Podcasts about general westmoreland

Retired Army Colonel Sonny Tucker was leading the 173rd Airborne Brigade at “Hill 65” during the Vietnam War. Colonel Tucker says, “Hill 65” is etched in his memory more vividly than his mother's name, losing 29 of his men that day. Colonel Tucker recalls that morning on the eighth of November 1965, engaging the Viet Cong, General Westmoreland's visit to the MASH Hospital, and standing in the Rose Garden with President Johnson and Vice President Hubert Humphrey for the Congressional Medal of Honor presentation.

Military Assistance Command, Vietnam – Studies and Observations Group (MACV-SOG) was established in January 1964 to conduct unconventional warfare operations.  These included reconnoitering and disrupting North Vietnamese activities in Laos and Cambodia.  Given the sensitive nature of MACV-SOG's work, its missions were classified.  John Plaster served three years with MACV-SOG and tells the unit's story in “SOG: The Secret Wars of America's Commandos in Vietnam.” 

The Demilitarized Zone, or DMZ, was created between North Vietnam and SouthVietnam in 1954. The DMZ was supposed to be a temporary buffer zone thatwould keep previously hostile forces away from each other. When the plannedunification of North Vietnam and South Vietnam stalled out, the DMZ stayed onwith an air of permanence. It was four to six miles wide and ran about 47 milesfrom the coast to the border with Laos. Don't believe the label though. The DMZwas anything but demilitarized. It's here in the DMZ that 3rd Battalion, 26thMarines got into the fight for its life in September 1967. In four days 3/26 lost 56killed and 290 wounded.

In November 1965, roughly 450 men of the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry flew by helicopter into Vietnam's Ia Drang Valley.  They were attacked by 2,000 North Vietnamese soldiers almost immediately.  Three days later, one of their sister battalions was unexpectedly attacked a short distance away. The U.S. lost 237 killed.  These two fights at landing zones X-Ray and Albany came on the front end of America's build up in Vietnam and were a portent of things to come.  The two authors of this book were there.  One, Hal Moore, commanded the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry and the other, Joe Galloway, was a war correspondent.

