An eyewitness account of the Vietnam War from its early stages
through the last day of the Republic, 30 April 1975. A startling
new look at the postwar era and the issue of America's
unreturned veterans listed as POW/MIA, an issue that has haunted
America since the beginning of American involvement. Shrouded in
controversy, a subject of great emotion amid charges of
governmental conspiracy and Communist deceit, the possibility of
American servicemen being held in secret captivity after the
war's end has influenced U.S. policy toward Southeast Asia for
three decades. Now, the first chief of the U.S. Government's
only official office in postwar Vietnam provides an insider's
account of that effort. The challenges he faced daily in dealing
with U.S. politicians, including Vietnam veterans, Senators John
McCain and John Kerry, are an ardent reminder of the many
similarities in the bloody wars fought by American troops in
both Vietnam and Iraq-Afghanistan. In an illuminating and deeply
personal memoir, the government's top missing persons
investigator in Southeast Asia, who later became a member of the
U.S. Congressional Staff, discusses the history of the search
for missing Americans, reveals how the Communist Vietnamese
stonewalled U.S. efforts to discover the truth, and how the
standards for MIA case investigations were gradually lowered
while pressure for expanded commercial and economic ties with
communist Vietnam increased.
Leave No Man Behind is the compelling story of a dedicated group
of professionals who, against great odds, tried to uphold the
proud military traditions of duty, honor and country. Every
American fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan should read "Leave No
Man Behind." As the US Marine Corps helicopter lifted from the
roof of the American Embassy in Saigon at daybreak on April 30,
1975, I thought about the carnage that would result from a
heat-seeking missile fired by Vietnamese Communist forces
gradually encircling the besieged capital of the dying Republic
of Vietnam (RVN). Exhausted by a lack of sleep for the previous
several days, I no longer felt fear, only curiosity. Tears
welled up in my eyes, perhaps due in part to the anguish of
witnessing the tragic events unfolding before me, but also from
caustic smoke belched out of rooftop incinerators glowing
cherry-red from reams of frantically burned secret US Government
documents. Feeling a sense of relief, I nevertheless harbored an
even stronger sense of guilt. On the Republic of Vietnam's final
day, as I looked down into the gradually diminishing compound
and into the terrified eyes in the upturned faces of hundreds of
Vietnamese nationals and citizens of other countries friendly to
the United States, who were being left behind, I knew that I
would be haunted for many years to come. As the venerable "Sea
Stallion" throbbed its way through the damp morning air toward a
helicopter carrier anchored off the coast at Vung Tau, blazing
multicolored tracers rising from the dark-canopied jungle below
bade farewell to America and to an era known as the Vietnam War.
During the more than 30 minute flight into the future I sat
angry and confused after some 10 years of involvement with a
faraway place called Vietnam. I wondered whether the sacrifices
in lives and national treasure made by America had been
worthwhile or in vain. After contemplating the issue for the
past 30 years, I believe it is now time to take st ock of the
American War in Vietnam so that Americans, especially those of
us who served there, can finally decide whether or not the
impending 30th anniversary marks the cause for a celebration or
the lingering agony of defeat. With the demise of the RVN, as
many analysts had predicted, jubilant communist forces quickly
invaded and occupied the populated areas. Hundreds of thousands
of former military and civilian officials were required to be
screened, classified and registered as enemies of the revolution
to be detained in remote, isolated concentration camps under
horrific conditions. Thousands died due to disease and
malnutrition, many never to be heard from again by family
members. At the same time, the communist leadership insisted
that the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in the no! rth and the
Provisional Revolutionary Government in the south be united as
one. From that day forward, according to the constitution, only
one political party, the Vietnam Communist Party, would be
allowed to exist. On official letterheads of government
stationery the three previously used terms comprising the
national motto of the communist north: "Freedom, Independence
and Democracy" were changed forever to read "Freedom,
Independence and Happiness." To the Vietnamese people this
change in terminology, especially the reference to happiness,
would provide one of the few sources of humor during a desperate
time. To add insult to injury, the graves of fallen RVN military
personnel were razed by bulldozers in cemeteries across the
country. Typewriters, radios, televisions and anything that
could be used for propagation or communication were required to
be registered with the "Military Management Committee"
responsible for political security under the new "Socialist
Republic of Vietnam." As interest began to wane, occasional
references to the Vietnam War coined phrases such as "a noble
cause" or "an unnecessary war." The question as to whether the
Vietnam War was or was not necessary was just as divisive in
postwar debate as it was during the days following the 1968 "Tet
Offensive." In my own assessment of both the necessity for and
the outcome of the Vietnam War two primary considerations were
the U.S. national interest at the time and the mission of the
U.S. Military Forces that fought in Southeast Asia. The overall
mission of U.S. military forces for the latter part of the 20th
century began to take shape shortly after the conclusion of
World War II. At that time the policy of the United States was
one of containment of Communism. I believed that this policy was
fully justified, because it was obvious that the Communist
International, especially Russia and China, sought to "liberate"
the entire world. This policy of containment became known as the
"Cold War" and although there were numerous violent clashes
involving small units and air crews during missions involving
special operations and reconnaissance, the first major
battlefield of that war erupted in 1950 on the Korean Peninsula,
where the successful accomplishment of the mission of containing
communism there was dubbed by the media as a "stalemate." At the
beginning of the War in Vietnam, the basic mission of American
soldier worldwide was to kill, destroy, or capture the enemy, or
repel his assault by fire. Over one million men and women
answered their nation's call, and they did their level best to
carry! out their mission in Southeast Asia. As a result, some
58,000 Americans and some 225,000 allied personnel made the
ultimate sacrifice, while by comparison, communist Vietnam
suffered the loss of over 1,300,000 personnel, including 150,000
personnel who were killed-in-action, body-not-recovered (KIA/BNR).
