Goodnight Saigon

by Charles Henderson

  “Damned near out of fuel, boys,” a gray-haired crew chief shouted at the pair as the wind whipped through the open side doors. “We’ll drop off at Cam Ranh for gas, then chop on to Saigon. Good to have you aboard.”

  Mike McCormick fell into the gray nylon stretcher-style seat at the back bulkhead. His sweat had soaked through the outside cover of top and bottom service and pay record folders. He tried to wipe away the stain, but then quit.

  NVA FIELD HEADQUARTERS NEAR BAN ME THUOT

  “ANOTHER CIGARETTE I see,” Tran Van Tra said, smiling at the North Vietnamese Army’s chief of staff, General Van Tien Dung.

  “Tran, my friend,” Dung said, “join me, and have a cup of tea and some of this delicious breakfast fruit.”

  An aide pulled a chair from the small table and offered it to the Viet Cong leader to sit.

  “You see the map?” Dung said. “This is why I have indulged myself with another cigarette this morning. Hanoi has authorized us to proceed now directly to Saigon.”

  “What of Nha Trang,” General Tran said. “The 10th, 316th, and 320th divisions can enter the city at any minute.”

  “No,” Dung said, “I have sent orders for them to turn southward and proceed toward Saigon. The rats have abandoned the ship, and thus we no longer have any reason to pursue the city. It is ours if we want it, but the prize is Saigon. Nha Trang is now meaningless.

  “The Tenth Division will divert forces to clear out what remains around Cam Ranh, but the 316th and 320th must maneuver their units straight away to Saigon.”

  “It will be good to go home again,” Tran Van Tra said, sipping the tea that the aide had placed before him.

  “General Le Trong Tan will also redeploy to the Saigon tactical area with the bulk of his forces, but leave behind a sufficient garrison in Da Nang to continue establishing public order,” Dung said. “I have directed him to be in position east of Xuan Loc by April 11. He will direct that battle, which I regard as the key to our whole success in finally liberating Saigon. Whoever controls the crossroads at Xuan Loc virtually controls access to Saigon. That is why I have placed this most important battle in the hands of Le Trong Tan.

  “Meanwhile we will redeploy the majority of our forces from here to surround Saigon, along with four newly activated reserve divisions leaving Hanoi today. Let me show you how I have formed our plan on the map.”

  The two men walked to a blowup of the Saigon region that showed a layout of a fifty-mile radius surrounding South Vietnam’s capital. One clear plastic overlay identified all the ARVN defense positions and headquarters locations by unit designations and strengths, and the second overlay plotted the North Vietnamese Army’s and their Viet Cong reinforcements’ lines of attack.

  “Here you see the enemy’s forces and positions,” Dung said, flipping down the first overlay, “at least what measure of an army that they have remaining in existence. Minuscule now compared to the twenty-one full divisions that we shall press upon them. Our best estimates say that Nguyen Van Thieu has no more than ninty thousand soldiers, including his own personal legions, to defend Saigon. Against those forces, we will deploy more than three hundred thousand highly motivated warriors from the field and have nearly a hundred thousand more coming from Hanoi.”

  “As Sun Tsu Woo wrote more than two thousand years ago,” Tran said, agreeing with his colleague’s ideal, “win your battles with decisive force! To do less wastes much.”

  Dung smiled as he dropped down the second overlay, showing the NVA forces’ planned positions and projected axes of approach.

  “We will surround Saigon from no less than five extensive battlefronts,” the senior general said, pointing on the map to the dashed lines arching across five sectors that ringed the city. “Our forces will attack along six primary axes and four secondary axes, moving from six different sectors.”

  Touching the overlay with a black ballpoint pen, General Dung pointed to a sector south of Saigon.

  “You see the Eighth Division here, now deploying to coordinating positions on the Mekong River?” Dung said, tapping the pen on the map. “They have little resistance and will attack mainly to block any retreats on the river or to the sea. The Eighth Division will attack on an axis from the southwest along a parallel line to QL-4 and cover the right flank of the southwestern Long An front. One division can easily cover that responsibility.”

