Diary Entry 27: Saigon, Thursday Night, 15 July 1965

                                                                                 Saigon
                                                                                 Thursday Night, 15 July 1965

    Went to Vung Tau Monday to watch landings by the 2nd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, at that station.  Can say what unit it is now that they have come ashore.  They could not get ashore from the boats due to high seas so we let them stay on board over night.  There wasn’t that much business that day and came back to Saigon.  At any rate, went back the next day---now remember it was Tuesday and we had another bad day.   Finally got them in on Wednesday (9:00 a.m. at least) and began an aircraft shuttle operation that day. Today, the shuttle from Vung Tau to Bien Hoa was completed, 1,400 troops without incident. The unit is commanded by Colonel Jim Simmons who was at Leavenworth with me.  The unit came from Ft. Riley, Kansas.
   
This is a particularly tough period.  We are just being overcome by events and circumstances.  The other night I was talking to General DePuy, the J-3, and meant it when I said if things don’t work out, it won’t be because my people didn’t try every trick in the book. We are in an honest-to-God race with time and if anyone sloughs off we’ve had it.
   
Haven’t seen Grady since he moved, but that isn’t unusual.  In his job he can’t go out of Saigon; while in mine, seems like I’ve got to go all the time.  Our paths don’t cross too often.
   
My new roommate is an Australian major, a lawyer assigned to the RAAF in Vietnam.  Like all lawyers, he does not understand this kind of war and I’m following behind him to lock the doors, close the windows, etc.  His name is Nick Carter and he’s married to a Canadian girl whom he met in Ellis Falls (pop. 4,500) in Interior Australia and who now lives in Canada.  Nick is a very fine person, but he’s careless about the locks.  In December, he expects to be transferred to Singapore, at which time his wife will join him from Canada.  Australia does not permit dependents here.
   
From the looks of different nationalities here, it reminds me of UN forces in Korea.  We have Filipinos, Koreans, Thais, Australians, Chinese, and US units.

We have one of those efficiency experts from Washington here now hanging around the office.  The SOB has a lot of suggestions but I notice he isn’t volunteering to go out on trips or to stay over here.  My main job is to convince him that MACV Movements has NO business in operating an airline or steamship company.  The sooner I get out of operations, the better off everything will be.  Operations are for people who are down on the ground, not back in some high headquarters.  Spend about half my time traveling so I know what is on the ground in order to be able to make fairly sound decisions.  I urgently want to turn the airline over to the USAF and the steamship company over to the Navy.  Then maybe I can put my feet up on the desk and think.  Maybe if I can convince the efficiency expert toward this rationale, I’ll be better off and so will the troops.  Hard as hell to make operational decisions from this distance.  Most of the time I just work as hard as I can and hope that I decided right.

Diary Entry 26: Saigon, Monday Night, 12 July 1965

                                                                                                            Saigon
                                                                                                            Monday Night, 12 July 1965

I’m back in one piece from Vung Tau.  Came back early because of business here, and there was no business there to speak of today.  Things did not work out as planned so we’ll give another pull tomorrow and hope for the best.  Won’t go back to Vung Tau tomorrow as need exists to make trip elsewhere.  Been there before, so won’t be a new sight. Been terribly busy since noon with General Crowley (J-4) and General DePuy (J-3).

Diary Entry 25: Saigon, Sunday Night, 11 July 1965

                                                                                                                  Saigon
                                                                                                                  Sunday Night, 11 July 1965

Feel pretty pleased with myself tonight.  Worked real hard all day and got caught up with that infernal paperwork.  Feel like I can breathe again with all of it out of the way for a day or two.
   
Grady moved today so it is kinda quiet here tonight.  He came by to tell me his room at the Vinh Loi is not as nice as this apartment, but he expects to move up to better things as others move out.  No more guns around here to scare me.
   
Woke up this morning at 4:30 a.m. when it seemed all hell broke loose across the river.  Lots of artillery and small arms fire.  Was real close, so I couldn’t get back to sleep.  Seems like I wake up over any small noise.

Called lots of people back to work today to get a crash project out, but they all responded quickly because I had shown displeasure at not being able to contact people the last time I had to.  This time all but one was available.  Will bet you 100-to-1 that he will be available next time!
Go to Vung Tau tomorrow to look over some business and am taking 2 officers with me. Sending another to Cam Ranh Bay also to watch the shop.  [Clark and the officers went to these locations to assist in troop movements associated with the arrival of the 2d Brigade, 1st Infantry Division.]  This will be my 24th air mission and 30th hour of flying since I arrived.  Hear my boys call me Rambling Richard when they think I’m not listening!

I try not to get frustrated when people don’t put out, but it is hard to accomplish this.  Seems like people just don’t have the sense of urgency that they ought to.  Yes, I know I can’t win just by myself, but I like to go to bed every night feeling that I really put out the effort and tried my best.

