Gerald Ford.
The statement was issued to calm NATO fears that the US might back out of its commitments to Europe, the way it had in Vietnam.
Last edition:
Showing posts with label Vietnam War. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vietnam War. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 28, 2025
Thursday, May 15, 2025
Thursday, May 15, 1975. The Raid on Koh Tang.
A Marine Corps raid on Koh Tang island took back the Mayaguez, which they found deserted, while a Navy air raid destroyed the now Khmer Rouge run Cambodian navy.
Eighteen Marines were killed in combat and an additional 23 in a helicopter crash in the raid. Khmer forces were much larger than anticipated and resistance heavy. The helicopter passengers were not fully accounted for when the withdrawal occurred and it was later determined that three of the Marines (Joseph N. Hargrove, Gary L. Hall, and Danny G. Marshall) a shall) and two Navy medics (Bernard Guase and Ronald Manning) may have been alive when they were left behind on the island.
Sailing under a white flag, a Cambodian vessel brought thirty Americans to the destroyer USS Wilson.
It is really this date, and not the one that was declared several days earlier, that should be regarded as the end of the Vietnam War Era, as this was really the last combat in the US's involvement in the Indochinese War, of which the Vietnam War was part. It interesting came to an end somewhat in the way in which it had started in earnest, with Marines being deployed over a ship, as they would be because of the Gulf of Tonkin incident.
Last edition:
Wednesday, May 14, 1975. Hmong evacuation.
Labels: 1940s, 1947, 1950s, 1956, 1970s, 1973, 1975, 2020s, 2025, Hmong People, House Committee on Un-American Affairs, Immigration, Laos, Laotian Civil War, Movies, Personalities, The written word
Tuesday, May 13, 2025
Tuesday, May 13, 1975. Breakthrough at Long Tieng.
Pathet Lao and North Vietnamese troops broke through the defense lines of the Hmong army headquartered in Long Tieng, Laos, "the most secret place on earth." From that location, the Hmong has opposed the Pathet Lao and NVA.
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Jerry Daniels of the CIA organized an air evacuation of Vang Pao and about 2,000 Hmong, mostly soldiers and their families to Thailand.
Daniels is an interesting character who stayed on in Thailand after the conclusion of the Indochinese wars. He was claimed to to have died in 1982 due to asphyxiation from a water heater gas leak, but his casket was sealed with instructions not to open it. After his funeral in Montana, which was widely attended by Hmong refugees, various members of the Hmong community have claimed to have seen him in Indochina or the US.
Last edition:
Monday, May 12, 1975. The Mayaguez taken.
Sunday, May 11, 2025
Sunday, May 11, 1975. Celebrating a peace that wasn't.
A photograph of doves and an Asian woman for the celebration. In reality, the PAVN and Cambodians were already fighting. The Khmer Rouge was murdering people and sending the entire population into the countryside, and the Pathet Lao were getting ready to murder the Hmong.
A celebration organized by anti war figure and songwriter Phil Ochs marked the end of the Vietnam War, which of course by necessary implication marked the South Vietnamese defeat. The event in Central park included performances by Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, and Paul Simon.
The ironies are thick, as the poster above portrays. Rather than smiling Vietnamese women, there were thousands of South Vietnamese going into an uncertain future that included "reeducation", although this time the Communists in Vietnam did not commit mass murders. The Khmer Rouge and Pathet Lao, however, were about to.
A partial solar eclipse was visible in Greenland, Europe, north Africa and north Asia.
Last edition:
Saturday, May 10, 1975. Cambodian aggression.
Saturday, May 10, 2025
Saturday, May 10, 1975. Cambodian aggression.
The Khmer Rouge captured the Thổ Chu Islands, where they evacuated and later executed 500 Vietnamese civilians.
The PAVN (NVA) launched a counterattack from Phú Quốc and Thổ Chu and attacked Cambodia's Poulo Wai island.
Peace certainly had not come to the region.
The Federal Government announced it would not cover $1.5B in New York expenditures which had been asked for by the city. I can recall this really being a topic of conversation.
Sony introduced the Betamax home videotaping system. It costs $2,488 in 1975 dollars, which would be well over $10,000 now.
Last edition:
Friday, May 9, 1975. The Hmong Genocide.
