Vietnam: McNamara's Morons Go to Battle!
The Tet rout led to two results. First, General Westmoreland, impressed by the victory, began demanding an additional 206 troops from Lyndon Johnson—for the final purge of "commies" from South Vietnam. Since American politicians are always on edge on the eve of elections, someone at the meeting leaked this fact to the press, adding that this would require calling up reservists.
Anti-war demonstration in the United States
After the Tet battle footage hyped by journalists, anti-war sentiment had already intensified significantly, and the publication of a possible call-up of reservists... Johnson realized he wouldn't be elected with such PR and announced he was withdrawing from a second term. Secondly, regular VPA units, much better trained, armed, and disciplined, began fighting in the south. And the soldiers didn't commit the kind of horrific reprisals against civilians suspected of collaborating with the Saigon regime or "long noses" that the Viet Cong regularly carried out, limiting themselves to vulgar executions.
Nguyen Van Thieu, President of the Republic of Vietnam
In short, the Tet debacle didn't make the war any easier for the Americans and their allies. On June 20, South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu declared a general mobilization. The morale of the Arwen soldiers was at rock bottom: many believed the Americans had deliberately allowed the Charlies to attack Saigon to force the South Vietnamese to fight. But worst of all, the Americans now began to ask themselves: was it even possible to win this war? The honest answer, as a rule, was not encouraging...
Who asked for a map? I borrowed a real one from the USMC archives...
And the war was going on like in the song: "The pony runs in circles." Battles, even victorious ones, did not result in territorial gains. Divisions whose task was to break the Soviet tank The wedges in Germany were unable to do anything against the Vietnamese troops fighting in the jungle. M48A2 Patton tanks sat uselessly in garages, and soldiers regularly conducted cleanups in the same areas. "There were times when they'd drop us off at a landing zone where we'd been just a couple of weeks before—our old junk was still there! Naturally, the question arose: why not take this war seriously, go all out on them, or get out of here?" asked Sergeant Jim Stevens. However, this doesn't mean that this war didn't have brutal and bloody battles: there was plenty of that stuff—more than enough! For example, the infamous battle for
McNamara and his morons
Before discussing him, it's worth mentioning a category of US military personnel that emerged in Vietnam. These are the infamous "McNamara Morons." Shortly before his dismissal as Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara launched Project 100,000. It was intended to compensate for personnel losses by lowering the physical and mental requirements for recruits. As a result, over the course of five years, approximately 345,000 outright morons (with an IQ of no more than 85!) entered the army, accounting for 13% of the total number of Americans serving in Vietnam. The battle for Dido became their baptism of fire! Although sometimes it seems as if it was precisely from this contingent that the US Army's commanders were recruited.
2nd Battalion, 4th Marines: "The Magnificent Bastards"
By April 30, 1968, the 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, had seen a fair amount of combat, and its condition was far from stellar. It had gotten to the point where the battalion chaplain's wife had become an anti-war activist and filed for divorce. The rest of the battalion was no better—a significant portion of the personnel were those same "McNamara morons." Furthermore, due to constant rotations, officers simply didn't have time to recognize their soldiers by name, instead giving them memorable nicknames. One lance corporal wrote a hysterical letter home, claiming that no one in the battalion would survive. It's hard to say how hysterical this was: in March 1968 alone, the battalion lost 59 men killed and 360 wounded.
I only found a photo of Weiss as a brigadier general, awarding some marine...
The battalion commander, a Korean War veteran, Colonel William Weiss (sometimes spelled "Wild Bill"), was no tactical genius, but he was conscientious in his duties and possessed excellent professional training. He worked hard to establish order within the battalion, teach his subordinates basic combat skills, restore morale after losses, and maintain discipline—no easy feat with such a unique contingent!
Chinh Thi Ngo, aka "Hannah from Hanoi" weapon The DRV, which broke brains no weaker than a nuclear bomb!