  “This left flank of the Long An front,” General Tran Van Tra said, pointing to the sector southwest of Saigon, “presents more resistance than the forces shown on this overlay. I can tell you from my many bitter experiences there.”

  “I agree. You learned many valuable lessons from the attack that you planned and led on Saigon in 1968, and we now will profit from those experiences,” Dung said. “Accordingly, I have put four full divisions and a reserve regiment there, under command of the 232nd Tactical Force to cover that left flank. That includes the Third, Fifth, Ninth, and Sixteenth divisions, and the 271B Regiment. They will attack on this axis toward Saigon, proceeding from the southwest out of their coordinating positions on the Mekong and moving on a line parallel to QL-4 on its north side.

  “Here I have the Second Army Corps, comprised of the 304th, 324B, and 325th divisions, and the Third Gold Star Division. They will close on Saigon from the southeast along two attack axes. Their primary assault will follow an axis that follows Highway QL-15 to Long Thanh, parallel to the southeastern QL-15 front, and then once on the outskirts of Saigon, feint southwestward to the lower deepwater reaches of the Dong Nai River, crossing it at this bridge, seven kilometers east of Nhon Trach. From there they will enter Saigon from the point of the far left flank of our eastern Bien Hoa front. The Second NVA Corps will also execute this second attack axis that neutralizes Dat Do City and then proceeds southwest along QL-15 and blocks access to the seaport south of Phuoc Le. This second axis will cover the left flank of the southeastern QL-15 front.

  “Up here,” Dung said pointing to the sector east of Saigon, “our Fourth NVA Corps will attack the eastern Bien Hoa front on two axes, one north and one south of Highway 1. This is our key offensive. Controlling those crossroads is vital.

  “Here at Xuan Loc, we have our wonderfully flamboyant Brigadier General Le Minh Dao and his Eighteenth ARVN Division standing the sentinel. He has one regiment forward and two in reserve. Behind him, at Bien Hoa, our fat friend General Nguyen Van Toan sits with a regiment in garrison. Just south of him we have the remains of their Marine commando 468th Brigade, no more than one regiment in strength. Next to them the ARVN have their Third Tank Brigade and the two reserve regiments of the Eighteenth Division. We have the 314th, 6th, and 7th divisions and some reinforcements from the Second Corps supporting our attacks on Saigon from the east.

  “You see, the enemy has anticipated that our primary attacks will come from the north,” Dung said, with a smile.

  “Of course we will not disappoint them,” Tran Van Tra said, smiling too.

  “Of course not,” the senior general said. “We will give them all that they can handle with our secondary attacks.

  “I have divided the 320th Division among the First and Third corps, here in the north at Binh Dong and then here at the west by Cu Chi.

  “First from the north, the First Corps will attack Saigon on a secondary axis that covers the left flank of the northern Binh Duong front, using detached regiments from the 320th Division. They will augment the 312th and 338th on their assault along the Dong Nai River, taking out the Fifth ARVN Division’s right flank. Their intermediate objectives include the hamlets of Ben San and Co Mi and the junction where QL-13 meets Highway 1 at the Saigon River bridge, thus entering the city at that point.

  “The Third Corps will cover both the right flank of the Binh Duong front, assaulting the left flank of the Fifth ARVN Division and the entire western Cu Chi front, dealing with not only the Twenty-fifth ARVN Division and their heavy artillery, but the Eighth and Ninth ARVN Rangers too. For this reason, I have provided the Third Corp
s with the majority of the 320th Division, as well as the 316th, 70th, and 968th divisions.

  “Again, these are all secondary fronts, meant more to distract, waste, and block the enemy, while our primary attacks converge from the south and the east.”

  “A very comprehensive plan, General Dung,” Tran Van Tra said as the two men returned to the small table and poured more tea.

  “Now, my friend,” Dung said, taking a slice of orange and sucking the pulp into his mouth, speaking as he chewed, “I hope that you have not grown too comfortable at your headquarters here.”

  “Comfort does not describe my accommodations, as you well know, my friend,” Tran said with a smile.