Labels: 1970s, 1975, Communism, Hmong Genocide, Hmong People, Insurgency in Laos, Laos, Laotian Civil War, Pathet Lao
Thursday, May 8, 2025
Wednesday, May 7, 2025
Wednesday, May 7, 1975. End of the Vietnam War Era.
The US government declared the Vietnam War era at an end for purposes of veterans benefits.
9,087,000 military personnel served on active duty during the official Vietnam Era, but of course not all of them went to Vietnam. 3.4 million U.S. servicemen were deployed to Southeast Asia. Approximately 2.7 million served in the Republic of Vietnam. Most US servicemen in Vietnam were not combat troops, although because of the nature of the war, any of them could be exposed to combat.
There has never been a U.S. President who served in Vietnam, although one Vice President, Al Gore, did. George W. Bush was in the Texas Air National Guard as a fighter pilot during the war. Bill Clinton had a student deferment. Joe Biden had a deferment for asthma. Trump had one for shin splints.
None of my immediate family (parents, aunts, uncles, cousins) served in Vietnam or would qualify as a Vietnam Era veteran, even though a lot of them had been in the service. The husband of one of my cousins had served in Vietnam as an officer in the Navy, and a Canadian cousin of my mother's who was living in Florida was drafted and served in Vietnam, so there is some family connection. In the neighborhood, the son of the man who lived across the street was a paratrooper in the war.
In junior high, one of the more colorful social studies teachers had been in the Marine Recon, a unit much like the Rangers, during the war, and occasionally wore a green beret, which was never officially adopted by the Marines, to school. In high school, a legendary swimming teacher from the South Pacific had been a Navy SEAL and bore the scars of having been shot in the war and also from having been straffed as a child by a Japanese airplane. The ROTC teacher also had been, but I didn't take ROTC.
In university, a geology professor who also held a job with the State of Wyoming had served in Vietnam, and according to those who knew him well, suffered pretty markedly from PTSD. I never noticed that myself, and he was a good professor.
When I joined the National Guard right after high school I found it packed with Vietnam Veterans. One of my good friends in the Guard was the mechanics section chief but had the Combat Infantryman's Badge awarded for two tours in the country. Another friend of mine also had the CIB from the 1st Cavalry Division, with his uniquely being stitched in dark blue for the subdued patch. A fellow I was friendly with had been a Ranger in Vietnam and when he first joined and was still relying on service period uniforms he'd wear a black beret, another unofficial item. A good friend of mine who was his brother in law was in the Wyoming Air National Guard and had flown medical missions to the country, a deployment you rarely hear about. One of our members had been a Navy pilot. What with the CIBs, combat patches, pilot's wings, etc., we must have been an odd looking bunch to the young soldiers in the Regular Army.
There were a lot of them.
Cartoonist George Baker, the creator of the World War Two era Sad Sack cartoon, died at age 59.
Last edition:
Tuesday, May 6, 1975. Authoritarian victims.
Labels: 1970s, 1975, Cambodia, Catholic, Communism, Domino Theory, Fascism, Gerald Ford, Hungary, Malaysia, Operation Babylift, South Vietnam, Thailand, Vietnam, Vietnam War
Tuesday, May 6, 2025
Tuesday, May 6, 1975. Authoritarian victims.
Malaysian Foreign Minister Tan Sri Mohammad Ghazali Shafie delivered a scathing critique of the Domino Theory evcen as it was proving itself correct.
A convoy of French nationals and Khmer Muslims, who had sought refuge at the French Embassy in Phnom Penh, crossed the border into Thailand.
Operation Babylift concluded.
Hungarian Cardinal József Mindszenty, an unyielding opponent of fascism and communism, died in exile.
Last edition:
Monday, May 5, 2025
Monday, May 5, 1975. Dominos. And now Laos.
The Social Security Administration announced for the very first time that it's retirement and disability program was in debt; and that its $46 billion reserve would be drained by 1983. Notably, President Nixon had extended Medicare, which originally did not apply to everyone, to everyone 62 years of age or older during his Administration.
Television broadcasting began in South Africa.
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Royal Lao General Vang Pao, a Hmong highlander, was ordered by the Prime Minister of Laos to cease resistance to the Pathet Lao.
He resigned instead.
It's almost like the Domino Theory was correct.
Before serving in in the Royal Lao Army, he has served with the French starting during World War Two. He immigrated to the United States where he died in 2011.
101 former RVNAF aircraft at U-Tapao Royal Thai Navy Airfield were loaded aboard the USS Midway which evacuated 27 A-37s, 3 CH-47s, 25 F-5Es and 45 UH-1Hs.