Feel real proud of myself that I have not felt scared at any time since coming here.  Having once been through something similar and knowing exactly what is in store, I wondered often whether the thought of it would frighten me, because as a lieutenant I sure had some scary times.  Not been upset or worried at all.  Just cautious and patient.  The fact that I haven’t been shook up gives me confidence.

Diary Entry 24: Saigon, Saturday Night, 10 July 1965

Saigon

                                                              Saturday Night, 10 July 1965

   
Another day gone by and I’m back in the BOQ for a rest, provided the phone does not ring tonight.  Seems like it rings much too frequently at night these days.  Seeing what is going on, it is going to be only a short time before the headquarters is going to commence around-the-clock operations.  The way things are shaping up, that is the inevitable conclusion.  So to avoid any embarrassment in the future, I intend to put my branch on a 24-hour footing beginning Monday.  Probably won’t be very popular as too many have become accustomed to daylight operations and I’ve found it nearly impossible to find one of my people at night when a flap comes up.  While I’m always available in my BOQ, it seems like my subordinates are out on the town.  No one admits knowing where they are.  So beginning Monday I’ll know where everybody is 24 hours a day and we’ll have an officer on duty around the clock.  There will be some grumbling, but sooner or later people have got to come to grips that we are at war.  And the officers and EM I have under me have never been to war before.  They don’t understand the meaning of the word because they have not lived in the fear and heartbreak of a war.  Back in Saigon, the living is plush and the meaning of war is remote to these people.  But believe me, after Monday, 3 officers of my branch will know about it as they are going up front for a visit.  The boss has already been 3 times so there can be no kick on that point. I plan to send all my people up on a continuing rotating basis in the future.  I may never be very loved by my people, but think I’ll be respected and will get a lot more effort out of them in the future.

    Spent most of the day at the office, going in circles on things that don’t count very much, i.e. paperwork.  Spent a good deal of time with my bosses Colonel Plate and General Crowley working over operations plans and revising same.  Got tired of the office routine and went to Tan Son Nhut airfield to watch my airline operate.  Think that I must be partial to air for some reason, as I try to find all sorts of excuses to get out and watch them or go with them for a delivery.  Don’t feel the same affection for my steamship company.  Moves too slow.

Tonight I’d really like to go over to the Rex and have a great big steak, but the place will be jammed and therefore a good target.  So will just stay home with peanut butter. Grady informs me that the Rex is supposed to be hit this weekend, so they’ve got lots of police out.

Expect my officers think I’m some kind of a nut as they never see me in the evening at the Rex, where most of them go.  Have cautioned them, but as mentioned earlier, they don’t realize what explosives can do.  But I’ll probably do much better if I just come home and go to bed at night.  Think they fail to understand the importance of caution, and patience, and prudence.  Looks like most people get hurt because they fail to observe one of those 3 principles.

The hotel I live in is not guarded like the Rex.  We have only one National Police out front (we call them White Mice because their uniforms are white).  The MPs don’t

provide too much protection, because any zapping is going to be an inside job.  This BOQ is so insignificant that I doubt it will ever be a target.  The VC want and need big targets like the Rex.

I can’t influence Grady not to drink and am not going to try.  He says he is going to move tomorrow to the Vinh Loi just down the street.  While I’ve known him a long time, he’s not the best kind of roommate to have.

Surprisingly enough, Vietnam is not as hot or as uncomfortable as Montgomery.  It is hot, the humidity is high, but I find it reasonably comfortable.  I think people at home have the wrong impression of the weather over here.  It is neither hot nor cool, just a steady warm and humid temperature.

The loading and unloading situation is worse than it was when I arrived, and it’s going to get worse before it gets better.  The port and terminal facilities of South Vietnam were never designed to handle the traffic which is going through now.

   
            Coming over here is an interesting experience.  It’s cleaner than most Asian places, but a lot dirtier than the USA.  It’s a lot of fun to watch the people, especially the drivers. It’s just a wonder that half the population is not killed every day by taxicabs.

Diary Entry 23: Saigon, Friday Night, 9 July 1965

                                                                                                     Saigon
                                                                                                     Friday Night, 9 July 1965

    Home late again as usual and dining tonight on cheese and crackers.  Decided it would be a pleasant change from peanut butter.

Started to write an entry last Wednesday night from an office out at Tan Son Nhut while I was waiting for a conference to start.  After the first page was written, the

conference got started and I haven’t stopped until now.  After the conference on Wednesday night, we were up until early Thursday morning threshing out the plans.  In the p.m. flew down to Vung Tau on business and got back here late that night.  Today I’ve been busy trying to catch up on all the paperwork that didn’t get done on Thursday.   Man!  There’s more paper here than in the Pentagon.  I don’t count the sheets of paper anymore, I just weigh them by the pound.  We do so much writing during the day that I can hardly hold a pen at night.

