe institutions that itrepresents. Service toone’s community,family values, per-sonal responsibility,

work ethic, settinggoals and trying to ac-

complish them, leadership, taking justifiable pride in onesappearance, a job well done, I could stand here all dayand talk about it. But ultimately, what I am really talkingabout is pride in being an American. Well, if the mediawon’t promote these values, then what do we do? Thenwe have to do it for them.

I am so happy to see so many young people here today,because you young people are the next generation of ourcitizens and our leadership. And too often we have beenderelict in our duty to promote proper values with you,our young people. Our attitude has been that well, if youweren’t there then, there is no way you could understand,so there is no sense even talking about it. WRONG. Wehave to talk to the next generation. Because if we don’ttell them where we were and what we were doing, andwhy we were there and what were the things that were soimportant that we were willing to fight and even risk dy-

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© Christian Simonpietri/Sygma/CORBIS

world, and the rest of the world knows it! Look at howtheir best and brightest arestruggling so hard to gethere. And for that fact alonewe have every right to standup proudly and hold ourheads high and say, ‘YES! IAM an American!’ But forthe sake of the next genera-tion, we must live those val-ues, not just speak them. Wemust not only talk the talk,but also walk the walk,teaching by example as wellas with our words. Because,we are responsible for theeducation of the next gen-eration of citizens and lead-ers.

All my friends, all my broth-ers and sisters, it is so veryimportant that we do this,because if we do not, thenour society is in danger offulfilling the prophecy ofthe philosopher, GeorgeSantayana, who once said,those who will not learnfrom the past are con-demned to repeat it.That’s a rather pessimisticformulation. I think it wasmore optimistically ex-pressed by the novelistHerman Wouk, who said,“The beginning of theend of war, lies in remem-brance.” I thank you forsharing a few of my re-

membrances this morning, and I thank you for sharing yourremembrances with the next generation, I thank you forall you do for your community and your country. God blessyou, God bless America, and to my fellow Vietnam veter-ans, welcome home.

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Adrian Cronauer (left) with Brig. Gen. R. Steve Ritchie, HonoraryChairman of the National Vietnam Veterans Committee at the 2007National Memorial Day Parade. Since its inception, Mr. Cronauer has

lent his famous voice to the parade as it’s official announcer.

ing for, unless we tell them that, all they will know is whatthey do see in the main-stream media, which is aswe know, totally deficient.

Every once in a while I willread an editorial, or an opin-ion column that says we asAmericans have lost oursense of shame. I don’tthink we have, but I do thinkthat sometimes we havemisplaced our sense ofshame. In an age of exces-sive diversity and over em-phasized cultural pluralism,we become ashamed tospeak of this one nation. Inan age of rampant secular-ism and humanism, we be-come ashamed to talk aboutthat nation ‘Under God.’Too often we becomeashamed to talk about thewonders of America andher history. We have to tellthe next generation abouthow we have a represen-tative democracy, a politi-cal system that is based onthe concept that govern-ments derive their justpowers from the consentof the governed. And wehave an economic systemthat is capitalist, and isbased on the profit mo-tive. And those words,capitalism and profit, arenot dirty words. Ratherbecause of that economic system and that political sys-tem working together, hand in hand in just over two hun-dred years we have done more to feed the hungry, clothethe naked, shelter the poor, take care of the homeless,protect the abused and spread freedom and blessingsthroughout the world. In short we have done the greatestgood for the greatest number in the entire history of the

Pat Boone (right) speaks with Bill Chatfield, Selective Service Administra-tion Director (middle) and Adrian Cronauer prior to the start of theNational Memorial Day Parade. Mr. Boone performed his new song,

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The First Shot DownAn Excerpt From Veterans Chronicles

The American Veterans Center (parent organization of the WorldWar II Veterans Committee and now, the National VietnamVeterans Committee) began with the production of the award-winning radio documentary series, World War II Chronicles,commemorating the 50th anniversary of World War II. Thisprogram, hosted by the late, great “Voice of World War II,”Edward J. Herlihy, aired onover 500 stations nationwidebetween 1991 and 1995 onthe Radio America network.In the years since, theAmerican Veterans Centerhas produced dozens of radiodocumentaries and series, inan effort to bring the historyof America’s veterans to thepublic.

