by Jill Hunting
5. “Smoking Meat, Fish and Poultry,” in ibid., p. 2.
6. Lt. Gen. Phillip B. Davidson, Vietnam at War: The History, 1946 – 1975, pp. 314 – 16 (Novato, Calif.: Presidio Press, 1988).
7. “IVS Handbook,” p. 32.
SEVEN | Never “Very Good at the ‘Why’ ” (101 – 117)
1. For this anecdote and others that illustrate the evolution of IVS leaders Don Luce, Gene Stoltzfus, and Willi Meyers, see Rodell, “International Voluntary Services in Vietnam,” p. 229.
2. Ibid., p. 230.
3. Ibid., p. 229. Winburn T. Thomas, in The Vietnam Story of International Voluntary Services, Inc., pp. 69 – 70, states that the early IVSer (who was male) was effective because he “recognized and was content to work within the definition of his assignment, which was to execute ‘on the lowest level . . . the objectives of us foreign policy that the American Embassy and USAID were executing at the national level.’ ” Three additional reasons were a volunteer’s idealism, will, and energy; his (and later her) willingness to live on the same level as Vietnamese and speak their language, and to avoid identification with other American entities/organizations; and his (or her) supervision by peers who had held the same job before being promoted to IVS leadership positions. On page 41 of the same publication, Pete is referred to as “the IVS martyr.” Document available at the USAID Development Experience Clearinghouse Web site, www.dec.usaid.gov, last accessed November 18, 2008.
4. Luce and Sommer, Viet Nam: The Unheard Voices, p. 12.
5. Author’s interview with Gene Stoltzfus, July 12, 2008.
6. Rodell, “International Voluntary Services in Vietnam,” p. 237.
7. Author’s interview with Gene Stoltzfus, July 12, 2008.
8. Ibid.
9. For the full text of the letter, see Luce and Sommer, Viet Nam: The Unheard Voices, pp. 315 – 21.
10. Ibid., p. 20. Don Luce’s account of releasing the letter is based on his experience alone, although he and John Sommer wrote in the first person plural. Though of one mind with his former teammates, John had returned to the United States before the letter was released.
11. Ibid., p. 20.
12. New York Times, September 25, 1967.
13. Luce and Sommer, Viet Nam: The Unheard Voices, p. 21.
14. Don Luce, “The Tiger Cages of Vietnam,” p. 1, www.historiansagainstwar.org/resources/torture/luce.html, last accessed November 28, 2008.
15. Ibid., p. 1.
16. This quotation and others from John Sommer are from an interview with the author.
17. Rodell, “International Voluntary Services in Vietnam,” p. 232.
18. Ibid., p. 236.
19. This quotation and others from Gene Stoltzfus are from an interview with the author.
EIGHT | “At War in Another Year” (118 – 134)
1. From “Jet Well Drilling,” in Helping People Help Themselves: A Guide to Self-Help, pp. 1, 2.
2. Harkins stated, “I am an optimist, and I am not going to allow my staff to be pessimistic.” In Stanley Karnow, Vietnam: A History, p. 258 (New York: Penguin, 1984).
3. Ibid., p. 345.
4. The Central Lowlands region is the long, narrow band that lies between Vietnam’s coast and mountains.
NINE | Trip to Vietnam (136 – 153)
1. Recounted in Linda James, “Vietnam Is Disorganized but Hospitable,” San Diego Union, Knight-Ridder News Service, June 2, 1991.
2. “It’s the Birthday Season,” Sonoma Index-Tribune, Staff Notebook, November 12, 1993. Original copy in the author’s collection.
TEN | “A Promise Is a Promise” (154 – 170)
1. “Dependents Withdrawing!” in “The Cyclo,” published by USOM to Vietnam, February 10, 1965, issue no. 2, p. 1. Author’s collection.
2. “The Lone American,” Time, April 23, 1965, www.time.com, last accessed August 5, 2008. The article states that the secretary, Barbara Robbins, was the first American civilian killed in Vietnam.
3. Pauline Kael, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, pp. 177 – 78 (Boston: Atlantic – Little Brown), 1968.
4. It is unclear whether Pete meant that the war would end soon or that it would create conditions under which IVS would be unable to function.
5. “Airborne” is probably a reference to the U.S. 183rd Airborne Division.
ELEVEN | “An Open Question” (171 – 182)
1. Pete and Larry took their Vietnamese language study seriously, but learning the proper inflections took time. At a reunion of IVS alumni in 2007 at Sea Ranch, California, attended by the author, Larry related that for weeks as a newcomer to Vietnam he thought he was telling people, “I have a headache,” only to learn he had been saying, “I have syphilis.”