As soon as the battalion was transferred to the Kiaviet River, North Vietnamese radio, through its permanent anchor, Hannah, congratulated the Marines from Hanoi on their arrival in full... Well, basically, she explained in simple terms what awaited them there. This lack of control of the situation sent the GI morale plummeting. On the night of April 27, Captain Robert Mastrion's G Company (Golf) received its first mission to search for NVA forces. The captain had recently taken over the company and hadn't yet earned the love or respect of his subordinates, who had dubbed him a moron.
Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment disembark from SR-34 helicopters on the aircraft carrier USS Iwo Jima.
Soon, the eight-man lead squad found itself under fire; survivors later claimed to have stumbled upon a NVA column crossing the trail they were traveling along. Mastrion called for reinforcements, but the battalion commander advised them to rely on themselves: Weiss feared that his subordinates would shoot each other in the darkness. A CH-34 Sea Horse from the aircraft carrier Iwo Jima was called in to evacuate the wounded, but during loading, an RPG hit its window, knocking out the pilot's left eye. The co-pilot managed to raise the helicopter and return to the carrier, but one of the seriously wounded remained on the ground, and Mastrion stayed with him until he died.
When the company returned to base, the GIs claimed they'd survived the worst day in Vietnam, and Captain Mastrion went to the hospital with back pain, leaving the company in the hands of Captain Jay Vargas. In all fairness, the battalion should have been sent to rest, but the 3rd Marine Regiment commander, Colonel Milton Hill, who was leading the operation, had plans for it: he feared the regiment would be cut off from its logistics hub in Dong Ha, so he deployed troops in a line along the Kiaviet River and its tributaries. A thin line, dangerously thin...
Fight at Daido
Meanwhile, the Vietnamese had the 52nd Regiment operating in the river area, with its 6th Battalion dug in on the banks of the Bozieu, a tributary of the same Kiaviet. The battalion was supported by two heavy guns and had dug well into its fortifications, complete with barbed wire, a well-developed fire system, telephone lines between strongpoints, and other amenities. However, the Vietnamese's objective wasn't to engage the Americans, but to fire on the US river flotilla ships operating on the river and its tributaries with a pair of 57mm recoilless rifles. But... life intervened—on the morning of April 30, four companies of "McNamara's morons," commanded by Weiss, unexpectedly descended on the 6th Battalion.
I couldn't find a photo of O'Neill, but that's Carlos Hathcock, a Marine sniper in Vietnam at the time. He scored 93 "gooks"...
At 08:18, sniper Lance Corporal James O'Neill, accompanying Captain James Williams's H Company, reported, "Sir, I think there's a whole bunch of Gooks up ahead." The commander ordered him to pick someone off, which the sniper did. Wace then ordered Williams and his company to attack the village of Dong Hoang from the north, while F Company attacked the village of Dai Do, a couple of kilometers to the west. The regimental command had forbidden the battalion commander from committing large forces, which resulted in the defending and entrenched Vietnamese being outnumbered!
Shallow-draft river monitor
Each of the attacking companies had fewer than a hundred Marines—malaria, discharges, and combat losses had taken their toll. Weiss and the command group boarded a shallow-draft river monitor to monitor the battle from the water, moving parallel to the infantry. Artillery, represented by 105 and 155 mm howitzers, supported the attack with high-explosive and smoke shells.
At 13:30, the lead platoons of Company H approached the village of Dong Hoang and encountered dagger-like fire from well-concealed positions. The battalion commander reported encountering a large enemy force and received reinforcements: a pair of M48 tanks and artillery support from the flotilla's ships. The Marines crawled toward the village, then rose to their full height and, firing from the hip, advanced in a loose line. At that moment, a grenade was thrown at Captain Williams' feet, the explosion knocking him down, peppering his thighs and buttocks with shrapnel. The company commander then handed over command to Lieutenant Alex "Scotty" Prescott and retreated to the rear. The company took the village after a 15-minute battle, after which the remnants of Company H formed a perimeter around the village, where they dragged numerous wounded. It was impossible to evacuate them by helicopter under heavy fire, but the naval command sent small skimmer boats to the village, which took out 30 people.