The tradition of quality radioprogramming continues withthe new series, VeteransChronicles, hosted by GenePell, former NBC PentagonCorrespondent and head ofVoice of America and RadioFree Europe/Radio Liberty. With Veterans Chronicles,listeners are taken to the battlefields where America’s greatestheroes were made. The series is broadcast on the Radio Americanetwork. In this issue, we print the partial transcripts of a recentepisode.

On August 2, 1964, three North Vietnamese P-4 torpedoboats sped toward the destroyer USS Maddox situated inthe Gulf of Tonkin. Seemingly under attack, the Maddoxopened fire on the gunboats, and with the support offour F-8 Crusaders from the carrier USS Ticonderoga, sunkone of the boats and crippled another. Following thisincident, and a perceived but unconfirmed attack on theMaddox and USS Turner Joy two days later, President

Johnson ordered strikes against North Vietnamese PT-boat bases along the coast.

Among the pilots participating in the attack was LTJGEverett Alvarez, Jr., who was ordered to take out the PTboats located at Hon Gai. During the attack, Alvarez’s

A4C Skyhawk was hit,and he was forced to bail.He would be captured bythe North Vietnamese—the first American airmanto be taken prisoner ofwar in Vietnam. FromAugust 5, 1964 untilFebruary 12, 1973,Alvarez would be held asa POW—a period of 8 ½years.

LCDR Alvarez recentlyappeared on VeteransChronicles to talk about hisexperiences in Vietnam.Filling in for host GenePell was Taylor Kiland,

co-author of Open Doors: Vietnam POWs Thirty Years Later.Ms. Kiland is Vice President of Marketing and Commu-nications at the U.S. Navy Memorial.

Taylor Kiland: It’s an honor to have you on the showsince you are the longest held POW held in North Viet-nam; you were held for what, I believe, eight and a halfyears?

Everett Alvarez: That’s correct.

Kiland: Well first off could you tell me a little aboutyour time in the military leading up to being shot downand held as a prisoner of war. What is it about the mili-tary or the Navy that attracted you to flying.

After being the first American pilot to be shot down over North Viet-nam, Everett Alvarez was interrogated then sent here, to Hoa Lo Prison -

better known as the Hanoi Hilton.

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Alvarez: Well flying was always a lifelong dream for me. Ienlisted in the Navy right after college. I graduated withan electrical engineering degree in 1960 from the Univer-sity of Santa Clara, which was a small Jesuit school in theBay area of California. But I had grown up in areas wherethere was always an airport or airplanes flying around, ei-ther military or civilian, crop dusters for example, thingsof that nature. That was always fascinating to me and theolder I became, I think my interest really was peaked, sowhen I had theopportunity andI passed thephysicals so Icould get intothe Naval avia-tion flight train-ing program. Itook it as an op-portunity anddid not haveany long-termgoals in mind,just the fact thathere I was ableto do some-thing for a num-ber of years, soI did. I was aNavy pilot, fly-ing F-4 jets offof the carriersout in the middle of the Western Pacific in the summer of1964. It seems like an eternity ago, but I just happened tobe out there when things started happening in South Viet-nam, at the time things were heating up. They were heat-ing up in Laos, and so I happened to be on station off thecoast of South Vietnam when we had the famous -or infa-mous- “Tokin Gulf ” incident which led to the Gulf ofTonkin Resolution which was the basis for PresidentJohnson, at that time, to escalate the war and start to raiseour presence in South Vietnam over the next couple ofyears.

As a result of that incident, we were sent on air strikesinto North Vietnam and I was on a flight that was way upnorth near Haiphong Harbor and I unfortunately was in aposition where my aircraft was hit and I lost control and

soon found myself having to bail out and eject. As I camefloating down, I found myself amidst many many Viet-namese militia types, so I was soon captured. I was fortu-nate that I survived, one of the other fellows from myship in another type of airplane was killed, in those samestrikes we had up and down the coast of North Vietnam.