Transcription:Intro  00:04Welcome to Changing the Rules, a weekly podcast about people who are living their best lives and advice on how you can achieve that too. Join us with your lively host, Ray Lowe, better known as the luckiest guy in the world.Ray Loewe00:20Welcome, everybody. And thanks for joining us here at Changing the Rules. We're lucky enough this morning, we're sitting in our brand new podcast facilities in Willow Street, Pennsylvania, we have our super engineer Luke Cagno sitting here at the board. And he's the person who makes us sound good or not. So, I have to kind of behave when he's around because he can do damage to me. And we have a great guest today. But before we get into our guest, let me remind everybody that the luckiest people in the world, and that's what this podcast is all about, are people who take control of their own lives, redesign them to meet their own specs, and live them under their own terms. And the name of our show, Changing the Rules, is all about the fact that the luckiest people in the world managed to handle rules really well. You know, all our lives we're thrown new rules. Were given them by our parents when we're born. The church comes in and gives us rules. The schools give us rules, our jobs give us rules. And the next thing we know, we have rules all over the place and rules do two things. They tell us what we can't do and what we must do. And Steve Jobs, the Apple guy, the big Apple guy, came up with a statement a while ago and he said, you know, if you're living your life under somebody else's rules, you're not living your life. So we have a young lady today who is certainly changing the rules. She certainly has a fascinating life. And the real interesting kind of summary that I'm going to start with is that she's going to tell you that her life, all of her life was preparing her for a unique opportunity that she didn't know was going to come. But when it came, she had all the pieces together based on her life so that she was able to take advantage of an opportunity. So Liz Williams, welcome to changing the rules. Say hi to everybody.Liz Williams02:21Hi, thanks for having me, Ray.Ray Loewe02:23Okay, so let's start a little bit with your background as you grew up, where and how many family members did you have? Tell us a little bit about your background.Liz Williams02:33I grew up in the Philadelphia suburbs, which was a wonderful place to grow up. I had three sisters, two parents, my father worked nights, my mother worked a lot, and back in those days of the 50s and 60s, mothers didn't work that much. But she did work as a secretary. So I had two working parents, adored all my sisters. I lost my older sister, April, in 2008, which was a devastating blow but I still have two younger sisters. And it was a great place to grow up.Ray Loewe03:05Okay, so you had a relatively happy life growing up. And you went away to college, right? And where'd you go to school?Liz Williams03:11I went to Shippensburg State, which is a state college here in Pennsylvania, loved Shippensburg.Ray Loewe03:16And what did you major in?Liz Williams03:18I majored in urban studies, my father had died. The September I left for college, my father died. So I had to pick a major that I thought would be very, very practical. I picked Urban Studies, which was kind of an up-and-coming thing. City planning, that kind of thing. So that's what I picked and I enjoyed it. It was part geography, part political science. And I loved it, I loved all my college.Ray Loewe03:47Okay, and then you went into the workforce, and basically give us kind of a short version of what kinds of things did you do? What skills did you use in your jobs?Liz Williams03:59The first job where I worked for my County Planning Commission, which was Delaware County, and again, in suburban Philadelphia, I did a lot of actually going to meetings, local meetings, and so forth. And I realized when I was doing that, I love to write. That was the only thing about that job that I really liked. I found after about two and a half years, I was like no, I don't think this is for me. But I did love the writing and I never forgot that. One thing that I did do there that I enjoyed was we, myself, and the librarian there at the planning commission, they actually had a library in there because they had so much materials to store. We came up with a county library plan for the county and it was one of the early library systems. Up until then, local towns just had their own little libraries. But this was a county-wide system where you get a library card at one library and it's good for all of the libraries there. So we did the foundation for that. So that was something I was proud of there. But I would say after about three years, I followed in my older sister's footsteps and I became a flight attendant.Ray Loewe05:18Okay, now we're getting into excitement. Right? Okay, so the early years basically gave you the tools that you needed to write Liz Williams05:28Yes. Ray Loewe05:29And kind of taught you what to do, right? But also didn't give you any excitement in your life?Liz Williams05:36Not much. Ray Loewe05:37All right. So now you're a flight attendant, you're a woman of the world. So who did you fly for? Where did you go? What did you do?Liz Williams05:45I flew for Piedmont Airlines, which was based in Winston Salem, North Carolina. It was a regional airline for the South. It grew to eventually fly overseas. But I only flew for seven years, I'd had enough after seven years, but it was fun. I met great friends. I did get to see some of Europe, some of South America, some of the Caribbean, in my 20s, which was kind of unusual back then. Not that many people got to travel that much at that age, so it did make me meet a woman of the world, actually. And we flew for very little because we had discounts. Sometimes you'd fly for free. Sometimes you got moved to first class for nothing. So that was great. But as I say, after about seven years that kind of got tiresome too.Ray Loewe06:37Okay, so who did you meet on your flights that were interesting stories?Liz Williams06:41Oh, I had John McEnroe, once, who was truly rude. He wouldn't put his tennis racket in the overhead bin like he was supposed to, insisted on it going in the hang-up closet for the garment bags. And you know, I wasn't going to argue with him. I just wasn't going to get into it with him, because maybe he'd report me to the management or something, you know. So I didn't do that. And I had Lynda Bird Johnson, who was pregnant at the time. With her, I think it was her third child, and I never had children. So I never understood why you'd want to have three children. And so I actually said to her, are you pregnant again? It was rather rude, but you know, it just kind of came out. And I also had General Westmoreland on there who was very quiet, he had not done so well in the Vietnam War. And I don't think he was, you know, a very popular person. So he kind of sat to himself, but we all knew he was. But mainly, you know, the bulk of our customers were Southerners. And when I went to flight attendant training, I was from Pennsylvania, so I was the only one from the north and I was the token Yankee. I had never been referred to as a Yankee before and it was a little daunting, but you know, everyone was lovely. They weren't mean to me or anything was just an odd situation to, you know, realize that, oh my, they're different. And I'm different to them. And, you know, they still kind of think like that, but as I say, they were lovely.Ray Loewe08:20Yeah. So anyway, the first part of your life, you had a fairly happy childhood, you know, moving along got a good education and a sequence of jobs that taught you writing. And then you became more of a woman of the world out there. And then something happened. So let me read this for you. You're an author, you've written a book. And this is where we're going here. And the intro to your book over here is as a young man from a gritty Pennsylvania mill town enlists in the Army Air Corps, and heads to Hawaii, the paradise of the Pacific. There he and his buddies defend a O'ahu while it explodes and burns in the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the worst surges, his bombers squadron ships out to primitive Pacific outposts amid air raid, stifling heat, outbreaks of tropical disease. He clings to sanity through letters that he and his wife share. Letters found years later saved in the attic. A poignant event, wasn't it? Liz Williams09:30Yes. Ray Loewe09:31All right. And here's where your life came together in something that is significant, and I know it's truly meaning to you, so tell us the  story and fill in the details. Liz Williams09:46You set me up terrifically