I personally witnessed the strongest blow struck at communist
forces by hard-fighting American and South Vietnamese troops
that occurred during the January 31, 1968, "Tet" offensive. The
bodies of thousands of communist personnel were stacked in piles
around installations throughout South Vietnam, and losses were
so heavy for the communist side that the entire military rank
structure was temporarily abandoned and cadre selected to
command and control units were assigned based on position or job
title only, rather than actual military rank. The loss of life
to the communist side was nothing less than staggering, and any
U.S. military commander whose losses approached even a small
percentage of actual communist fatalities at that time would
most likely have been relieved of command and drummed from the
service. Even though America's servicemen and women fought
valiantly during the 1968 "Tet" offensive, the U.S. and
international media nevertheless managed to reshape their
hard-earned victory into a political defeat. Vietnamese
communist propaganda experts were so skilful that they were able
to convince many members of the media and even some military
analysts that two separate governments, the National Liberation
Front in South Vietnam and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in
the North, existed side by side and that both were involved in a
"civil war." It has since been proven that both the NLF and the
DRV were tightly controlled by the Vietnam Communist Party and
both governments were actually one and the same. Moreover,
personnel of the two purported military organizations of both
illusionary governments, the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) ! and
the Viet Cong (VC), were in reality members of the Peoples Army
of Vietnam (PAVN). Admittedly, in terms of national treasure the
Vietnam War was not cheap. Depending on which expert's figures
are used, the total cost of the Vietnam War to America was
somewhere in the neighbourhood of 220 billion dollars. By
comparison the overall U.S. defence budget during post-war,
peacetime years exceeded that amount annually. In reality one
million men could not have been trained at U.S.-based training
centres for a 10 year period, even using blank ammunition, for a
lesser amount. While the Vietnam War was certainly a drain on
the U.S. economy, during the decade of our of engagement there
the former Soviet Union also provided significant amounts of
financial and material support to communist forces deployed
throughout Southeast Asia. Support by the USSR to Vietnam, the
1979 ! invasion of Afghanistan and a badly managed, centrally
controlled economy all combined to bring the former Soviet Union
to its knees and bring about the collapse of the Communist
Party. Ultimately this collapse led to the end of the Cold War.
Veterans of the Cold War, especially those who fought in Korea
and Vietnam, now enjoy the gratitude of the peoples of many
European, East Asian and Southeast Asian nations. Regarding
Vietnam, as a result of the sacrifices made by America's
veterans, today the people of Thailand, Malaysia, the
Philippines, Singapore and Indonesia are living under freely
elected governments. This accounts for one quarter of the
earth's population. Obviously, the true losers of the Vietnam
War are the Vietnamese people, not just the people of the former
Republic of Vietnam, but citizens from all areas of the country,
including the north. Although millions of Vietnamese "voted with
their fe! et" by escaping on small boats across dangerous ocean
currents, result ing in staggering losses to mankind, today
millions more freedom-loving Vietnamese still yearn to be free.