Kiland: So tell me a little bit about the first two years ofyour captivity, because you were the first aviator shot

down, youwere alone forthose first twoyears, right?

Alvarez: I wasalone for thir-t e e nmonths—to-tally alone, be-fore I madecontact withthe others.When I wasfirst capturedabout a weeklater I wasbrought downto Hanoi and Iwas the firstresident of theHanoi Hilton,

which was the name we gave it later on. It was basicallyan old French-built fortress-like prison the Vietnameseused for criminals. I’ll tell you they had a lot of them. Iused to look through a crack in my door and I could lookout into the courtyard and see them bringing them indroves in chains. Sometimes in the middle of the nightthey would be processing through and they really didn’ttreat them very well. There was a section back there for awhile where you could actually hear them beating the pris-oners with a whip or whatever it was.

Kiland: Do you think they were petty criminals?

Alvarez: I asked an interpreter once, I had the occasionto ask who these people were and he said that every soci-ety has its murderers, its thieves, its rapists. Thinking back

Photograph taken from USS Maddox (DD-731) during her engagement with three North Vietnam-ese motor torpedo boats in the Gulf of Tonkin, 2 August 1964. The view shows all three of the

boats speeding towards the Maddox.Naval Historical Center photo

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on what I used to hear and how they treated them, Ithink… well we are civilized, I mean we don’t do thosekinds of things to people, and again look what they did tous for propaganda purposes. That’s just something that’snot right morally to do. War is war and we find ourselvesdoing things that I thought normally men are not capableof, that’s just reality.

Kiland: You know those first thirteen months by your-self must have been lonely. I’m surprised you didn’t reachany level of despair, so many of the POWs I’ve talked tohave said that the camaraderie, evenif it was only being able to communi-cate through a wall, was what got themthrough the experience. Those firstthirteen months most of Americansociety really did not even know wehad a POW over there and you hadno colleagues.

Alvarez: Well it was a tough go, it wasnot easy. Having to go through the pro-cess of understanding just what youare in was a very interesting experi-ence, you might say. I found myselfat a point where you talk about de-spair, you talk about panic, you talkabout frustration—all combined—and you wonder if … you have noidea, you are totally bewildered. Andso I think what helped me was a sensethat I was able to sit down and realize that in order to getby on a day-to-day basis I was going to have to put thethought of my family, my wife at the time, of my friends,just out of my mind. I was in this cell—it was the hereand now. I was going to deal with it, deal with the tribula-tions of it and go day by day and see how it goes, and Iprayed a lot. I had an awful lot of time in which I just…itwas just prayer. Conversation as I would call it. But I foundthat it gave me a lot of re-assurance in order to cope withwhat was coming next, and I finally realized that I reallyhad little control over the situation and realized that ifthey were going to do the worst, if they were going to killme, then I felt I was ready to accept whatever happenedin my own inner self, you might say. Once I did that itwas a lot easier then to deal with on a day-to-day basis.

Kiland: You were at peace with yourself?

Alvarez: I was at peace with myself in the sense that Ihad prepared myself mentally and physically as much as Icould. Once I came to that realization, I called it a matur-ing process, then I was able to deal with things day-to-day and the time went by. It was not comforting in thesense that some of these conditions we were living inwere very bad. And then I recall about six months after Iwas shot down, I heard a commotion outside and a fewdays later I heard that they had shot down another Ameri-

can pilot. A few days after that I see allthis commotion outside and then I real-ize they are bringing another person in,and then from there it began. Anotherperson, and then another person. I neversaw them but I could hear the commo-tion and I could hear the trucks pull inand hear the guards and pretty soon Istarted hearing signs of communicationand that’s when it all started to feel a lotbetter. At 13 months and eight days laterwhen they took me out of my cell andput me in a jeep with three other fellasand we went to this other prison about40 miles outside of Hanoi up in the hills,at first there were about 13 of us whowere shot down out there. We talked toeach other, we communicated, I learnedto tap code, things like that. I felt like Iwas on Coney Island on a sunny sum-

mer afternoon. It was just all these people talking andhere I was back in the groove again. Still locked up, stillin solitary but…

Kiland: You had buddies.

