Part 28 (1/2)
”Wolfgang Xavier Lochert?”
”Yes, sir,” Wolf said, puzzled.
The colonel examined him with a benign expression on his face. ”I am Colonel Robert L. Larkin.” He did not offer to shake hands. Instead he pointed to a swarthy major standing next to him. ”This is Major Gerald S. Remley, my provost marshal. He has a duty to perform.” He nodded to Remley, who stepped forward.
”Lieutenant Colonel Wolfgang Xavier Lochert, you are under arrest.”
”What for?” Wolf asked. ”Stealing helicopters?” Only slightly amused as he remembered the helicopters he and the others had ”borrowed” for the rescue at Lang Tri. ”Or is it for disobeying orders?” He remembered ordering the men to jettison their heavy weapons and equipment at Lang Tri so Berry could lift the helicopter off the ground. ”How about misuse of government equipment?” he offered.
”No, sir,” the provost marshal said without humor. ”It's none of that.”
Greta Sturm drew close to Wolf.
”What is it, then?” Wolf Lochert asked, suddenly wary.
”Sir, the charge is murder. Murder of a Vietnamese citizen.”
0015 HOURS LOCAL, MONDAY 5 FEBRUARY 1968.
SITUATION Room, BAs.e.m.e.nT of THE WHITE HOUSE WAs.h.i.+NGTON, D.C.
Major General Albert ”Whitey” Whisenand finished his reports shortly after midnight. Seven days had pa.s.sed since the North Vietnamese Army, in concert with the Viet Cong, had violated the Tet truce and had begun ma.s.sive attacks on Vietnamese cities and towns. He had studied the intelligence summations collated from the provinces, from the military commanders, and from the Central Intelligence Agency.
Latest reports listed over 100 cities and villages including Saigon, 39 of 44 provincial capitals, and 71 district capitals had come under a.s.sault.
The attacks followed a pattern: mortar and rocket bombardment in the early morning, followed by a troop a.s.sault.
Once inside the cities and villages, the VC rendezvoused with others who had already infiltrated. Guided by LOCAL sympathizers, they attempted to capture key spots-radio stations, jails, police and civil headquarters buildings. Other VC units stayed outside the city to cut roads and paths. Political cadres accompanied the attackers and used loudspeakers to exhort the populace to rise up against the ”enemies of the people.” They weren't having much success. So far very few of the many regular NVA units available were committed to the battle. General Giap, an intelligence estimate said, appeared to be holding the NVA in reserve, especially in the southern portion of South Vietnam. It was as if he wanted the Viet Cong all southerners-to face the brunt of the battle.
Although the Viet Cong had been driven from Cholon in Saigon, and the heavy fighting north of Saigon and the western suburbs of the city was over, the fighting over Hue, the old imperial capital of Vietnam, raged on. Intelligence reports indicated the Viet Cong had systematically sought out and murdered several thousand civilians. Scattered incidents of terror and sabotage occurred in other parts of South Vietnam, but nothing on the scale of events in Hue.
Whitey had been tasked by the NSC to go through all the intelligence reports sent to them that might have forecast or at least suggested such widespread attacks might take place.
He had found ample evidence, from the CIA all the way down to a report from the 101st Airborne, that they had captured a VC with doc.u.ments that were copies of public announcements about an historic campaign ahead.
They urged ”very strong military attacks in coordination with the uprising of the LOCAL population to take over towns and cities, soldiers should move to liberate the capital city of Saigon, take power, and try to rally enemy brigades and regiments to the side of the revolution.
This will be the greatest battle ever fought throughout the history of our country.”
Whitey stood and rubbed his eyes, then put the draft paper in his safe.
He left his office and went down the hall to the Situation Room, that nerve center below the White House that received all the processed communications and reports from the Pentagon. He showed his pa.s.s to the guard and entered. The Sit Room was actually two rooms: one was long and windowless with a conference table; the other a command post, a hub of incoming military information. In addition to the military input, there was wire service from AP, UPI, and Reuters, and three TV sets. On the wall were four clocks with Was.h.i.+ngton, Saigon, GMT, and official presidential time that LBJ kept regardless of where he was.
The overhead lights were low; the information screens cast a green tinge over the military and civilian duty officers. Tiny colored action lights were sprinkled over a world map on the far wall. A military teletype finished its muted rat-a-tat of news.
He read the situation reports. Another crisis in Asia was being dealt with. A U.S. s.h.i.+p, the USS Pueblo, dubbed a spy s.h.i.+p by the press, had been captured off the coast of North Korea. So far, 15,000 USAF and Navy reservists and 370 airplanes had been activated to augment U.S.
forces in Korea because of the Pueblo capture. The captured sailors had been paraded in front of North Korean TV, accused of being spies, and North Korea was demanding an apology.
Some senators, including Democrat Frank Church of Idaho, had said the capture was an act of war in which the honor of the United States was at stake. Whitey gave a low whistle: Frank Church was one of the more outspoken doves on the Vietnam war. The senior member of the House Armed Services Committee had called the capture a ”dastardly act of piracy.”
Strong words. The Pueblo was indeed an intelligence-gathering s.h.i.+p-- like those of many nations-that for some reason the North Koreans had decided to seize even though it had been in international waters.
Further reports from Vietnam stated that there was still fierce fighting in Hue, and that the VC seemed to be making a concerted attempt to retain the old section of the Imperial Palace but probably would be driven out soon.