As the 31st anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War
approaches, I believe that the two most important bilateral
issues remaining between the U.S. and the Socialist Republic of
Vietnam are an accounting for the more than 1,800 Americans
still missing from the Vietnam War and democracy for the
Vietnamese people. Successive administrations in Washington,
D.C. have pressed for democracy in many countries around the
world, including Russia, Haiti, South Africa, Afghanistan and
Iraq. But there has been very little interest shown in gaining
democracy for Asians, and this double standard is difficult to
understand. It is almost as though we Americans have a
collective mentality whereby we believe that peoples with yellow
skin cannot manage freedom, and that tight control is the only
option available. It is no secret that the American business
community, aggressively buying up cheap products manufactured in
Asia for resale on the U.S. market, is blinded by the lack of
labour unions, cheap wages and fear of violent reprisals against
labour strikes. It is ironic that after some 58,000 fine young
Americans died in Vietnam while fighting for democracy the
American business community is now steadily developing the
economy of communist controlled Vietnam, insuring that the
Vietnam Communist Party will not only remain in power, but that
it will increasingly have the ability to maintain an even larger
and more powerful military force. Concerning the plight of the
families of Vietnam War POWs and MIAs, democracy can also go a
long way to help in this regard. I believe that most Americans,
especially Vietnam veterans, will agree that for the most part
the Vietnamese people are honest and hardworking. Like our
people right here at home, I can't imagine a situation where the
people of Vietnam would be willing to hide the remains of
anyone's loved one in order to extort money from them. Although
during the past 30 years the ruling communists have gradually
doled out bits and pieces of skeletal remains and personal
effects in return for large monetary sums, once the Vietnam
Communist Party has collapsed the Vietnamese people will rise to
the occasion and provide whatever assistance is necessary to
resolve the issue of our missing men. We should all be doing
everything we can to make sure that day comes. Garnett "Bill"
Bell went to Vietnam as an infantryman in 1965 and served
multiple combat tours there. Bell's wife and son were killed and
a daughter critically injured in April 1975, when the families
of U.S. officials assigned to the American Embassy in Saigon
were evacuated in conjunction with the "Operation Babylift"
program. Bell returned to post-war Vietnam as the first official
U.S. representative after the war ended when he was assigned as
the Chief of the U.S. Office for POW/MIA Affairs in Hanoi. Bell
later became a member of the Congressional Staff, U.S. House of
Representatives. Bell is the co-author of his memoirs on the
Vietnam War: "Leave No Man Behind." "I knew with your
involvement Leave No Man Behind would be first-rate, but Bill
Bell too has an obvious gift for storytelling along with his
other remarkable qualities. What impressed me was not only the
authoritative in-depth reconstruction of events but the facile,
very skilful writing. To interweave the family history and bio
with the search activities, the anecdotes with the analysis and
the pen portraits of Bell's colleagues and commanders--as any
author knows--is a huge challenge, one that you guys bring off
brilliantly. I don't know how you and Bell divided the writing
and the work generally, but the effort deserves high praise. I
hope it finds the wider audience it deserves." Dr. Stuart
Rochester, co-author, "Honor Bound: The History of American
Prisoners of War in Southeast Asia, 1961-1973" "Leave No Man
Behind" by Garnett "Bill" Bell with George J. Veith. $24.95 U.S.
at
http://www.goblinfernpress.com/memoir.htm The Vietnam War's
POW/MIA issue has haunted America since the early stages of the
war. Shrouded in controversy, a subject of great emotion amid
charges of governmental conspiracy and Communist deceit, the
possibility of American servicemen being held in secret
captivity after the war's end has influenced U.S. policy toward
Southeast Asia for three decades. Now, the first chief of the
U.S. POW/MIA office in postwar Vietnam provides an insider's
account of that effort, as well as a detailed account of the
final days of the Republic of Vietnam in April 1975. In an
illuminating and deeply personal memoir, the government's top
POW/MIA field investigator discusses the history of the search
for missing Americans, reveals how the Communist Vietnamese
stonewalled U.S. efforts to discover the truth, and how the
standards for MIA case investigations were gradually lowered
while pressure for expanded commercial and economic ties with
communist Vietnam increased. Leave No Man Behind is the
compelling story of one man's quest, at great individual cost,
to find the truth about America's missing in action from the
Vietnam War. "The most comprehensive study of our government's
efforts to account for our POW/MIAs from the Vietnam War I have
read to date. Bill Bell and Jay Veith have done a masterful job
with a very personal subject, recounting these efforts in an
objective and straight forward manner. I highly recommend this
book for anyone wishing a greater understanding of the POW/MIA
issue." --Rod Utech Producer, POW/MIA Radio Subject: Leave No
Man Behind Mr. Veith- I just spoke to Stuart Rochester and he
gave me your contact info. I gave a lecture last week at the
University of Maryland on POW/MIA issues of the Vietnam War. I
have done this several times before and I usually contact Stuart
for last minute suggestions or current information I can share
with the class. I met with Stuart last week and he let me borrow
some video material and his copy of "Leave No Man Behind." I
have read about half of the book and would like to order a copy.