"A miracle of hostile technology" - the LVTP-5 tracked amphibious armored personnel carrier
The worst thing in combat is when higher-ups show up and start asking the officers leading the fight stupid questions. That's exactly what "Scotty" Prescott encountered: Colonel Hull arrived in the village and began urging the companies to attack the enemy, claiming the battalion wasn't pushing hard enough. Meanwhile, while Company H was already engaged in combat, Company F was just approaching Dido in LVTP-5 amphibious assault vehicles. Suddenly, the vehicles were hit by RPGs, sending the Marines sprawling and taking cover, with one platoon trapped in a small cemetery. The company commander, Captain James Butler, called in Aviation, requesting a napalm strike on the village. One of the canisters landed 40 meters from the Marines' positions, fortunately without harming anyone. However, with only 26 combat-ready Marines left in the company, Butler requested permission from Weiss to withdraw to Dong Hoang and received it. However, it took two hours to revive the demoralized soldiers and, under air and armored personnel carrier cover, lead them back to Company H.
The more you read about the Vietnam War, the more you realize that Platoon is practically a documentary...
Seeing that the 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, was struggling, command decided to ferry Company B of the 1st Marine Battalion across the river. The company wasn't exactly the best—the sergeants were feuding with each other (the movie "Platoon" rocks!), discipline was lax, and a stoned radio operator once threatened to blow everyone up with a grenade. It was a pretty mediocre unit. And when the floating armored personnel carriers carrying the company emerged on the opposite bank of the river, they were immediately fired upon: the company commander, one of the platoon commanders, a sergeant, and seven other Marines.
More shallow-draft river monitors in the studio! Incidentally, the flamethrower version was nicknamed "Zippo"—a nod to trench humor...
It must be said that both sides misjudged the enemy's strength: the Americans thought they were up against an entire regiment, while the Vietnamese also believed they were being attacked by two battalions supported by 12 tanks. However, the Vietnamese's reaction is understandable: they were greatly harassed by American artillery (the shells couldn't take the Vietnamese trenches and dugouts, but they tore through telephone wires like a dog through a hot water bottle!) and the river flotilla, which pounded the shore with 12,7mm Brownings and 81mm mortars (the monitor also mentions a 90mm gun, but usually these were either 40mm cannons or 105mm howitzers).
Marines at the Battle of Dido
As dusk fell, Colonel Wace began calling for reinforcements: "It's pure hell out here. There's a whole bunch of bad guys here, and us, a handful of good guys, can't do anything about them," he reported to the regiment commander. But the commander replied that Wace wasn't the only one in trouble—six miles from Dido, another battalion had lost 144 men in heavy fighting and was locked in combat. The regiment's chief of operations, Major "Fritz" Warren, would later write: "Bill Wace is in a shit sandwich."
Ultimately, the battalion commander only secured permission to commit his own "Golf Company" to the battle. However, getting there wasn't without incident—an attempt to fly Sea Knight helicopters failed, as the vehicles came under such intense fire that they couldn't land. They were forced to walk—three kilometers through jungle-covered mountains. In the darkness, sergeants shouted urging on the stragglers, revealing the Marines' location, which was then subjected to artillery and mortar fire (the VNA had acquired artillery!). Ultimately, Captain Vargas had a hard time keeping his men under control...
Night revealed to Weiss that his subordinates, to put it mildly... The officers were giving false information. For example, Captain Butler reported that he had 26 men left in Foxtrot Company, after which he received permission to withdraw. In reality, there were 55 Marines still in the ranks. And "McNamara's idiots" themselves were simply outrageous: one tried to urinate in the mouth of a dead Vietnamese soldier, and the others were no less vile. In general, the darkness did not bring relief to the Americans: a surrounded group of VNA soldiers tried to break through to their own, Vietnamese electronic warfare operators successfully jammed radio communications (and when Weiss went ashore to request a frequency change, he received a mortar fragment in the thigh), and illumination bombs did not allow the Americans to conduct aimed fire (the Vietnamese were masters of camouflage!), but, on the contrary, illuminated the Marines themselves for enemy snipers.