here, Ray. After seven years of being a flight attendant, I actually well, it was probably after six years, I started working at a part-time job. Because as a flight attendant, you have a lot of time off, you probably only work three or four days a week. The other days you're off. So I started working part-time at a printing company locally there based in Arlington, Virginia. And I always excelled in English. And I knew that I had loved to write. So I thought, well, I'll do this part-time, it'll be fun. So basically, I was just finding mistakes. But that job led me to look more seriously at my career and find something in writing and editing rather than being a flight attendant. So I did. So I ended up working for well, in Washington, they were known as beltway bandits. They were trade associations or organizations that would have contracts with the federal government. And they would write proposals and so there was some proposal writing I did for a couple organizations, then I went to work for a trade association. Then I ended up working for the federal government, I worked for the General Accounting Office, which is now called the Government Accountability Office, and the Congressional Budget Office. And in those jobs, I basically wrote and edited reports that were read by the public, they were ordered by a congressperson to investigate or study a program that was already in existence. For example, healthcare for the military, or a welfare program, something like that, they wanted to see where taxpayers' dollars being used to the best advantage. So a lot of the people employed by both GAO and CBO, Congressional Budget Office, were auditors, or economists, or technical experts in some way. So they would collect the data to study these programs. And then the writers and editors such as myself would come along and, you know, make it a finished product, make sure it was organized well, make sure the message was right up front, make sure there weren't spelling or grammatical errors. Because those kinds of errors would undermine the report, they really had to be perfect. And I became a tremendous expert in grammar, I know everything about grammar. And I enjoyed that, it was in a way an organizational task, deciding what goes where, and how it should be presented. And I loved it. I loved my work in Washington, I really enjoyed it a lot.Ray Loewe12:42Okay, so how did this get to the letters that we found?Liz Williams12:47Okay, I did diverge a little bit.Ray Loewe12:49Well, that's okay.Liz Williams12:50Okay. Well, in the early 2000s, my mother downsized, and I helped her clean out her house, and she found a big box of letters from my father in World War II. And she said, do you want these? And I said, yeah, I do. Because by then I had become a pretty good writer. And I looked at them, I said, you know, that's going to be a book, I want to write a book and that's what it's going to be. And when I first thought of the project, I thought, well, it'll just be a straight nonfiction book, it'll just be letters. But when I started reading them, they were very substantive. My father was an excellent writer. And my mother was a good writer, too. Now, he had saved her letters that she wrote him and sent them back to her for safekeeping. So I had a very rich collection, I had both sides of the correspondence. And I started reading and I thought, you know, I think this is really a story, it's not just going to be a collection of letters. So the book turned out to be a war story, a love story, and my story of getting to know my father. Because as I mentioned earlier, he died when I was 18, I really didn't get to know him like you would get to know your parent as a young person. And in the course of my research, I discovered that my father was most likely a gay or bisexual man. So I don't share this with most of my readers because it's rather the climax of my book. And I refer to it as a secret most of the times I talk about my book when I give a talk about my book. But for your audience, Ray, I'm gonna go ahead and just say what it is because there are no WWII stories out there that I know of, that have a gay theme. And I have one. And I don't know for a fact the trail was too cold to really track down men who had known my dad as a young man to really confirm this. But the fact is, I asked my mother about it. I asked my older sister about it, who, as I mentioned, passed away. And she's the one that really tipped me off about it. She said, you know, I interviewed her for the book because she knew him better than my other sisters or myself because as I say, he died young. She said, you know, I think looking back, I think Daddy was gay. And as soon as she said that, I was having an epiphany. I literally looked outside through her window at the leaves on the trees and they became well defined. That was the nature of the epiphany because so many things made sense when she said that. How he was so fixated on the fact that I shouldn't be allowed to wear bangs, so fixated on our hair, what we wore. You know, he had four daughters. There's one other book that I know of on the market. It's called Fun Home, that a young lady wrote who she had a father who was gay. Now, she didn't know it as a child that her father was gay. But she became aware of it because actually, he kind of preyed on young boys, which my father didn't do anything like that. So she came from a lot of dysfunction. But her book became a Broadway play and won a bunch of Tony Awards. But it doesn't have anything to do with World War II. This does, there were, according to my research, at least 40,000 men in the military in World War II who were gay, there were probably more. They did conduct tests and screenings to eliminate those kinds of men, so they wouldn't get in the service. But obviously, they didn't succeed in eliminating all of them. And a lot of them served like my father with a lot of dignity and honor and sacrificed a lot for our country. I think that should be recognized.Ray Loewe17:10So here you are, all of your background kind of culminated in this opportunity. And when it occurred, you knew what to do. And the book that you wrote is No Ordinary Soldier: My Father's Two Wars. Right? Liz Williams17:28That's right. Ray Loewe17:29You won an award for your book.Liz Williams17:32I did. In 2018, I submitted it to, I think, three contests. And one of them I placed as a finalist, there was one all-time winner, let's say top winner, and then there were two finalists in the genre, which was military history that I entered. And the award was the 2018 International Book Awards Contest, which is a contest that Publishers Weekly does recommend that authors enter. So it is a reputable contest. And I was just thrilled by the award.Ray Loewe18:02So let's kind of think about this. Well, first of all, you have a book out there, and everybody should buy this book, right? Just because you wrote it, and it's available on Amazon. Liz Williams18:15It has five stars. Ray Loewe18:16And what we'll do is we'll put a listing on our podcast notes when we're done so that people can find this. But I think the thing that's really interesting about you is how your background enabled you to be prepared to do something. And, you know, from knowing you, I think you consider yourself one of the luckiest people in the world because you've taken this career that was diverse pieces. And you're a writer. Liz Williams18:45I am a writer. Ray Loewe18:46And that's what you are going to be from now on. So, cool. So do you have any closing comments before we sum up?Liz Williams18:55I just want to thank you very much for having me, Ray, it's been a pleasure.Ray Loewe18:58Well, we've been talking with Liz Williams. Liz is a person who has written a book, an award-winning book, and it's available on Amazon through Kindle anytime you want to read it. And it's a war story. And it's not fiction. It's true, but it's how do you describe it? Liz Williams19:21It's a creative nonfiction book. It's actually a hybrid. It's a combination history memoir, and what they call creative nonfiction. In other words, it's a true story, but I use creative techniques such as metaphors, similes. It's a good read. It's not boring.Ray Loewe19:38And you're gonna make it into a TV series at some point, right?Liz Williams19:41Ken Burns, if you're listening, I'm available.Ray Loewe19:44Okay, so thanks, Liz for being with us. You're certainly one of the luckiest people in the world and you found your way to doing what you really want to do. And thanks for being here. And Luke sign us off, please. Outro  20:01Thank you for listening to Changing the Rules. Join us next week for more conversation, our special guest, and to hear more from the luckiest guy in the world.