Whitey glanced up and saw LBJ, sitting in the director's chair, chin on his closed fist. He was dressed in his pajamas and thickly padded slippers. ”He does this frequently,” the duty officer whispered to Whitey. ”He listens to the Tet reports, the air strike reports, the missing planes, the casualty reports. But he never says anything. After a while he just sighs and walks out. But tonight he seems to be staying for a long time.”
The President looked up. He stood up and beckoned Whitey to follow him to the conference room. He carried a manila folder. He was haggard and walked slowly on bent legs, and eased himself into a large leather chair. He rubbed his face and forehead as if to stir his mind into action. He rubbed and rubbed, almost, Whitey thought, like an impersonator preparing his visage for a new part. Finally he looked up, a fierce scowl on his face.
”All right, Whisenand,” he thundered, ”what in h.e.l.l is going on?” He jerked his chin toward the manila folder.
”You told me we knew well in advance those little fellows were going to attack. So how come our boys are getting the pants beat off them?”
”Mister President, we did have a mult.i.tude of pre-attack intelligence.
General Westmoreland even asked President Thieu to cancel the Tet truce and put his troops on full alert.
Thieu did cancel some of the Tet holiday but didn't put anybody on a country-wide alert until too late. As far as our troops are concerned, they were ready but never expected the grand scale of the attack. Yet, regardless of what you hear and see on TV, this is turning into a grand rout for General Giap.”
”Bah. I've heard that stuff before,” the President sneered.
”You generals are always telling me how very nice our little war is going.”
Whitey stifled the impulse to inform the Commander in Chief of the U.S.
Armed Forces that he-Major General Albert G. Whisenand-had on the contrary been telling his boss how sorry things were in Vietnam. But every time he opened his mouth, LBJ heaped scorn and said he was a negative thinker.
”One of these days, Whisenand, I'm going to step on you like a bug.” The President slapped his hand on the folder.
”Dammit, how could they mount such an attack? Just when I thought that Ho Chi Minh was going to sit down and talk, he does this to me.” He opened the folder. ”On top of that, I get something like this. Read it,” he said, and slid a paper across the table to Whitey.
It was a synopsis of a message from COMUSMACV to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff regarding the defense of Khe Sanh.
1. I consider this area critical to us from a tactical standpoint. To relinquish the Kh e S anh a r e a w o u 1 d b e a m a j o r p r o p ag an d a victory for the enemy. Its loss would seriously affect Vietnamese and U. S. morale.
2 . We should be prepared to introduce weapons of greater effectiveness. Under such circ.u.mstances as the ma.s.sed enemy infantry attacks, I visualize that either tactical nuclear weapons or chemical agents would be active candidates for deployment. Because the region is virtually uninhabited, civilian casualties would be minimal. Like Hiros.h.i.+ma and Nagasaki to the j.a.panese, this action would surely signal Hanoi of our resolve.
President Lyndon Baines Johnson shook his finger at Whitey. ”This is what I mean about you generals always wanting to bomb, bomb, bomb. I told Chairman Wheeler nothing doing. My Gawd. Eighty-three of our Pueblo sailors in a North Korean prison camp, the Veet Cong all over the d.a.m.n place in South Veet-nam, and he wants to drop a nuclear bomb. My Gawd. If the press ever heard about this ... He trailed off.
This wasn't the first time someone in the governmental hierarchy had considered using a nuclear bomb. Whitey remembered a televised press conference with Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara in 1961. President John F. Kennedy and the nation had been in the middle of the Berlin crisis. McNamara had looked sleek and a.s.sured as he'd answered the questions. One reporter had asked if he meant to imply he would use nuclear weapons in connection with the Berlin situation.
McNamara had answered, ”Yes, I definitely do. We will use nuclear weapons whenever we feel it necessary to protect our vital interest. Our nuclear stockpile is several times that of the Soviet Union and we will use either tactical weapons or strategic weapons in whatever quant.i.ties, wherever and whenever it's necessary to protect this nation and its interests.”
Whitey spoke to the President. ”Sir, I don't think it will make much of an issue, since neither you nor the JCS back such usage. But I do think you should be putting some thought into capitalizing on how Ho Chi Minh broke the Tet truce and how he is being so badly beaten. In fact, Mister President, this is turning into a major defeat for the Viet Cong and the NVA troops. We should be informing the American people of exactly what is going on. The way it is now, they see only the TV clips that show Cholon and the Emba.s.sy in Saigon under attack. It makes no difference that the sappers at the Emba.s.sy never got into the Chancery and that they were all killed. The public sees lots of ruined buildings and dead soldiers as if we have suffered a defeat. Never on the TV did they hear or see the total repulse of the attack on the Vietnamese Navy Headquarters, or the entire battalion scheduled to free five thousand prisoners from the main Saigon jail that got lost and was annihilated by our forces.
Or how three hundred VC were killed in the attack on the Tan Son Nhut Air Base. This is what we should be stressing.
Intelligence reports said that Ho was calling this 'The Great Offensive and People's Uprising.” None of that has come to pa.s.s. We must impress this upon the public.”
”It's no use, it's no use,” the President said in a bitter voice. ”All they see is the dead American Military Policemen at the Emba.s.sy and the picture of that Vietnamese policeman executing a VC.” The picture, recorded by photographer Eddie Adams, had been taken at the exact instant the bullet fired by the Chief of the National Police had entered the head of a Viet Cong who had just killed some civilians.