Alvarez: I had friends and that made a big difference.

Kieland: I bet some of them are still your best friends.

Alvarez: Oh we have lost a number of them, but someare still very good friends. And then later on we werecellmates and we would spend a lot of time together. Tothis day they are still good friends. It’s like a fraternity inthat sense.

Everett Alvarez after his capture by theNorth Vietnamese.

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Kiland: Many of the POWs have told me that on someof their lowest days, when they felt the most depressedor desperate, the would look at you and they would say“You know, he’s been here “x” more years or “x” moremonths than I have been, if he can do it, I can do it.

Alvarez: It’s a good thing they didn’t know how crazy Iwas. I’ve heard that a lot and maybe it was helpful tothem. We all had to stick together. That was a lesson weall learned from the very first. It was only when we weregoing to come out of that whole experience as a group, atogetherness, united in not only our goals but what wefound out is the shared values that we have as aviators,as Air Force and Navy pilots. Most of us came from smalltowns around the country. Most of us came from church-going families, most of us came from middle America andso these were top-notch people, like they are today someof my best friends.

Kiland: So let’s jump forward a little bit. When the ParisPeace Accords were signed and you’re told that you aregoing to be released, did it sink in immediately or did youdisbelieve it? At that point you’d been there more thaneight years.

Alvarez: Almost eight and a half by that time. When thebombing finally stopped in North Vietnam and Hanoi,the B-52s stopped coming and the bombings by the Navy,the A-6s and the F-4s during the day and B-52s at night,it was just constant. And when it stopped we knew it wasover. I mean you could tell by the attitude of the guards,and the Vietnamese, that they were defeated, they weretired and they wanted it over with. But we had had somany ups and downs over the years that it was anticlimacticin a way that we became hardened and cynical after allthese years and this time, we sort of said, “Well we knowits over, but I’ll believe it as far as our release goes, whenI see it,” and then when they came and took our prisonclothing and gave us trousers and a shirt, shoes and a jacketand a little bag and told us we were going to be leavingthe next day, we said, “Ok, this is really it, but you knowwhat? We’ll believe it when I actually get out here.” Thatattitude just hung there, until the moment we walkedacross that line and then onto the airplane. And when Igot on the airplane, I said, “I don’t care what happenscause there is no way they are going to get me off thisairplane.” You figure the peace talks could have broken

down, and they would stop the flight or whatever. Butonce we got under the U.S. control it was somewhatmelancholy. I remember as we were taking off there wasa lot of joy and cheering. I didn’t jump for joy and I didn’tcheer, and neither did Bob Shoemaker who was the secondguy shot down. He and I were sitting together and we sortof looked at each other and we said, “Well, we made it.”We congratulated each other, but it was sort ofanticlimactic and melancholy in a way. I remember thinkingthat it had been so long and I had no idea what I wasgoing to face when I got home. I knew that my wife wasno longer there so I was not looking forward to beingreunited with a wife. I had no idea what my family hadgone through except I’d learned that they had been active,my mother and my sister were active in the anti-warmovement, which was counter to my beliefs; I felt didn’treally help our cause.

Kiland: Your wife had divorced you.

Alvarez: Well that’s true, so I really had no sense of whatit was that I was coming back to, plus the fact that wewere somewhat still, you know, having been there andstill listening to that propaganda. You really didn’t knowabout the feelings of the county toward us; of the posi-tive feelings. All we ever heard was the negative thingsabout us, about the war, and so when we stepped off theairplane, what we were told by the State Department folksthere as we were about to land in the Philippines, thatthere was going to be a lot of military top brass there, lotsof media, and lots of people to meet us. I remember think-ing “Why? What would they all be there for?” Cause younever thought of the positive side of the country, and soit was quite a surprise to see the reception and all of asudden, its sort of like you blacked out all of the propa-ganda that we’d been hearing for years and years, aboutthe negative ness, the hostility of the American publictowards the war and on and on. Here we were, and it wastotally different. So I understand it was a very disturbedtime in the country all those years, but still, you neverrealized the positive part of it. People coming up to youby the hundreds and hundreds.