Military actions in South Vietnam during November and December 1965.  The American Army launch a series of search and destroy operations including operation Hump to find and kill the Viet Cong, yet none of them result in a total victory, thee Viet Cong when they wish are able to break off contact.  Growing doubts exist within the American military leadership of General Westmoreland's tactics.

At first American troops in South Vietnam simply protect American bases but General Westmoreland get permission to change their role to include search and destroy operations to go out an fin the enemy and kill them.  One of the first is Operation Starlite carried out by American Marines in the north of  South Vietnam.  

A biography of General Westmoreland the commander of the American military in South Vietnam from 1964 to 1968.  The Viet Cong launch several attacks in the latter part of 1964 but for the first time, regular North Vietnamese Army regiments take to the field in South Vietnam. 

In 1986 General Westmoreland visited the University of Michigan-Dearborn.  He had three events during the day.  One was a meeting with faculty and guests, which I chaired.  Another was a panel discussion and a third was a meeting with the public.  These are my observations and comments, written up just after the day's events.  

We are coming to you live today for a special episode to mark the 50th anniversary of the Winter Soldier hearings.  We have a great line-up of guests to discuss this with us, to include Greg Daddis, Andrew Basevich, Vince Emanuele, and Jovanni Reyes, alongside our usual Fortress crew of myself, Danny, and Keagan.    The Winter Soldier investigation was a three day summit in Detroit, MI, in February 1971, which brought combat veterans who fought in Vietnam to testify to their personal experiences with atrocities they or their comrades committed, both against enemy combatants and civilians. The hearings was preceded by the revelations of the My Lai massacre, which unlike Winter Soldier, received major media attention and forced U.S. officials to defend their policies in Vietnam, causing leaders like General Westmoreland, the senior U.S. commander in Vietnam, to refer to My Lai participants as “a few bad apples”, a comment that many veterans of Vietnam found beyond disingenuous and, alongside other dismissals by those in power, compelled them to speak out.   It was organized by members of Vietnam Veterans Against The War (VVAW), with many of the veterans who participated having never spoken of their experiences publicly prior to their testimony, nor were many of them antiwar activists before the inquiry began.  It was filmed by a documentary crew and then turned into a film, which is available on YouTube, for anyone who wants to watch it. Let me guess.  You're enjoying the show so much, you'd like to leave us a review?!  Click here for Stitcher.  Click here for Apple Podcasts.  Click here for our Facebook page.  Alternatively, you can click here: https://lovethepodcast.com/fortressonahill Email us at fortressonahill@gmail.com Check out our t-shirt store on Spreadshirt.com Not a contributor on Patreon? You're missing out on amazing bonus content! Sign up to be one of our patrons today! - www.patreon.com/fortressonahill A special thanks to our Patreon honorary producers - Will Ahrens, Fahim Shirazee, James O'Barr, Adam Bellows, Eric Phillips, Paul Appell, Julie Dupris, Thomas Benson,  Janet Hanson, Tristan Oliver, Daniel Fleming, Michael Caron, Zach H, Ren Jacob, Howard Reynolds, Why I am Antiwar, Kenneth Cordasco and the Statist Quo Podcast.  You all are the engine that helps us power the podcast.  Thank you so much!!! Not up for something recurring like Patreon, but want to give a couple bucks?!  Visit Paypal.me/fortressonahill to contribute!! Fortress On A Hill is hosted, written, and produced by Chris 'Henri' Henrikson, Danny Sjursen, and Keagan Miller. Intro / outro music "Fortress on a hill" written and performed by Clifton Hicks.  Clifton's Bandcamp page; Clifton's Patreon page Cover and website art designed by Brian K. Wyatt Jr. of B-EZ Graphix Multimedia Marketing Agency in Tallehassee, FL Note: The views expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts alone, expressed in an unofficial capacity, and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Army, Department of Defense, or the U.S. government.