2. Mike Chilton, a former IVS agriculture team leader, recalled in a conversation with the author that the situation eventually led to a discussion about weapons. “If you had to work in an area where a handgun was necessary, your effectiveness was probably already diminished,” he explained, “and if you were picked up, chances were that [if you were carrying a weapon] you would have lost credibility.”
3. The countries IVS served in were Algeria, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Botswana, Cambodia, Cape Verde, Caribbean (various locations), Colombia, Ecuador, Egypt, Ghana, Honduras, Iraq, Jordan, Laos, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Sudan, Syria, Thailand, Vietnam, Yemen, Zaire, and Zimbabwe.
4. In disputing the claim of former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara in his In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam, former IVS volunteer Harvey Neese has written: “There were literally hundreds of Americans in South Vietnam who had worked and lived in the provinces many years before 1965. Many of them could speak Vietnamese. Although they knew the situation in the rural areas where the war was to be fought by American troops, no one wanted to tap their knowledge. It was an arrogant and stupid attitude by American officials that led America into the Vietnam morass with little chance of winning. If political and military leaders had bothered to ask those who knew the situation on the level where the war was to be fought and then took their advice, America might never have blundered into the unwinnable situation.” See Neese, “Destination South Vietnam,” p. 279.
TWELVE | “Too Much Talk about Danger” (183 – 198)
1. Whether the author’s parents took Pete’s article to the newspaper or what an editor might have thought about it is not known. No evidence of publication has been found.
2. Luce and Sommer, Viet Nam: The Unheard Voices, p. 246.
3. Ibid., pp. 246 – 47.
4. International Voluntary Services in the Republic of Vietnam for the Year of June 1965 – June 1966, p. 33 (Washington, D.C.: International Voluntary Services, 1966). Author’s collection.
5. Ibid., p. 24.
6. As Ray Gill told the author, Air America planes were targets because they transported Americans, notably CIA personnel.
7. Luce and Sommer, Viet Nam: The Unheard Voices, p. 189.
8. This and other interesting anecdotes about Lane, including her trip to South Vietnam, are related by William T. Anderson in Laura’s Rose: The Story of Rose Wilder Lane, Daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder (centennial edition), pp. 19, 33, 35, and 41 – 42 (De Smet, S.D.: Laura Ingalls Wilder Memorial Society, 1976).
9. Rose Wilder Lane, “August in Vietnam,” Woman’s Day, December 1965, pp. 33 – 94. Original copy in the author’s collection.
THIRTEEN | Pete’s Long-Lost Letters Surface (199 – 216)
1. Scorpio, p. 8 (New York: Zodiac International, 1964). Author’s collection.
2. Cancer, p. 73 (New York: Zodiac International, 1964). Author’s collection.
3. Despite the author’s inquiries under provisions of the Freedom of Information Act and the able assistance of staff members at the National Archives and Records Administration, in College Park, Maryland, no copy of this report has turned up.
FOURTEEN | Darkening Skies (217 – 224)
1. The story was sent to the author�
�s parents by Don Luce with an undated note signed by Robin Pell, a public relations officer with USAID in Vietnam. He indicated that a George Chuljean, otherwise unidentified, wrote the story. No evidence of its publication has been found.
2. “The War: Deeper & Wider,” Time, November 19, 1965, vol. 86, no. 21, p. 35. Original copy in the author’s collection.
3. Lydia M. Fish, “General Edward G. Lansdale and the Folksongs of Americans in the Vietnam War,” Journal of the American Folklore Society, October – December 1989, vol. 102, no. 406, http://faculty.buffalostate.edu/fishlm/folksongs/lansdale.pdf, last accessed July 29, 2005.