So we got off the airplane and onto the bus, got back tothe hospital where they had it cordoned off to everybodyexcept doctors and nurses. Air Force nurses, lots of them.And here I was single again. I could think, it was some-

what of an eye-opener. But the reality was that the it tookawhile, things sort of began to sink in terms of what itwas like, what we were facing. When we came back tothe States, and reunited with the family back it didn’t takethat long really to start picking up where you left off.

Kiland: What surprised you the most culturally about theU.S. when you returned? You’d been gone from 1964 to1973. I mean the country had experienced tremendoussocial changes at that time.

Alvarez: Well yougot to see in termsof the society. Theculture hadchanged tremen-dously, especiallythe young people.You said, “Whatthe heck hap-pened?” But it wassomething that Ithink was going tohappen anyway atthat time while wewere in Vietnam.And I think Viet-nam just acceler-ated the change andenhanced thechange, it was an excuse for many people and we are stillsuffering for this. It still is I think, something as a countrythat we need to think about in terms of our generationsface in terms of where we are all going. I think it’s a bigquestion.

Kiland: So within a few months of returning you metyour current wife?

Alvarez: I met my wife, and we were married in the fall, Iresumed my Naval career.

Kiland: What was it like flying again?

Alvarez: It was like riding a bicycle. Remember you getback on a bike, you just pick right up and go. Even driv-ing a car, getting a license, I’m glad they didn’t ask me to

do a parking test because I don’t know if I would havepassed that one. You know just to get in the car and driveagain was dejavu all over again. But then it was time tothink about careers and the future. To look back at it wewere still very young; I was 35 when I came out of it. Ihad married, I had a family, I had a lot of years and so youhave such a thirst for hitting the books again and the aca-demics and things of that nature so I went back to post-graduate school, got a postgraduate degree, I went to an-other school here on the east coast on program manage-

ment for the De-partment of De-fense. I served thelast four years as aprogram managerand then while Iwas there I startedgoing to law schoolat night. I tellpeople that I wastrying to under-stand what thepeople here inWashington aretalking about. I’venever practiced butI am still a memberof the D.C. bar. Istarted a consultingbusiness after serv-

ing Reagan administration for six years.

Kiland: Tell us what you did in the Reagan administra-tion.

Alvarez: For the first year and a half I was the deputy atthe Peace Corps. Then I was asked to take the numbertwo job at the Veterans Administration before it becamea cabinet position. I spent four years as the deputy num-ber two. I’ll tell you it was a...all of these jobs, everythingI did when I came, since I came home from Vietnam hasbeen a growth. My wife and I and my family we havegrown. Professionally and personally. I think of the op-portunities that I had and I took them. I met GovernorReagan when he was governor and then became presi-dent and getting into the political scene, and then got intothe business side, I started a successful business for awhile.

The famed photo of jubilant former POWs as their plane takes off from Hanoi in 1973.National Archives photo

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I met Governor Reagan when I came home from Viet-nam. Of course, he was very interested in the POWs. Atthe time he actually entertained all of them, he broughtthem to his home a couple times for various social func-tions. And I was fortunate I was able to go anytime therewas something going on. I got to know him and his staffat the time, fairly well. So years later when I was retiredfrom the Navy, and he was elected in president, I had theopportunity to join the administration. And I think that itwas quite the experience in a sense that all the jobs I hadsince I’ve been in Wash-ington, as a political ap-pointee, the politics andother positions I’ve had,various administrations,on various committees orboards and other things,have been really wonder-ful experiences in a sensethat you really get to meeta lot of wonderful people.You get to meet a lot ofpeople from both sides ofthe aisle, you see the dy-namics back and forth, ofhow this town works po-litically and then as a smallbusinessman starting abusiness and dealing withthe federal government, it’sa different exposure and so I’ve been fortunate that I’vebeen able to be successful in these areas as I went throughthose jobs. So from that aspect, I consider myself mostfortunate as I look back. I hardly have any time to lookback but when I do, I think back to the guys I was with inthe Hanoi Hilton and some of them didn’t come back. Ithink of the people that I knew, during the war, who neverhad the opportunities. I thank God how fortunate I amand how it’s been a good life.