Anthony Fasolo was a career officer in the US Army.  In Vietnam he was placed in charge of reporting American GI's wounded, other injuries and deaths to families.  He worked with the Army to assist Members of Congress, the President and relatives of US soldiers.                                  My Vietnam Story By Anthony Fasolo(Edited December 13, 2020)The SOLDIERS of United States Army Vietnam (USARV) Casualty and Med-Evac Branch worked at Long Binh. FRIARS, LOYALS, CROWNS, PUNCHES, AND ETHERS.  These are the young soldiers who typed up all the casualty reports, proofread the letters of sympathy sent by commanders to next of kin (NOK)and followed up on all army dead and wounded in Vietnam.  We worked 12 hour shifts seven days a week.  We were allowed a short leave period and I went to Bangkok Thailand to be with my wife who had flown there from Germany where she had been staying with our three children.  Other soldiers went to Hawaii, Hong Kong or Australia, all transported at government expense.  My tour in Vietnam started just before Christmas 1969.  Wearing my jungle fatigues, I arrived at Cam Ranh Bay shortly after midnight aboard a World Airways commercial jet.  Even though the Viet Cong had attacked this area the night before, our parked plane was illuminated by huge spotlights.  Fully expecting to run to the waiting busses, I was surprised that we walked.  I did take some comfort from the fact that the military busses which took us to the In-processing Center had heavy metal screened windows. This reassured me that we were in a war zone.   At the In-processing Center, I learned that my orders had been changed and I was being assigned to the Headquarters of the United States Army in Vietnam (USARV).  I was to continue in-processing and in the morning flown to Long Binh. We were then shown a film featuring General Westmoreland, the Commander of the U.S. Forces in Vietnam.  He tried to explain to us why we were in this strange land.  However, as it was 0200 and since we'd been traveling for about 15 hours, I'm not sure if any of the message got through.  However, our long, surreal day/night was still not over. We were taken to a large room containing a long trough like horses drink out of. There were many spigots. A young US soldier instructed us to brush our teeth for five minutes with fluoride toothpaste. He explained that the Army wanted us to keep our teeth decay free, as there were few dentists in Vietnam.  Those wearing the Army's dress green uniform were told to remove the jacket lest they get stained.  I laughed to myself as I imagined the Roman Legions getting the same instructions and told to brush their teeth and being asked to remove their breastplates as they entered a Country.  “Centurion Flavius take off that breast plate since you might stain it with this fluoride treatment!”.  We were finally allowed to go to sleep after receiving more equipment.  In the morning, the serious part started.  I was flown to Long Binh, the Headquarters of the United States Army Vietnam (USARV) to begin my tour at the USARV Casualty and Medevac Branch.  On my second day, I saw Bob Hope and his Christmas Show.   As I viewed the very appreciative service men and women, I had the uneasy feeling that many of them would be casualties.

Hill 65 was one of the fiercest battles of the Vietnam War. Retired Army Colonel Sonny Tucker, was there leading the 173rd Airborne Brigade. Sonny says Hill 65 is etched in his memory more vividly than his mother’s name, losing 29 of his men that day. On today’s show Sonny recalls that morning of the eighth of November 1965, engaging the Viet Cong, General Westmoreland’s visit to the MASH Hospital, and standing in the Rose Garden with President Johnson and Vice President Hubert Humphrey for the Congressional Medal of Honor presentation.