Can you let me know how to order the book? I tried Alibris, but
they do not have it listed yet. I have been interested in
POW/MIA issues for many years and was very involved in the
resubmission of the Medal of Honour for Rocky Versace as well as
in the building of the Rocky Versace Plaza and Vietnam Veterans
Memorial in Alexandria, Va. "Code Name Bright Light" and "Leave
No Man Behind" are tremendous contributions to the telling of
the Vietnam POW/MIA story. Thank you and Mr. Bell for the great
work you have done for our country, and for the memories of many
lost in the Vietnam War. Sincerely, Mike Faber Founding Member,
The Friends of Rocky Versace Honorary Member, West Point Class
of 1959 (703) 764-3300 (w) (703) 898-6389 (cell phone) Editorial
Reviews Rod Utech, Producer, POW/MIA Radio "The most
comprehensive study ... to account for our POW/MIAs from the
Vietnam War I have read to date." About the Author Garnett
"Bill" Bell was the first chief of the U.S. POW/MIA office in
post-war Vietnam. Since his enlistment in the U.S. Army in 1960
to his retirement in 1993, Bill Bell played a vital role in the
history of the American POW/MIA issue. In 1973, Bell was chosen
as the American interpreter-translator for "Operation
Homecoming," the release of U.S. POWs in Hanoi by the North
Vietnamese and Pathet Lao. During the fall of South Vietnam in
1975, Bell helped clandestinely evacuate American and South
Vietnamese nationals from Saigon, and was one of the last
American officials to leave by helicopter. In 1988, he became
the U.S. Government's field investigator for the first POW/MIA
search and recover operations undertaken in post-war Vietnam.
George J. Veith has written countless pages about the Vietnam
War, including "Code Name Bright Light: The Untold Story of U.S.
POW Rescue Efforts during the Vietnam War" (Military Book Club's
Book of the Month for January, 1998). He has testified before
the U.S. House of Representatives on the POW/MIA issue and has
been interviewed on radio and TV on behalf of the families of
POW/MIAs. Product Description: "Leave No Man Behind" is the
powerful story of Garnett "Bill" Bell's quest, at great personal
cost, to find and bring home the POWs and MIAs of the Vietnam
War. With his encyclopaedic knowledge of the Vietnamese
Communists and his fluency in various regional dialects, he
penetrated the system the Communists had created to exploit
American POWs for diplomatic concessions, or their remains and
personal effects for financial rewards. In this book, Bell
shares his perspective as a witness to history as it unfolded.
The Author Is A Hero!, December 19, 2004 Reviewer: Mcgivern Owen
L (NY, NY USA) - "Leave No Man Behind" is the true guidepost to
the painful saga of resolving the search for POWs and MIAs in
Indochina. It should be required for anyone interested in the
details and history of the quest.! The author, a genuine hero,
spent most of 20 years, 1973-1993, interviewing refugees,
battling U.S. bureaucrats (military and civilian) and wrestling
with Communist officials in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. He was
also this country's senior field investigator, searching remote
crash and burial sites for remains of U.S. military. Along the
way he was actively involved in the final evacuation from Saigon
in 1975. He learned several distinct Vietnamese dialects, the
better to communicate/negotiate with the adversary. Few
Americans would be that conscientious. Those of us who have
followed and supported the search for POWs/MIAs all these years
know how venally, dishonestly and even cruelly the Vietnamese
have acted. They deny storing remains and then repatriate bodies
with obvious evidence of chemical storage. They allow us to
"investigate" crash sites that have been clearly sanitized in
advance. Bodies are dug up, moved and re-interred. After payment
of search fees, permits, excavation fees and other "costs",
remains are found! And so it goes, on and on, year after
frustrating year. But when Vietnamese act that way, they are
being themselves! How can we explain or describe American
officials, civilian and military, who descend to the same level?
Mr. Bell makes it perfectly clear that a POW assignment was all
too often a just soft "REMF" job. These guys did not want too
many POWs being repatriated all at once. How would that look?
The longer the searches went on, the longer the comfortable
gigs. In the words of a previous reviewer, the whole deal was
nothing more than a meal ticket. This reviewer has always
suspected that we were own worst enemy and the list of "usual
suspects" is long and sickening. There is no doubt in this
quarter that these quislings would never want any American MIA
found alive. They would be too frightened to explain the
reappearance! One specific suspect on the list of lowlife
Americans is President Carter, who tried very hard to under fund
the original search efforts and nip them in the very bu! d.