Kiland: Tell us about some of the work you have donefor your former POWS and veterans as a group. You havebeen a tireless advocate both in your political appoint-ments and also volunteer positions.

Alvarez: Well when I was a deputy in the VA, the numbertwo person there, we were able to expand the storefront

operations and veterans counseling centers around thecountry for the Vietnam veterans giving them easier ac-cess to help and so that was quite a very interesting andgratifying effort. I have kept track of the individuals thatI knew and I have tracked a lot of them and their physicalproblems in terms of coming to the VA for help, I want tomake sure that they get looked at, and given the treat-ment they deserve. And the thing about it, was that therewere so many, who needed the kind of treatment thatthey deserved. We have a huge system in the VA. The VA

was an experience wherethere is never, neverenough money to satisfyall their needs, and neverwill be given the waythings are, so you just tryto do the best for the mostand then on the other side,I found myself in a posi-tion where I was able todo things because I en-joyed the respect of vet-erans around the countryeverywhere I went and soI was able to, I think ableto accomplish some thingsthat would have beenmore difficult had I nothad the unfortunate expe-rience of being a prisoner

of war. So all of that enters into the equation.

Kiland: Well we would like to thank you Mr. Alvarez forcoming in today and spending some time and reflectingwhich is not always an easy thing to do. But you have avery inspirational story.

Alvarez: It’s not really hard to reflect these days. The moreyou do it, the more natural it becomes I think. It was hardat first. Especially when I first wrote my book, ChainedEagle, in 1986 after I left the VA. And I started to put mythoughts down and I had a co-writer. I will tell you it wastough. It came out in 1988 and was somewhat cathartic.So I appreciate your invitation to chat about these things.

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LCDR Everett Alvarez is interviewed for Veterans Chronicles.

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On June 12, 2007, the Victims ofCommunism Memorial was dedicatedin Washington, DC. The memorialis a replica of the “Goddess of De-mocracy” statue erected by the Chi-nese students during the TiananmenSquare protests of 1989 and servesas a reminder of the horrors of anideology that led to the deaths of over100 million people.

Accepting the memorial on behalf ofthe people of the United States wasPresident George W. Bush. Alsospeaking were Congressmen DanaRohrabacher and Tom Lantos—whoafter surviving the Nazi Holocaustin his native Hungary, saw first-handthe evils of communism when the Soviet Unionimposed its will on Eastern Europe followingWorld War II. James C. Roberts, president ofthe American Veterans Center, served as mas-ter of ceremonies for the dedication. In this is-sue of Valor, we print his remarks:

Reverend Clergy, Congressmen TomLantos and Dana Rohrabacher, LeeEdwards, distinguished guests, la-dies and gentlemen. My name is JimRoberts and I have the privilege ofserving as master of ceremonies forthis morning’s program.

On behalf of the directors of theVictims of Communism MemorialFoundation, I welcome you to thisceremony in which we dedicatethis memorial honoring thememory of the more than 100 mil-lion people who have perished atthe hands of international communism.

Unlike many dedication ceremonies, this one, by its na-ture, cannot be a celebration. It is rather, an occasion forremembrance, gratitude and re-dedication:

Remembrance of the tens ofmillions of men, women andchildren who were ruthlesslyand systematically exterminatedto advance to cause of themurderous, malevolentideology that is communism.

Gratitude to those who madethis memorial possible and there-dedication to the cause ofanti-communism because, un-fortunately, communism is not

only a lamentable atrocity ofpast. Communist oppression per-sists in a number of countries inthe world today.

William F. Buckley Jr. has rightlydescribed the communist enterprise as“the worst abuser of human liberty inthe history of the world.” The killinghas been done on a scale so vast, theenormity of the crime so overwhelming,that the conscience of mankind hasbecome dulled and numb whenattempting to comprehend it.

Joseph Stalin, one of the main perpe-trators of the communist crime againsthumanity, anticipated this developmentwhen he said, “One death is a tragedy;a million is a statistic.”

It is our responsibility to ensure thatthe one hundred million people tor-tured, starved and murdered by com-munist decree do not become adimly remembered statistic.