  Understanding The Secret Team The National Security Act of 1947 President Truman abolished the OSS, created the National Intelligence Group A new branch of the service: the Air Force, a single Department of Defense Intelligence ... wasn't coordinated, new ways of gathering intelligence CIA is created to coordinate the intelligence of the rest of the government An atom bomb ... has no real value until it's been delivered We were made a defensive nation by the Department of Defense OSS members, well-trained in covert work, came into CIA OPC (Office of Policy Coordination), was to preserve certain assets The creation of the National Security Council President, Vice-President, Secretaries of State and Defense, no others Directive "10-slant-2" (10/2) recognized ... covert action In 1948, the Allen Dulles, William Jackson, Mathias Correa Report Dulles ... saw that report as, you might say, his own Mein Kampf The single primary character of the CIA is Allen Dulles There is no law that says it is a covert operations agency President Truman wrote, greatest mistake, to create the CIA Shifting NSC oversight from directing to approving plans OCB was the Operations Coordinating Board, a part of NSC OPC was the residual OSS organization, from World War II Dulles was able to circumvent the law, to have clandestine capability NSC found itself, approving reactive covert operations Gulf of Tonkin, North Vietnamese, had been provoked, they did not initiate Deputy Director Plans, just our euphemism for covert operations His brother, Secretary of State, the dominant vote in the NSC Only one, NSC had directed the CIA to involve itself in Tibet The intelligence community, was not homogenous Futile to try to enforce the law, on either Defense or CIA or State There exists a Secret Team that is out of control Covert operations in Customs, Treasury, even in FAA It's not CIA all the time, they say it was the CIA Experienced military intelligence officers, work with the CIA Military officers ... say pilots ... will be assigned to CIA Reserve military, employed as civilians by CIA, called to active duty CIA men, call him Commander Jones, he works for CIA All of a sudden went into this guise of defense General Westmoreland, had no place to go in Vietnam and win the war General Krulak, devised a war plan, to march on Hanoi, and end the war Offense is the core of war, the antithesis of, a Department of Defense They are unable to assimilate, nuclear weapons into war planning We can still go on the offense, we are doing it economically Evolution of warfare, ended with the explosion of the hydrogen bomb CIA could promote, counterinsurgency or covert operations We had to create this Manichaean devil so we created Communism Then you can justify having a navy, air force, and an enormous army I was, "to provide military support of clandestine operations of the CIA" National Security Council Directive #5412 of March 15, 1954 Dulles said, "I want an office that has access to a system in the Pentagon" That agency might not even know that employee was our man Colonel Lansdale, a full colonel in the Air Force, that was his cover story A member of the office of the Secretary of Defense, his home is really CIA We bought hundreds of airplanes for the CIA, technically for the Air Force Millions and millions of dollars, never went through Air Force procurement Units in the Army that were supporting CIA, there were 605 A lot of these people worked right up into the White House Eisenhower, did not want the CIA to create a capability that was on-going The secret of covert operations is the control of money Reimbursement is very important, it keeps bills from appearing in public Reimbursement, can be used, without explaining that it was for salaries Congress,

In this episode we continue our discussion of the Vietnam War. We cover the period from the Geneva Conference in 1954 to the end of Lyndon Johnson's presidency in 1968. We look at the creation of North and South Vietnam under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh and Ngo Dinh Diem respectively. We look at the assistance the Soviets and the Chinese gave to Hanoi and the establishment of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. We distinguish between the ARVN, the NVA and the Viet Cong. What was JFK's policy in Vietnam? How did Lyndon Johnson escalate America's involvement in Vietnam? We look at the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and the campaign of Rolling Thunder that followed. What was General Westmoreland's priorities in Vietnam? We look at how the Tet Offensive changed Americans' views of the war in Vietnam and why Johnson decided not to run for reelection in 1968.Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=Q8KGSAT37YCPA&source=url)

Hill 65 was one of the fiercest battles of the Vietnam War. Retired Army Colonel Sonny Tucker, was there leading the 173rd Airborne Brigade. Sonny says Hill 65 is etched in his memory more vividly than his mother’s name, losing 29 of his men that day. On today’s show Sonny recalls that morning of the eighth of November 1965, engaging the Viet Cong, General Westmoreland’s visit to the MASH Hospital, and standing in the Rose Garden with President Johnson and Vice President Hubert Humphrey for the Congressional Medal of Honor presentation.