A further 41 aircraft were flown to the U.S. 54 aircraft were transferred to the Thai Government, these comprised: 1 A-37, 17 C-47s, 1 F-5B, 12 O-1s, 14 U-17s and 9 UH-1Hs.
Last edition:
Sunday, May 4, 1975. 1,000,000 runs.
Labels: 1970s, 1975, baseball, Cambodia, Cambodian–Vietnamese War, Khemr Rouge, South Vietnam, Sports, Vietnam
Saturday, May 5, 1945. Balloon casualties.
The Prague Uprising and the Battle of Czechoslovak Radio began. The Axis raised Russian Liberation Army switched sides and supported the Czech partisans.
The Bratislava–Brno Offensive ended in Soviet-Romanian victory.
The Battle for Castle Itter in Austria resulted in an Allied victory.
A Japanese balloon bomb killed the pregnant wife of Reverend Archie Mitchell, Elsie, age 26, and five children of their Sunday School class on Gearhart Mountain near Bly, Oregon, where they had gone for an outing.
The bomb had likely been in place for a month before it was discovered by the party.
Rev. Mitchell moved to Vietnam in 1947 with his new bride Betty, the older sister of two of the children killed by the fire balloon in Bly, where they served as missionaries. They were kidnapped by the Viet Cong in 1962 and forced to serve as medics, and ultimately disappeared.
The cartoon character Yosemite Sam appeared for the first time in the Bugs Bunny animated short Hare Trigger.
Otto-Heinrich Drechsler, age 50, German Nazi Commissioner of Latvia committed suicide in British captivity.
Last edition:
Friday, May 2, 2025
Friday, May 2, 1975. Hold outs.
Flag of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam.
The ARVN surrendered in the Battle of Long Xuyên, An Giang, the last South Vietnamese soldiers to do so.
Heavily criticized throughout the American period of involvement in the war, the ARVN had been engaged in fighting prior to largescale US involvement and while its conscript troops often did lack motivation, it's best units were good. The final fighting in 1972 demonstrated both qualities, with the ARVN coming apart in the northernmost section of South Vietnam, but putting up a stout fight outside of and in Saigon. Frankly, the American Army had enormously declined in quality during the war and by the time the US withdrew in 1972 it was largely an ineffective fighting force.
Henry Kissinger wrote a memo:
25 year old Smokey the Bear, a black bear at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., was retired from service as a living symbol of fire prevention.
Last edition:
Thứ Năm, ngày 1 tháng 5 năm 1975. Chiến tranh Việt Nam kết thúc.* Thursday, May 1, 1975. The conclusion of the Vietnam War. Jeudi 1er mai 1975. Fin de la guerre du Vietnam.
Labels: 1950s, 1955, 1970s, 1975, Army of the Republic of Vietnam, baseball, Cambodian–Vietnamese War, Growing up in the 1970s, Khemr Rouge, North Vietnamese Army, South Vietnam, Sports, Viet Cong, Vietnam, Vietnam War
Thursday, May 1, 2025
Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist 83d Edition. The law and refusal to depart, departing in the worst way, echoes of service.
The old lawyers.
I was on a phone hearing recently and one of the lawyers, whom I used to run into a fair amount but have not for years, sounded really rough. In a subsequent phone call he sounded the same way, and I looked up his firm photo and realized he is now 76 years old.
76.
What the crap?
In his photo, he looked haggard and ancient.
I was at something else not too long ago and saw another lawyer I used to run into a fair amount, who always had a youthful appearance even though I knew he was at least decade. I was shocked by his appearance.
He's now 83. He might just be practicing part time, I'd note.
I spoke to a lawyer friend of mine who is now up over 70, I think. He doesn't appear worn or drawn down, but he told me that he's afraid of retiring as he enjoys the social interaction of the lawyers. We discussed another lawyer who is a friend of his whom I figure is now in his mid 70s.
There's something deeply wrong with all of this.
This reflects, I'll note, in our society at large, of course. Our last qualified President, Joe Biden was in his 80s, and clearly suffering from mental decline, when he left office in defeat. A recent book regarding the 2024 election reports, in hte opinion of hte authors, that Biden believes he's smarkter than everyone else which formed the basis of his disaterous decision. Our current chief executive is also, in my view, suffering from dementia at an increasing rate that can't be ignored, but which is largely being ignored, even as he destroys the economy, foreign relations, and American democracy. He also seems to suffer from "only I can do it" delusion, and on at least one occasion in the 2024 campaign said as much.