It is true that most of them met their fate in anonymity. Wedo not know their names but they are known to God and itis our duty to remember them before God. This we do heretoday. VALOR

President George W. Bush speaks at the memorial dedication.Addressing those assembled, he said, “In this hallowed placewe recall the great lessons of the Cold War: that freedom is

precious and cannot be taken for granted.”White House photo

James C. Roberts delivers his address at the dedication ceremony ofthe Victims of Communism Memorial in Washington, DC.

Standing right are Congressmen Tom Lantos and DanaRohrabacher.

Committee President James C. Roberts EmceesDedication of The Victims of Communism Memorial

Thank You For Your Support!

The National Vietnam VeteransCommitte was formed to tell the true sto-ries of valor, courage, and honor displayedby our Vietnam veterans both during thewar, and in the years since. Through its

various programs, the Committee is working to provide a forum for the veterans of Vietnam toshare their experiences and knowledge with the public, and to preserve them for future genera-tions. The continued support of thousands of individuals across America has allowed theCommittee to expands its efforts over the years, instituting a number of quality projects, includ-ing: The National Memorial Day Parade

Held each year along the National Mall in Washington,DC, and featuring nearly 200 elements and over 100,000spectators.

Valor: The Veterans of VietnamOur quarterly publication, which provides the opportunityfor veterans to tell their stories, in their own words.

Documentaries and Radio SeriesThe Committee has a long history of producing quality ra-dio documentaries in association with the Radio Americanetwork, and currently sponsors two weekly radio series,Veterans Chronicles and Proudly We Hail. Both programsfeature interviews with America’s great military heroesfrom across the generations.

Annual Veterans ConferenceEvery Veterans Day veterans gather to share their stories.The 2006 conference was televised live on C-Span.

Youth Activities and Educational OutreachThe underlying theme of each of our programs is to pro-vide a forum for veterans of Vietnam to pass their knowl-edge and experiences on to future generations. Studentsand youth groups are encouraged to participate in Com-mittee activities, and the Committee sponsors essay con-tests, a high school and college scholarship, and a summerinternship program where students meet and interviewVietnam veterans.

Supporting Our TroopsIn addition to featuring the stories of those currently serv-ing in our publications and radio programs, and includingthem in the National Memorial Day Parade, the Commit-tee is proud to sponsor regular events for our woundedheroes currently undergoing rehabilitation at Walter ReedArmy Medical Center.

High school students line up to shake hands with legendaryveterans and Medal of Honor recipients George “Bud” Day

and Hiroshi “Hershey” Miyamura at the 2006 conference.

Retired Major General John K. Singlaub signs a copy of hisbook, Hazardous Duty, for one of our active duty service

members at a dinner for our wounded warriors from Iraq andAfghanistan sponsored by the American Veterans Center.

Valor - Issue 5

The History and the LegacyNew & Classic Books on Vietnam

Abandoning VietnamHow America Left and South Vietnam Lost Its War

By James WillbanksUniversity of Kansas Press; 377 pages $39.95 (Hardcover)

Did America’s departure from Vietnam producethe peace with honor promised by President Rich-ard Nixon or was that simply an empty wish meantto distract war-weary Americans from a tragic de-feat with shame? While James Willbanks doesn’toffer any easy answers to that question, his bookconvincingly shows why America’s strategy for ex-iting the Vietnam War failed miserably and leftSouth Vietnam to a dismal fate.

Drawing upon both archival research and his ownmilitary experiences in Vietnam, Willbanks focuses on military operationsfrom 1969 through 1975. He contends that Vietnamization was apotentially viable plan that was begun years too late. Nevertheless someprogress was made and the South Vietnamese, with the aid of U.S.advisers and American airpower, held off the North Vietnamese duringtheir massive offensive in 1972. However, the Paris Peace Accords, whichleft NVA troops in the south, and the subsequent loss of U.S. militaryaid negated any gains produced through Vietnamization. These factorscoupled with corruption throughout President Thieu’s government anda glaring lack of senior military leadership within the South Vietnamesearmed forces ultimately led to the demise of South Vietnam.