  Understanding The Secret Team The National Security Act of 1947 President Truman abolished the OSS, created the National Intelligence Group A new branch of the service: the Air Force, a single Department of Defense Intelligence ... wasn't coordinated, new ways of gathering intelligence CIA is created to coordinate the intelligence of the rest of the government An atom bomb ... has no real value until it's been delivered We were made a defensive nation by the Department of Defense OSS members, well-trained in covert work, came into CIA OPC (Office of Policy Coordination), was to preserve certain assets The creation of the National Security Council President, Vice-President, Secretaries of State and Defense, no others Directive "10-slant-2" (10/2) recognized ... covert action In 1948, the Allen Dulles, William Jackson, Mathias Correa Report Dulles ... saw that report as, you might say, his own Mein Kampf The single primary character of the CIA is Allen Dulles There is no law that says it is a covert operations agency President Truman wrote, greatest mistake, to create the CIA Shifting NSC oversight from directing to approving plans OCB was the Operations Coordinating Board, a part of NSC OPC was the residual OSS organization, from World War II Dulles was able to circumvent the law, to have clandestine capability NSC found itself, approving reactive covert operations Gulf of Tonkin, North Vietnamese, had been provoked, they did not initiate Deputy Director Plans, just our euphemism for covert operations His brother, Secretary of State, the dominant vote in the NSC Only one, NSC had directed the CIA to involve itself in Tibet The intelligence community, was not homogenous Futile to try to enforce the law, on either Defense or CIA or State There exists a Secret Team that is out of control Covert operations in Customs, Treasury, even in FAA It's not CIA all the time, they say it was the CIA Experienced military intelligence officers, work with the CIA Military officers ... say pilots ... will be assigned to CIA Reserve military, employed as civilians by CIA, called to active duty CIA men, call him Commander Jones, he works for CIA All of a sudden went into this guise of defense General Westmoreland, had no place to go in Vietnam and win the war General Krulak, devised a war plan, to march on Hanoi, and end the war Offense is the core of war, the antithesis of, a Department of Defense They are unable to assimilate, nuclear weapons into war planning We can still go on the offense, we are doing it economically Evolution of warfare, ended with the explosion of the hydrogen bomb CIA could promote, counterinsurgency or covert operations We had to create this Manichaean devil so we created Communism Then you can justify having a navy, air force, and an enormous army I was, "to provide military support of clandestine operations of the CIA" National Security Council Directive #5412 of March 15, 1954 Dulles said, "I want an office that has access to a system in the Pentagon" That agency might not even know that employee was our man Colonel Lansdale, a full colonel in the Air Force, that was his cover story A member of the office of the Secretary of Defense, his home is really CIA We bought hundreds of airplanes for the CIA, technically for the Air Force Millions and millions of dollars, never went through Air Force procurement Units in the Army that were supporting CIA, there were 605 A lot of these people worked right up into the White House Eisenhower, did not want the CIA to create a capability that was on-going The secret of covert operations is the control of money Reimbursement is very important, it keeps bills from appearing in public Reimbursement, can be used, without explaining that it was for salaries Congress,

Nell'undicesima puntata del podcast di Italian Jam affrontiamo ancora il racconto sulla Guerra del Vietnam grazie alle parole e la voce di Bruno Bacelli. Bruno Bacelli è un blogger (www.mondifantastici.blogspot.com/) e uno scrittore. Il suo ultimo libro è "L'Uomo che odiava il Tempo" che potete acquistare su Amazon a questo indirizzo: www.amzn.to/2NSE3Sa. Per vedere tutti gli altri libri di Bruno Bacelli cliccate qui: brunobacelli.altervista.org/ Photo Credit: J.F. Fraley Questa fotografia è nel pubblico dominio perché contiene materiale proveniente dal Corpo dei Marine degli Stati Uniti. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Robert_S._McNamara_and_General_Westmoreland_in_Vietnam_1965.png

General Westmoreland, General Grove, distinguished guests, and gentlemen of the Corps!

Southern Sense is conservative talk with Annie "The Radio Chick" Ubelis, as host and "CS" Bennett, co-host. Informative, fun, irreverent and politically incorrect, you never know where we'll go, but you'll love the journey! Visit our website at http://www.Southern-Sense.comSteve Kardian, self-defense expert and longtime veteran of law enforcement. His new book: The New Superpower for Women http://www.stevekardian.com/John Radell, served one tour in Vietnam, built a 15 year career at Dupont, and left Dupont to work with General Westmoreland to help design an Armed Forces Museum concept. John ran the Bob Hope Veterans Golf Classic for four years and retired to write a book, “Lucy’s Tears” about his mom’s battle with Alzheimer’s. John joined FFC in June 2011. http://www.ffcdelaware.com/Dedication: Chief Petty Officer Jason C Finan, Died October 20, 2016 Serving During Operation Inherent Resolve