Biden was a lawyer, eons ago. Trump is a real estate developer, so that's a bit off point. But there's something really pathetic about lawyers who practice past their 60s. I'm in my early 60s, I'd note. They've lost something of their soul, if not their souls in general, and have nothing left but their work.*
There's also something societally wrong with a society that allows this to occur. I'll avoid the political discussion, but mental decline is inevitable in almost everyone who lives past their 50s. People don't want to believe it, but it's absolutely true.
And beyond that, society should not encourage the elderly to occupy positions such as this past their mid 60s. It takes up space that should be filled by younger people. By that point a peson should be ready to retire, and if they're not, they're never going to be ready, economically. Talent wise, they should apply their talents and time to something else.
Read a book, train a dog, go fishing. Discovery the person you were when you started out, and the one you apparently lost.
Mehr Mensch sein.
Service.
Vietnam service ribbon.
This will be an odd one, and it'll sound difficult not to make it should like I'm being unduly critical.
We've been running a lot of posts recently about the collapse of South Vietnam in 1975. Nearly daily, as we're in the cycle in which things were becoming a disaster for the Republic of Vietnam, and a war which we entered in the early 1960s, and left in 1973, was about to be lost by the country we supported.
I note this as it's struck me for a long time how many professionals I know, including lawyers, who are of the Vietnam War generation and have no military service.
Not all, I'll note. One former Federal District Court judge here was an artillery observer in Vietnam, and a lawyer in our capital city was an artilleryman. Two state district court judges I know served in Vietnam. And a few other lawyers I know did.
But by and large, most didn't.
It's interesting in a number of ways, one being that it's likely their father's all had served in World War Two.
Now, the Second World War was a huge war, to be sure. But as a member of Generation Jones, when I was growing up, it was the case that if our fathers hadn't served in World War Two, they had in the Korean War, or on either side of it. Growing up, this was so routine you simply assumed it. I recall always being surprised if a kid I knew had a father who had never served in the Armed Forces, and this included professionals. All the doctors and dentists that my father was friends with had served in World War Two or in the Armed Forces after that. I didn't know but one lawyer then, but he'd served in the Post War Army and later on the older lawyers I knew who were of World War Two vintage had served, often quite heroically, in the war.
Baby Boom generation male lawyers? Not so much.
I don't think that's a good thing, frankly. War is awful but most American servicemen who served in the 60s nad early 70s didn't see a day of fighting. The Service is full of men who aren't like you, who didn't grow up like you, and don't have any of your per service shared experiences. That's valuable.
Lots of those guys would have been better men had they served.** Donald Trump would have been.
And American society would be. We really started dividing the country back into the haves, and have nots, but allowing so many who could afford an education to avoid serving. It helped split hte country into the mess it is now.***
"Biased, Misguided WY Judges and Lawyers."
So claimed Wyoming's Congressional delegation about a letter signed by over 100 Wyoming lawyers.
I'm not a signatory to it as, frankly, I was too busy to notice its circulation when it was going around. The letter is 100% correct, however. I know a lot of the lawyers who did sign it, and more of a few of them are actual conservatives, and a few of them were once very significant figures in the Wyoming Republican Party, including those who were elected to office.
Moreover, at least two of the three of the Congressional delegation itself are not anywhere near as populist as they now assert they are. All three of these figures would have supported this letter under different circumstances, and two out of the three undoubtedly still hold the view that the lawyers are right, but are taking their positions as they do not wish to anger Trump supporters. If the wind turns, they'll turn with it so rapidly that it will toss MAGA right off the decks.
All of which is profoundly sad. That people hold one view and then express another one publicly is no doubt common, but it's not admirable, and is far from admirable in a situation like this. It’s one of the things that’s really wrong with American politics today.
It is interesting t have even with the taking of extreme positions like this, at least one refused to publicly adopt the extreme Executive Power doctrine that’s being exercised now, while at the same time, not disavowing it. John Barrasso, when asked if the President really had the power to levy tariffs the way he is (he doesn’t) just twice said that Congress had delegated a lot of power to the President. It has. It’s not a good thing, and he wouldn’t say that it is.