PBR river boats
Captain Vargas, commander of Golf Company, was knocked into a stream by a nearby artillery shell, sustaining shrapnel in his shin and knee, but remained in the line of battle. He was consoled by the promise that boats would be sent to transport the company to the target (which was only a hundred meters away) by river. However, the boat commanders, upon arriving, found the shelling too intense and turned back. So, at 1:00 AM on May 01, the captain assembled his platoon commanders and conducted a briefing before launching a new attack on Daido.
"Phantom" burns with napalm!
At dawn, Bravo Company of the 1st Battalion, which had made such a poor landing, took the village of Anlak at the cost of five more Marines. True, the Americans' morale was somewhat boosted by the repelled attack and the napalm canisters dropped on the Vietnamese positions by a pair of Phantoms, but... This didn't spur the Marines on: they couldn't budge either that day or the next. However, Golf Company managed to galvanize the attack on Daido...
"But your mother is a teacher, your father is a pianist, but with you it's the other way around, what kind of tank driver are you?"
The Marines, supported by a pair of tanks, advanced across open ground for about 500 meters toward the dug-in Vietnamese, who had received reinforcements from a company of the 48th Regiment (was it for nothing that the commander reported that his three battalions with tanks would attack tomorrow?). The NVA soldiers opened fire when the American line approached to within 200 meters. Lieutenant Ferland's platoon went down, and Captain Vargas rushed to revive them. Meanwhile, Bravo Company, entrenched in the village of Anlak, reported seeing about 100 Gooks on the left flank of the advancing Golf. One of the tanks headed their way, and a Marine from it adjusted fire until an explosion knocked him to the ground, and the tank commander, alarmed, reversed. Vargas shouted into the intercom on the tank's hull that he would court-martial the tanker, but was sent packing: the only thing the tank commander agreed to do was take several wounded onto the tank's armor and take them to the rear.
The second tank had expended its entire ammunition supply and also headed for the rear. The captain began yelling into the radio again, promising the tankers all the punishments of heaven and earth, but received the reply: "I can't help you anymore." "You can, you can!" Vargas cajoled the tank commander, explaining that the steel monster on the battlefield was terrifying to the enemy even when it wasn't firing, but it took a personal order from Weiss to leave the tank on the battlefield.
Relaxing in a ditch...
Meanwhile, the Vietnamese artillery shifted fire to Foxtrot Company, wounding eight men. The Marines lay low in the tall grass, hoping neither the Vietnamese nor their own commanders would be able to find them. However, this didn't mean life was any easier for Golf Company: mortars continued to pound them, slowly chipping away at their personnel and the last vestiges of morale. Finally, one Marine scooped up the headless corpse of a comrade and, using it as cover, ran for the rear. He was the first, but not the last: at 4:25 PM, Vargas's entire company began to retreat under the cover of air strikes. By evening, the captain counted the remaining Marines: of the 150 men in Golf Company, only 45 remained, hiding in a drainage ditch. The Vietnamese counted more than 300 corpses of "long-noses" on the battlefield.
At 17:00 PM, Weiss decided to send Bravo Company to Vargas's aid. How naive! The company's personnel were embroiled in a brutal battle: Marines were storming a truck carrying rations... When they were kicked away from the truck and herded into amtracs, such reinforcements were of little use: as soon as the enemy opened fire, the company went into hiding. When a new company commander was sent to replace the one killed during the landing, he, with his demands to rise and attack, was sent far away and into the forest. However, a grenade soon exploded near the new captain, severing his shoulder. Now the only officer left in the company was a young lieutenant, who immediately began to panic, shouting over the airwaves: "Help us! We're surrounded! They're everywhere! They'll kill us all!" Vargas tried to bring the lieutenant back to his senses over the radio, but to no avail.