4. Joint United States Public Affairs Office (JUSPAO) Psyop Policy no. 36, May 10, 1967, www.psywarrior.com/superstition.html, last accessed Dec. 7, 2005.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
INDEX
AFSC (American Friends Service Committee), 102–3, 108
Agricultural assistance work: and Fields, 51, 92
local inventiveness, 194
local vs. international perspective, 173–74, 250n4
Pete’s involvement in, 50, 92–93
rabbit-raising project, 92–93
student volunteer involvement, 238. See also Windmill projects
AID. See U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
Air cooler project, 53
Airplane building project, 53–54, 63
Alcoholic beverages, obtaining, 129
Alpha Delta Phi fraternity, 19, 35, 37, 114, 142, 196, 221–22
Alvarez, Lt. Everett, 131
American culture, changes in, 97, 124, 131
American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), 102–3, 108
Americans, Vietnamese attitudes toward, 62, 63
Animal husbandry, 51, 92–93, 250n4
An Quoi, 218
Anti-war activism, 13–14, 82, 103, 105, 109
Balaban, John, 13–14
Bangkok, 118–19, 141–42
Ba Ngoi, 148–49
Ban Me Thuot, 56, 103
Bao Dai, 26
Barlow, Mark, 19
Ba Thap, 218–19, 231–32
Ba Xuyen Province, 191, 238
Betts, Bill, 14
Bicycle parking lot project, 38
Biddle, David, 19
Biggers, Bob, 14
Binh Dinh Province, 173–74
Blankets, Cham, 60, 68, 90
Bombing campaigns, beginnings of U.S., 164
Borton, Ray, 28
Boudreau, Capt. Art, 22
Boy Scouts, local Vietnamese, 99–100, 155–56
Bradford, Verda, 80–81
Bradley, Margo: on her relationship with Pete, 212–13
and Jill, 209–11, 225–27
Pete on visit with, 184–85
Pete’s admiration for, 197–98
Pete’s increasing interest in, 87, 129, 135
Pete’s letters to, 211, 212
and Pete’s marriage plans, 159
Bridge construction, Pete’s work in, 37–38
Buddhists: vs. Catholics in Vietnam, 28
grief response, 16
and Jill’s 1991 visit to Vietnam, 147–48
post-coup celebrations, 62
protests against Diem’s regime, 24, 48–49, 50, 57, 59
Bundy, McGeorge, 70
Bundy, William, 106
Bunker, Ellsworth, 105–6, 221
Bush, George H. W., 146
Byron, Stuart, 21
Cable, Chuck, 137, 149, 151, 152, 176
Cai Rang, 241
Canadian River, 37–38
Canning factories idea, 96
Can Tho, 190, 219, 240, 241
CARE, 155–56
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), 20, 27, 177–79
Cham people: and marriage proposal to Pete, 91
mountainous home of, 50
Pete’s rapport with, 89–91
remembrance of Pete, 233–35
towers of, 231
weavings of, 60, 68, 90
Chilton, Mike, 59–60, 72, 180–81
Chinese, Pete’s knowledge of, 31–32
Chinese New Year, 162
CIA (Central Intelligence Agency), 20, 27, 177–79
Civil rights movement, 97, 131
Colyer, David, 72–73
Colyer, Phyllis, 72–73, 162–63
Communications, nature of, 61, 85
Connecticut, 12–13, 23–24, 37–38, 39–40
Cook, Major, 54–55, 59, 181
Corning Glass Works, 101–2
Coulter, Carey, 219–20, 237, 243
Coup d’états in South Vietnam, 61–62, 133
Crane “premonition” incident, 211–12, 220–21, 222–23
Cronkite, Walter, 13
Culture, Vietnamese: and education attitudes, 99
and humor over American clothing gifts, 156
IVSers’ respect for, 30–31, 34
IVS guidance, 49, 57–58
Montagnard people, 58–59, 120, 178
Pete on, 49, 88–89, 91, 194–95
romance, 49, 174–75
slow pace of life, 121, 124–25, 169
Tet new year holiday, 97
traditional beliefs, 220–22. See also Cham people
Cuong, Mr., 229
Dalat, travel to, 50, 58–59
Dangers of Vietnam. See Security
Darrah, Beryl, 78–79
Dexter, Missouri, 36–37
Diem (president of South Vietnam), 26, 27, 28, 57, 61
Dien Bien Phu, 143
Dimmit, Kirk, 72
Disaster relief work, 187
Draft, staying in IVS to avoid, 158
Dubyne, Bob, 50, 56
Dulles, John Foster, 103
Economic development: as key to anti-Communism’s success, 27, 96
Pete’s analysis of need for, 163
shift to large-scale projects, 104
Educational work: English teaching duties, 32, 131
film projector, 98–99
library projects, 77–81, 176, 228–30, 233
local variations in rural teaching, 91–92
mobile science lab, 69
and modernization of Vietnam, 163
Pete’s personal financial investments, 121
school building construction, 64, 92
EQV fraternity, 21–22
European trip, Pete’s, 183–84
FAA (Federal Aviation Administration), 11–12, 22
Fairley, Darlene Cook, 141
Fairley, Mike, 137, 172
Family dynamic: mother’s grief influence on, 16, 17, 39, 42–43, 44–45, 139
parents’ emotional reserve, 9, 68, 82–83
and secrecy, 43–44
silence on Pete’s death, 14, 16, 17, 40, 68, 76–77
Farming. See Agricultural assistance work
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), 11–12, 22
Fields, Chuck: agricultural work, 50, 51, 250n4
animal husbandry projects, 50, 51, 92–93
and coup d’état news, 61
and Pete, 50, 55–56, 85–86, 181
villagers’ remembrance of, 150
Financial issues for Pete, 119–21
Fishing-related projects, 93–95
Flying: father’s career in, 36