It does make sitting back and letting things happen easier. The entire country is going to suffer massively due to Trump, and Wyoming is going to take a bruising. It’d be far better to stand up and say so now, and take the lumps if they come, then to excuse your conduct later.
Footnotes
*Coincidentally, I saw this in our local newspaper in an advice column.
Dear Eric: I was an attorney when I started having memory problems at age 65. I retired and subsequently learned that I had a devastating rare dementia with a very short lifespan. Instead of providing me support, my friends disappeared from my life, at the time I needed them most. Friends may rally around you when you have cancer, driving you to chemo treatments, dropping off food and other things to support you; when you have dementia, everyone just disappears.
I’ve always been a sociable person and I’m missing that so much, but I have no idea how or where to start. Any ideas?
Students navigate campus atmosphere, social changes to find connection
– Left By Friends
Dear Friends: People sometimes don’t know what to do or say when confronted with illness, but that’s no excuse for your friends’ behavior and I’m sorry. The Alzheimer’s Association (alz.org) has a wealth of resources for people with dementia, including support groups, both online and in-person. Being able to talk with others about what you’re experiencing and feeling will help with isolation.
This also might be a time for you to explore new volunteer opportunities or social groups that have nothing to do with dementia, depending on your care plan and abilities. You are a person who is worthy of connection, with a wealth of experiences and knowledge from which others can benefit. Your company would be welcomed at a senior center, a local outing group or an organization that aligns with your interests and values. If you have anxiety about navigating these spaces with dementia, or need accommodation in order to feel safe, please don’t hesitate to reach out in advance and talk to a group leader about how you can participate most comfortably.
Eric is surprised that his fellow lawyers quit associating with him.
He likely ought not to be.
I don't think it's that people don't know what to say or do. I think that people fail to appreciate that workplace social contacts are, to a very high degree, extremely casual or even business contacts, and that once the professional is not employed, at least in teh law, the value of that person to others in the law is gone.
In other words, this doesn't surprise me a bit.
**I'd note that I feel the same way about men who weren't in the service, but who worked a blue collar or agricultural job. Those employments are levelling in a way, and I've noticed that men of the same generation who were never in the Armed Forces, but worked as roughnecks or came from ranches and farms, are much more accepting generally of other people.
***And, ironically, it also started the country off on the hyper glorification of those who have been in the service.
Last edition:
Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist 82nd Edition. The This Is Your Economy On Dementia Edition.
Thứ Năm, ngày 1 tháng 5 năm 1975. Chiến tranh Việt Nam kết thúc.* Thursday, May 1, 1975. The conclusion of the Vietnam War. Jeudi 1er mai 1975. Fin de la guerre du Vietnam.
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ARVN troops in Cần Thơ surrendered to the VC following the suicide of Gen. Nguyễn Khoa Nam, age 48, Major General of IV Corps in Cần Thơ. This effectively brought organized resistance to the VC and NVA almost to an end after twenty years of combat. The country remains, of course, under the regime that won the war.
Quân VNCH ở Cần Thơ đầu hàng VC sau cái chết của Tướng Nguyễn Khoa Nam, 48 tuổi, Thiếu tướng Quân đoàn IV ở Cần Thơ. Điều này đã khiến cho sự kháng cự có tổ chức chống lại VC và Bắc Việt gần như chấm dứt một cách hiệu quả sau hai mươi năm chiến đấu. Tất nhiên, đất nước vẫn nằm dưới chế độ đã thắng trong chiến tranh.
Les troupes de l'ARVN à Cần Thơ se sont rendues au VC suite au suicide du général Nguyễn Khoa Nam, 48 ans, major général du IVe Corps à Cần Thơ. Cela a effectivement mis fin à la résistance organisée au VC et à la NVA après vingt ans de combat. Le pays reste bien entendu sous le régime qui a gagné la guerre.
By this point, I'd quit tracking the war on my National Geographic map of Vietnam. There came to be no point.
Khmer Rouge forces landed on Phú Quốc which was claimed by Cambodia but controlled by South Vietnam. It was also the location of a large South Vietnamese POW camp.
Hank Aaron broke the career record for RBIs.
Thursday, May 1, 2025
The New York Stock Exchange dropped the requirement of a fixed commission for stock transactions following pressure to do so from the SEC.
Footnotes:
*Google Translate text. I don't speak Vietnamese.
Last edition:
Wednesday, April 30, 1975. The Fall of Saigon.
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