That same Vietnamese cemetery
Seeing that help was not forthcoming, Captain Vargas took advantage of the distraction Bravo Company had caused to the Vietnamese and led the remnants of his company to the cemetery. There, they repelled several NVA attacks throughout the night, taking cover behind the burial mounds. The Americans were again saved by artillery and air strikes: without air support and artillery strikes, the company would have been lost, fortunately, they wouldn't have had to carry the bodies far.
True, shortly before Bravo Company became bogged down on the approaches to Dido, Echo Company, which the regimental commander had authorized for use in the battle, arrived to assist Wace. The company was commanded by Captain James Livingstone, an experienced officer who enjoyed organizing runs in flak jackets for his booze- and drug-addicted men. Generally speaking, the captain was disliked, but respected. The company arrived by river, having lost several men during the crossing, at Anlak, where it was tasked with covering Bravo Company's retreat. "Those Bravo guys were screwed!" Livingstone minced no words.
VNA radio operator, the same locations, but filmed in 1970...
On the evening of May 1, the situation could be described as follows: the 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, found itself blocked by a Vietnamese battalion of roughly equal strength. Meanwhile, the regimental commander demanded that Weiss and his company commanders maintain constant attacks, which, given the heavily dug-in Vietnamese fighters, only resulted in losses. However, the Vietnamese commanders were also considering retreat: they had been assigned to Bozieu to shell American ships, not to fight the Marines. But after careful consideration, it was decided that the point of war was to kill Americans, so why abandon a place where it was so effective? Especially since the 3rd Battalion, 48th Regiment, which had not yet seen combat, had come to the aid of the 6th Battalion, 52nd Regiment, which had suffered serious losses. To command the combined forces, a field headquarters was formed from political officers of the 52nd and 48th regiments.
Colonel Milton Hull, judging by his command style, is also "McNamara's moron"...
And what about the Americans? Well, Weiss also gathered his commanders and ordered Livingston to attack Dido at dawn with his Echo Company and the remnants of Golf. The captain was pleased with the order: he already had the Silver and Bronze Stars, and now the Medal of Honor was his goal. So in the morning, he ordered the Marines to fix bayonets and advance with Vargas's company.
At 07:15 AM, Echo Company was 200 meters from the Vietnamese positions when the NVA opened fire. The two leading platoons slowed, but the third, passing between them, stormed into the village. At 09:14 AM, Livingston reported the village had been captured; the Americans had lost 10 killed and 60 wounded in the battle. The company's new positions immediately came under fire from Vietnamese mortars when Colonel Hull arrived in a skimmer. The regimental commander told Weiss that they needed to continue the advance and take the neighboring village of Dinh To. He assured the battalion commander that the Arwen mechanized battalion would assist them on the left flank. Weiss proposed a change to the plan: fresh units would strike from the north, dislodging the enemy from their positions and forcing them to retreat to American-held Dido, where the Marines would shoot them down like partridges. But Hull rejected the plan, insisting that Hotel Company continue the advance.
This photo is from that operation.
Prescott's company was down to 75 men when it launched its attack at 09:55 a.m. on May 2, 1968. It was a hot, windless day, with 500 meters of open ground separating the Marines from enemy positions. As the Americans advanced across the open ground, their main enemies were the heat and dust, but as soon as the company reached the banana grove, it began! According to those involved, fire came from all sides simultaneously, and every M-16 in the company jammed, leaving grenades as the most effective weapon. The Marines took cover behind every uneven surface, but Prescott couldn't call down artillery and mortar fire—the Vietnamese were too close! At 12:00 p.m., he reported to the battalion commander that unless reinforced, the company would flee. The captain himself was wounded: he couldn't move his lower body and lost feeling in his back. As it turned out later, the bullet pierced his canteen, ricocheted off a rivet on his ammunition, pierced a second canteen and caused a huge bruise on his lower back.