  “Good,” Dung said. “You will immediately relocate your headquarters to the eastern sector of the Saigon tactical area. Tomorrow, I will move the supreme command headquarters from here to Loc Ninh, only 110 kilometers north of Saigon and just forty-five kilometers from Song Be Airfield. Very convenient.”

  “Loc Ninh as command headquarters will sit well with Chairman Pham Hung,” Tran Van Tra said. “Does he not reside near Loc Ninh?

  “Indeed,” General Dung said, “I am due to pay him my respects upon arrival tomorrow, and you must as well too.”

  Pham Hung had quietly overseen all Communist operations in South Vietnam and stood not only as General Tran Van Tra’s superior, but lofted politically above General Van Tien Dung as well. The squat, simple man lived in a humble home in a rural setting, yet carried the clout of the fourth highest ranking member of the politburo in Hanoi.

  The regime in Hanoi had kept Pham Hung out of the public eye and applauded his humble existence. In this way he freely operated in South Vietnam, literally serving as the politburo’s hands, eyes, and ears there, ultimately controlling and approving all major Communist force activities throughout the country.

  Pham put on no pretenses, living in a bamboo hut with a thatched roof overlooking a checkerboard of rice paddies. A simple rice farmer nearing sixty years of age, gray haired, squat, and burly, appearing much as a peasant, the unassuming old man stood as one of the most powerful men in all of North or South Vietnam. His influence both here and in Hanoi literally controlled millions of lives.

  UNITED STATES NAVY SEVENTH FLEET HEADQUARTERS

  VICE ADMIRAL GEORGE P. Steele, commander of the United States Navy’s Seventh Fleet, had to man his battle station and go to general quarters against a stone wall of hand-wringing bureaucrats in Washington, DC, who fretted by the minute about President Ford tromping on the edges of the War Powers Act. Steele needed some fast authorization to put Marines on the merchant ships, and the gray serge suits on the Potomac kept stalling his efforts.

  Murders and mayhem rocked through nearly every ship. One of them had even encountered an act of high-seas piracy by a gun-wielding band of refugee cowboys who took over the bridge of one vessel for a time. Rapes, killings, and violent disputes occurred below decks on an hourly basis. Messages begging for security help aboard these containers of human strife came from the shipmasters by the stackful each day. The Seventh Fleet commander felt compelled to immediately station Marines aboard those floating disaster areas. Each minute delayed potentially cost lives, yet the suits kept putting him off.

  Finally, in desperation, Steele and his boss, the Commander in Chief, Pacific, Admiral Noel Gayler, bluntly laid the issue at the feet of the Chief of Naval Operations and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Those officers, like the President, went against all the bureaucrats’ wishes and issued the green light.

  President Ford, now in disgust, broke his silence and went before television cameras at Palm Springs, venting his frustrations not only with Congress, but with Nguyen Van Thieu’s faulty leadership and panic-stricken actions. He told reporters that South Vietnam’s president should have kept his army in its defenses in the Central Highlands and northern provinces and that he saw the massive attempt at redeploying those forces a major blunder in the war. He said that now his staff had begun considering evacuation operations of the more than six thousand Americans presently in South Vietnam, should matters there continue down the current negative path.

  The President then laid a bombshell on the media. He told the reporters that despite the vocal opposition of most Democrats on Capitol Hill, and a few Republicans too, he stood prepared to land military forces in South Vietnam. He said that while restricting the use of military power to go to war, the War Powers Act allowed the President the authority to land military forces in any combat theater where American citizens’ lives hang in the balance. He said he would certainly not hesitate to send ashore Marine landing forces to evacuate the Americans from besieged and strangled Phnom Penh, Cambodia, or from South Vietnam.

  The approval for Marines aboard the refugee ships, in light of President Ford’s heated remarks and commitment to protecting American lives, now seemed pale in comparison to the other possible prospects that he raised.

  Before the grunts of First Battalion, Fourth Marine Regiment broke into their security detachments and scattered themselves among the vast sea of ships that lay in the waters off Nha Trang and Cam Ranh, now overwhelmed with those cities’ evacuees, Major Carl A. Shaver, the battalion’s operations officer, hosted an operational skull session aboard the USS Dubuque, along with his commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Charles E. Hester, for the battallion landing team’s officers and staff.