Southern Sense is conservative talk with Annie "The Radio Chick" Ubelis, as host and "CS" Bennett, co-host.  Informative, fun, irreverent and politically incorrect, you never know where we'll go, but you'll love the journey!  Visit our website at http://www.Southern-Sense.comSteve Kardian, self-defense expert and longtime veteran of law enforcement.  His new book: The New Superpower for Women  http://www.stevekardian.com/John Radell, served one tour in Vietnam, built a 15 year career at Dupont, and left Dupont to work with General Westmoreland to help design an Armed Forces Museum concept. John ran the Bob Hope Veterans Golf Classic for four years and retired to write a book, “Lucy’s Tears” about his mom’s battle with Alzheimer’s. John joined FFC in June 2011.  http://www.ffcdelaware.com/Dedication: Chief Petty Officer Jason C Finan, Died October 20, 2016 Serving During Operation Inherent Resolve

Southern Sense is conservative talk with Annie "The Radio Chick" Ubelis, as host and "CS" Bennett, co-host.  Informative, fun, irreverent and politically incorrect, you never know where we'll go, but you'll love the journey!  Visit our website at http://www.Southern-Sense.com Steve Kardian, self-defense expert and longtime veteran of law enforcement.  His new book: The New Superpower for Women  http://www.stevekardian.com/ John Radell, served one tour in Vietnam, built a 15 year career at Dupont, and left Dupont to work with General Westmoreland to help design an Armed Forces Museum concept. John ran the Bob Hope Veterans Golf Classic for four years and retired to write a book, “Lucy’s Tears” about his mom’s battle with Alzheimer’s. John joined FFC in June 2011.  http://www.ffcdelaware.com/ Dedication: Chief Petty Officer Jason C Finan, Died October 20, 2016 Serving During Operation Inherent Resolve

Southern Sense is conservative talk with Annie "The Radio Chick" Ubelis, as host and "CS" Bennett, co-host. Informative, fun, irreverent and politically incorrect, you never know where we'll go, but you'll love the journey! Visit our website at http://www.Southern-Sense.comSteve Kardian, self-defense expert and longtime veteran of law enforcement. His new book: The New Superpower for Women http://www.stevekardian.com/John Radell, served one tour in Vietnam, built a 15 year career at Dupont, and left Dupont to work with General Westmoreland to help design an Armed Forces Museum concept. John ran the Bob Hope Veterans Golf Classic for four years and retired to write a book, “Lucy’s Tears” about his mom’s battle with Alzheimer’s. John joined FFC in June 2011. http://www.ffcdelaware.com/Dedication: Chief Petty Officer Jason C Finan, Died October 20, 2016 Serving During Operation Inherent Resolve

It's our penultimate college football podcast, which is great because nobody likes football anyway.  This week, Sam and DC3 are joined by none other than national champion and former Gamecock starting pitcher, Blake Cooper.  In this episode: Michigan State has a rabbit's foot stuck someplace indecent.Clemson's is stuck so far up there it might be there forever.We discuss how the Citadel's offense treated us like the Vietcong treated General Westmoreland.DC3 loses his mind and starts speaking in one-liners.Blake plays devil's advocate and explains how we might beat the dream team in orange.We ask Blake about his time at Carolina, what he's dong now (playing for the Cubs' organization in Iowa)Blake plays Name That Game with Sam. We also break down the the week that was, preview the week that will be, and answer all of the questions you throw our way. Hope you enjoy, 

Ben Carson has a little problem, just two days before the 4th GOP 2016 Presidential debate.  He has been caught in his lies about his growing up as poor black kid in Detroit. He says he attacked another kid with a knife when he was young.  That "kid" turned out to be a close relative. In 1968 when Martin Luther King was assassinated he claims he hid a couple of white kids - in the primarily black Detroit high school he attended - inside a biology lab.  Only problem, students interviewed years later claimed they could not remember that as the case.  Carson himself cannot remember the names of the students he claims to have hid. But the kicker comes when Carson recounts his experience - while still in high school - of attending a banquet with General Westmoreland after Carson was named ROTC candidate of the year in Detroit.  Carson claims he was offered a "full scholarship" to attend the Army Academy at West Point.  The only problem is is that West Point has no records of that ever transpiring or that Carson even initiated an "application" process. Carson has also recounted of his so-called violent past with very little evidentiary proof to back up those claims. Fast Forward to his stint at Yale where Carson recounts how his Yale psych professor for his Perceptions 301 class said that the final exam papers had “inadvertently burned,” and that all 150 students would have to retake it. The new exam was much tougher, Carson wrote that everyone walked out but him.  Carson then went on to say that later on he was approached by a photographer from the Yale Daily News and his psych professor who Carson claimed told him the "re-test" was a hoax and was only meant to see who was the most honest student.  Supposedly the professor gave Carson $10.    

Vietnam commander General Westmoreland's libel case against CBS ends in stalemate. The sound quality on this recording is variable/poor. This archive edition of Letter from America was recorded by one of two listeners, who between them taped and labelled over 650 Letter From America programmes from 1973 to 1989. It was restored by the BBC in 2014.