The M3 submachine gun, commonly known as the "oiler"
Weiss radioed the "Hotel" company to hold, announcing that he was sending in "Echo" for reinforcements. Livingston's company did indeed arrive: the captain raced ahead, firing his "Oil Can"—an M3 submachine gun. Meanwhile, the regimental commander radioed for them to move forward and "exploit their success!" This was a bit absurd: at 13:40 p.m., the enemy launched a counterattack, Livingston's "Oil Can" jammed, and the M-16s had long since been out of action, leaving only the Colt 1911s. In short, even the medal-winner realized that if they didn't retreat, everyone was screwed, and he ordered an orderly retreat. Covering the retreat, the captain took a bullet in the leg and shrapnel in the thigh. "I was bleeding profusely, and I told them to leave me. But two black guys dragged me along," Livingston later recalled.
It must be said that who wounded the company commander remains unclear: the Marines respected their commander, but were angry at Livingston for leading them so far into the attack. In any case, the captain's wound completely shattered the company's morale, and the Americans retreated: without their ironclad commander, the company was little different from the Bravo Company and other less-than-stellar units.
Throw away your M-16 and pick up a gun!
Weiss explained to Hull that the battalion was exhausted, but the regimental commander was adamant: continue the offensive, forward with all forces, the South Vietnamese would soon arrive from the left flank! The battalion commander's only remaining forces were the remnants of Golf and Foxtrot companies, a total of 54 soldiers. True, the Marines had already abandoned their M-16s and replaced them with reliable captured AK-47s. Wanting to encourage his men, Weiss personally led the attack, which initially proceeded calmly, but suddenly shelling erupted from the left flank, where the Arwen soldiers were supposed to attack. At first, the colonel suspected friendly fire, but it soon became clear that there were no allies on the battlefield, and the VNA was on the battalion's flank.
The shotgun can be used in... different ways.
At 15:05, Weiss led the battalion into the attack again, but Foxtrot Company was pinned down, and Captain Butler reported he couldn't revive them. At 16:45, two VNA companies attacked Golf Company, which fled in panic. "Big John"—a World War II and Korean War veteran, Sergeant John Malnar, a legend of the U.S. Marine Corps—was left to cover the retreat with a pump-action shotgun. He was hit by an RPG—for a legend to die from a bullet would have been shameful! Weiss took another AK-47 bullet and lost consciousness, Captain Vargas was wounded three more times, but remained in command of the retreat. "McNamara's idiots" behaved like idiots: one Marine ran across the field naked, wearing only his boots, while others shouted, "Retreat!" and "They'll kill us all!"
In the attack on Dinh To, the battalion lost 41 men killed. During the night, the Vietnamese withdrew, and another Marine battalion occupied the village without a fight. The Americans claim to have killed 537 enemy soldiers during three days of fighting, with another 268 killed in air strikes. The ships supporting the offensive fired 2383 shells, the artillery fired 5272 shells, and the mortars fired 1147 mines. Aircraft carried out 27 air strikes. The battalion (according to American data!) lost 81 men killed, 297 wounded, and another 100 lightly wounded. Most of the losses occurred on May 2 during attempts to take Dinh To. On April 30, the battalion had 650 fighters; on May 1, it was reinforced by two companies; by the end of the battle, 150 combat-ready Marines and one officer, "Fritz" Warren, remained in the ranks.
IQ - 85? Good enough!
Why is the Battle of Daito worth telling? It's not because the division and regiment command made every possible mistake in planning the operation and conducting the battle. Just try comparing the actions of the rank and file soldiers and their commanders with the cavalry at Ia Drang two and a half years earlier. It's like night and day! The quality of personnel is below the level of a city sewer; officers lie, panic, and refuse to follow orders. And these weren't the infantry, which the Americans never achieved, but the Marines, whose training was always superior, and whose discipline was considered exemplary!
Three years in Vietnam had already disintegrated the army, and the incest victims rounded up in Midwestern towns had no desire to fight, preferring to drink, smoke weed, and inject morphine from personal first-aid kits. And all this against the backdrop of anti-war protests growing stronger with each passing year. The war was already lost, and many in the United States already realized it. There was just one thing they couldn't figure out: how to get out of Vietnam without seriously damaging the superpower's reputation? The search for an answer to this question would take another six years.
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