Another is not President Clinton but John Kerry. He was so in
love with normalizing relations with North Vietnam that his
so-called Senate Select Committee swept whitewashed the entire
POW/MIA effort. All so his family owned company received
exclusive American rights to real estate deals in North Vietnam.
How Mr. Bell kept his calm and perspective dealing with so man
cowardly and selfish Americans is a mystery. This review could
continue at great length, but I'm sure my amazon friends have
the picture clearly. In a review of Bernard Fall's "Street
Without Joy", this observer closed by writing that the author
would be "a great guy to have a few beers with". I feel the same
about Mr. Bell except that he would not have to pay for a round.
The author is a true American hero. I'll conclude this review by
restating that "Leave No Man Behind" is required reading for
anyone concerned with the resolution of the 1,845 men still
missing in Indochina. A cause, a vocation, a career?, July 3,
2004 Reviewer: R. ARANT "toun" (Lanesville, Indiana USA) Whether
or not a reader has the same take on the history of the POW-MIA
issue as Bill Bell, most will be able to acknowledge that he
took the issue to heart in a very active way. His commitment to
the study of the languages of the region set him head and
shoulders above the vast majority of NCOs and certainly all of
the officers who were assigned to work the issue, and those
linguistic skills for the most part served him very very well.
Unfortunately, by the time Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia began to
open up and the many years of almost hopeless interviews in
refugee camps came to an end, the "issue" had devolved into a
series of highly-publicized scams and silly bureaucratic turf
struggles between bureaucracies with no missions, and inevitably
was exploited by the odd politician or three. We ended up not
serving the missing or their families as well as the naive among
us would have expected. What was once a sacred cause degenerated
into a comfortable meal ticket for many of those "involved," but
in spite of all that, Bill often took stances which he knew
would bring him his fair share of abuse. If anyone made an
honest effort for an extended period of years, Bill did. Those
that have hung on for decades sitting idle at the trough have
much to answer for. Bill Bell was active in the pursuit of his
life-defining mission, and that alone makes his writing worth
our time and our respect. From: Amorosi Sent: Tuesday, November
16, 2004 7:44 PM Subject: please, read I am finally finishing
Bill Bell's book. For a comprehensive look at the POW/MIA issue,
you owe it to yourself to read Leave No Man Behind by Bill Bell
with George J. Veith. Buy it, borrow it, or check it out at the
library. But, please, read it. The struggles of the past are
alive and well now. Ask Keith Maupin's family. Don Amorosi VVA
79 I enjoyed the book. There are certain happenings in the book
that I was personally involved in. As example, during TET, when
the missionaries were captured and or killed, I photographed the
graves and the houses. I knew them and of course am still in
contact with my friend Mike Benge. The unit I was assigned to
performed many searches for them but to no avail. Also have many
pictures during TET in the Banmethuot area. Take care and thanks
again, Jack Jarnigan, Hilltop Lakes, Texas From a press release
by the publisher. Goblin Fern Press is pleased to announce that
our book "Leave No Man Behind" has been selected as a finalist
for ForeWord Magazine's National Book of the Year award in
Biography. This is a very prestigious award as it comes from the
one of the most respected pre-publication publicity and review
magazines in the book industry. Congrats to Bill Bell and Jay
Veith co-authors of the book. For those of you who haven't read
the book it's about Bell's over 30 years as a soldier and
civilian looking for live soldiers in Vietnam, and repatriating
the remains of those who died. In the book the authors reveal
the myriad ways in which Bell tried to systematize the
investigation of lost planes and loss incidents, only to be
thwarted in his efforts by the government of North Vietnam and
sadly, our own government. In order to conduct his
investigations, Bell learned several Asian languages ! and
dialects so as not to rely on a translator/interpreter. This is
a fascinating, detailed, life of a courageous man who truly
lived the motto "Leave No Man Behind." This book isn't just for
the soldier, student, or history buff. It's also for the average
American who should know more about the Vietnam War, how people
in our CURRENT government felt and behaved then, and how the war
in
Iraq really is similar.
The book is available at Goblin Fern Press, 3809 Mineral
Point Road, Madison, WI 53705, or
http://www.goblinfernpress.com/memoir.htm 1-800-670-2665.
Tel: 608-442-0212 / Fax: 608-442-0221. Email: Kira@GoblinFernPress.com
