Saigon
Friday Night, 31 December 1965
Happy New Year!---Almost. It isn’t quite midnight so really can’t say that yet. It’s a few minutes past ten. And I don’t believe that I’ll stay up to see the New Year come. Am tired and the sleep will do me good. I hope to sleep late tomorrow.
The curfew has been extended until 2 a.m. tonight so that the US can celebrate the New Year. All the clubs are putting on special affairs but I just don’t feel in a partying mood this evening.
The VC blew up a BOQ in Dalat today and blocked the highway from Saigon to Dalat in a number of places. We heard no one was killed but several were wounded by the blast. Just don’t understand how they do it every time. Just Thursday the VC killed an editor of one of the newspapers in Saigon right in the middle of Cholon at noon and got away.
My new job [Special Assistant to the J-4] is very interesting but the pressures are still pretty heavy. By now I think I was selected for the job because I write reasonably well and convincingly. Am the author of most of the "hot" messages which go to Mr. Mc, Admiral Sharp, and others. You can’t afford to be careless or make a mistake and you must be quick-witted. Oh, well, only 5 more months to go. If I can keep a sense of humor then I won’t lose my sanity and if I can continue to relax once I leave the office, perhaps there won’t be any ulcers either.
The diary of Lieutenant Colonel Richard Paris Clark, Jr., U.S. Army Transportation Corps, who served as Chief, Movements Branch, Transportation Division, J-4, MACV, from June 1965 to December 1965, and Special Assistant to the J-4 for Coastal Shipping from December 1965 to June 1966. Edited by John R. Clark.
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