  During the night the Dubuque had rendezvoused with the USS Frederick and the USS Blue Ridge. The armada of American ships now only awaited the arrival of the aircraft carrier, the USS Hancock, underway from Pearl Harbor along with its escort.

  Mike boats from the various vessels rounded up the conference’s concerned parties and delivered them to the LPD’s side. A crowd of battle-ready Marines, chomping and stamping to get into the thick of a good fight, quickly filled the ship’s quarterdeck.

  Shaver covered the plan of action, deploying detachments of Marines to each of the refugee vessels and providing basic immediate action, deadly force, and policing guidelines. Companies Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, and Delta became Security Forces Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, and Delta, retaining the same captains in command and their subordinate structures, with only name change and cosmetics. Among the gathering he heard a few hums and haws and several groans. Then came the question that everyone wanted to ask.

  “Obviously, this shipboard security is an intermediary mission,” one voice piped from the back of the room. “When do we land the landing force?”

  The response brought little more than a shrug and a sigh because no one up the chain of command, at least at this side of Planet Earth, knew an answer to the question. Yet the grumbles of frustration and two-hour-long exchange of commentary sent a distinct message to anyone who cared to listen.

  Every Marine present ached to get into battle and badly wanted to push the North Vietnamese not only back to the DMZ, but through Hanoi and out the Chinese border, if they could. To a man, not one of the men gathered on the quarterdeck believed that the United States would ever stand by and do nothing and give up South Vietnam. None of the Marines could imagine how America, with all the money spent, equipment invested, and more than fifty-six thousand lives sacrificed in this cause, could ever turn its back. Such betrayal violated every principle of honor that American history ever preached.

  On the ships, to a man, every one of the Marines who spread themselves among the refugee ships and assumed the roles as caretakers and policemen longed to see the moment when the order would come to land the landing force and finally save South Vietnam.

  While the First Battalion, Fourth Marines set about their shipboard work, Brigadier General Richard E. Carey, the Ninth Marine Amphibious Brigade commander, Colonel Dan C. Alexander, 9th MAB’s chief of staff and the commander of the Amphibious Evacuation RVN Support Group (the Thirty-third Marine Amphibious Unit’s redesignated name because of its humanitarian mission), and Colonel Alfred M. Gray, the newly designated commander of Regimental Landing Team 4, examined options a
nd scenarios for a host of possible contingencies. All of them seemed to involve the eventual evacuation of Saigon.

  HIGHWAY 1 NEAR CHU LAI

  DUST CHOKED TRAN Ngoc Toan, and he tried pulling his white muslin shirt over his nose and mouth to filter the air. It helped little. Ahead of him and behind him the 450 Viet Marines that remained of the 147th Brigade scattered themselves among the thousands of people who inched their way down Highway 1, pushing toward Saigon.

  At night, they camped much in a group, making their fires near each other. Toan’s battalion sergeant major, the highest ranking enlisted Marine who managed to escape the beach at Tan My, worked his way from group to group, counting heads, listening, and reassuring.

  Pushing slowly past Chu Lai, the Viet Marine lieutenant colonel began to notice what seemed an endless caravan of southbound military trucks loaded with North Vietnamese soldiers. Scattered among these troop transports rolled long semi trailers with tarp-covered, cigar-shaped cargos. Other trucks accompanied these, and Toan clearly recognized them as mobile missile launchers.

  “I fear for Saigon,” he finally whispered to his sergeant major, who walked at his side. The two men kept their heads down as they plodded in the bar ditch along the highway. Their faces hidden under straw hats, the pair spoke softly without looking at each other.

  “Tens of thousands of fresh troops in these trucks,” the sergeant major said, agreeing with his commander’s sentiments. “These do not come from battle, but come from Hanoi. They wear new uniforms. Look closely too, and you will see that they have conscripted ARVN prisoners as drivers.”

  “I noticed that,” Toan said. “I also see that they have begun transporting SA-2 missiles on the long trailers, and their mobile launching systems accompany them. We never saw these big SAMs except near the DMZ, where they shot down countless numbers of the Americans’ B-52 bombers. Now they bring them toward Saigon.”