A mere two years after the last American combat troops had departed,North Vietnamese tanks rolled into Saigon, overwhelming a poorlytrained, disastrously led, and corrupt South Vietnamese military. Butthose two years had provided Nixon with the decent interval he desper-ately needed to proclaim that peace with honor had been achieved.Willbanks digs beneath that illusion to reveal the real story of SouthVietnam’s fall.

Courage in the face of overwhelming odds.

Courage that defined the generation of men whofought in Vietnam.

These marines were special. Surrounded.Outnumbered. Out of ammunition. Neverdefeated and, in the end, victorious.

Lions of Medina is the true, first hand, gritty andgutsy account of Marines fighting for themselves

and their comrades. The book follows the Marines and Navy Corpsmenof Charlie Company, First Marines, First Marine Division in 1967, culmi-nating in the harrowing Operation Medina in October of 1967. Theirstory begins when they entered the Marine Corps and culminates withwhat happened to them when they returned home. The book is aninspiring chronicle of individual acts of heroism and a superb account ofbravery and untiring sacrifice. What Band of Brothers did for the WWIIvet: give them a place of honor as true American heroes to be admired,Lions of Medina does for the Vietnam Veteran.

Lions of MedinaBy Doyle D. GlassColeche Press; 400 pages $24.95 (Hardcover)

During the course of his military career, Bud Daywon every available combat medal, escaped death onno less than seven occasions, and spent 67 monthsas a POW in the infamous Hanoi Hilton, along withJohn McCain. Despite sustained torture, Day wouldnot break. He became a hero to POWs everywhere--aman who fought without pause, not a prisoner ofwar, but a prisoner at war. Upon his return, passedover for promotion to Brigadier General, Day retired.But years later, with his children grown and a lifetimeof service to his country behind him, he would en-

gage in another battle, this one against an opponent he never had ex-pected: his own country. On his side would be the hundreds of thou-sands of veterans who had fought for America only to be betrayed. Andwhat would happen next would make Bud Day an even greater legend.

American PatriotThe Life and Wars of Colonel Bud Day

By Robert CoramLittle, Brown & Company; 402 pages $27.99 (Hardcover)

In his first book, Tonsetic focuses on the battlesat the start of the North Vietnamese andVietcong Tet offensive from late January to May1968, fought by his unit, the U.S. Army’s 4thBattalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, which wasassigned to the 199th Light Infantry Brigade.Tonsetic, who commanded an infantry com-pany, relies heavily on evocative first-person tes-timony from his fellow infantrymen to paint apicture of almost nonstop combat action amonghis and other battalions of the 199th, whichfought primarily around the cities of Bien Hoa,

Long Binh and Saigon. But rather than a memoir, this is an in-the-trenches look at men in combat that tells “the stories of the men whoperformed the deeds of valor through their own eyes and words.” Infact, Tonsetic refers to himself throughout the narrative in the thirdperson. With its acronym-heavy use of military lingo and its focus ontactics and battle action, this book will appeal to those interested in thenuts and bolts of Vietnam War combat and in the period during whichAmericans killed in action reached the highest levels of the long VietnamWar. Publisher’s Weekly

Days of ValorAn Inside Account of the Bloodiest Six Months of

the Vietnam War

By Robert TonseticCasemate; 304 pages $32.95 (Hardcover)

National Vietnam Veterans CommitteeA Division of the American Veterans Center1100 N. Glebe Rd., Suite 900Arlington, VA 22201

The American Veterans Center’s

Tenth Annual ConferenceNovember 8-10, 2007 - Washington, DC

You have read their stories, now meet them in person.This November, some of America’s greatest heroes willonce again gather in Washington for the AmericanVeterans Center’s Tenth Annual Conference. From thegreat battles of World War II and Vietnam to the desertof Operation Iraqi Freedom, and all the years in be-tween, this is your opportunity to spend a weekendwith heroes. A full schedule will be available in the com-ing months. To receive information on the upcomingconference, contact the American Veterans Center at703-302-1012 ext. 220.

Learn history from those who were there.To receive more information on the Tenth Annual Conference, call

703-302-1012 ext. 220 or e-mail conference@americanveteranscenter.org