Tomorrow and Sunday I hope to get fully caught up on paperwork so I can get back to doing something worthwhile on Monday.  But like as not a flap of some unimportant nature will come up, like the one generated late today by the enclosed copy of a letter.  I’ve been in and out of more generals’ offices today explaining why the Sgt. (and a lot of others) is not going to get beer by air delivery any time soon.  With all the problems I’ve got, moving beer is the least of my worries!  Anyway, I have been browbeat all over the place today about beer by air but am kinda proud that I stuck by my position.  The beer will go if any general officer in this command will sign in writing that it is more important than bullets.  Then I’ll order bullets off the planes and we’ll fly beer.  But you know what?  No general over here will sign such a piece of paper.  Wish they’d get so mad they would fire me and send me home!
   

Just took a break of 5 minutes and went up on the roof patio to look over the city.  I could see all over Saigon:  bright and pretty neon lights and could look all the way to
Nha Be and watch the artillery firing at the VC.  Never went to a war like this before. 
          

When I came in tonight Grady informed me that he is moving a few doors down the street to the Vinh Loi BOQ.  It may be better than this one, but I don’t know whether
I will move or not later.  There are advantages to certain places that have dining rooms in them, but these are generally the big targets.  The place I stay now houses only about 30 officers, mostly captains and majors, so it isn’t like the Rex which has 300 colonels and lieutenant colonels.

Monday am going back to Vung Tau for most of the day to look around.  

[Transcript of previous page]
   
                    2 July 1965

Major General W. B. Rosson
Chief of Staff
MACV
Saigon, Vietnam

Dear General Rosson:

    I am writing to you, first to welcome you to Vietnam, and secondly to request your assistance in possibly settling a problem.

    I am presently a member of Detachment B-22, stationed at An Khe.  Due to our location, and the situation: [sic]  we are supplied mainly by air.  This is our problem.

    Our detachment orders its Commissary and PX items from Saigon.  After the processing, loading on palettes [sic] and hauling, and requesting aircraft,  the supplies are flown to An Khe.  We order our supplies periodically, and as such, in some large quantities.

    We presently have four hundred cases of beer sitting in Saigon.  This beer has been in Saigon, waiting to be shipped for over a month, and as yet, no action has been forthcoming to move it to our camp.  It is realized that this is a large quantity of beer.  I have been told by the people at TOC in Saigon, that the request through channels resulted in a negative reply.

    This is a morale problem.  We are forced to buy Vietnamese beer at the local price which runs high due to transportation and handling costs to bring this beer from Saigon.  The supply is limited in addition.

    My question to you sir, is whether anything can be done to correct this situation.  We have little entertainment here.  We seldom receive any movies and our location precludes any other type activity.

    As we are an operational detachment, we have our share of convoys, patrols, and operations in this area.  I realize this problem is rather insignificant in view of the major problems of this war.  And as a soldier, you take things as they come and do your best regardless.  However, I feel something might be done to overcome this problem.

    I hope my letter does not antagonize you, nor you mind my having written you concerning this little problem.

    I thank you for your indulgence and wish you a good tour in Vietnam.


                Best regards,
                Richard E. Bourne
                Sgt  RA 12591898
                Det B-22, 5th SFC
                APO 96295


[Clark’s handwritten comments at the bottom of the page:]  

I am up to my you-know-what in emergency lift of beans and bullets, and this guy wants beer.  I’d a whole lot rather answer this Sgt a great big NO! than I would some mother whose son died because he didn’t have ammo to shoot.  Besides, Special Forces, to whom this Sgt is assigned, has more airplanes than I do.  Looks like they could get the beer to him if they wanted to.

From The Editor: The Navy Exchange, Hair Spray, HSAS, and Corruption

In the previous diary entry on 7 July, Clark wrote, "Believe it or not, hair oil is not available at the PX, and this has been a sore point with me.  The PX has lots of female hair spray and lots of other ladies items even though there are only about 200 nurses in all of Vietnam.  But they don’t have things like men’s hair oil."

Clark was one of many contemporary observers who noticed that the Navy Exchange stocked quantities of women's items, like hair spray and cosmetics, that exceeded the 700 authorized females in South Vietnam.  Clark does not elaborate here, but it was apparent that the exchange stocked the hair spray for Americans to gift their Vietnamese girlfriends.  It was also apparent that large quantities of PX hair spray, along with alcohol, cigarettes, stereo equipment, television sets, movie and slide projectors, and clothing consistently appeared on the Saigon black market in the summer of 1965.  The story of PX hair spray is a story of corruption.

The Cholon Post Exchange and Commissary Store was located at 100 Hung Vuong Street in the U.S. Navy Headquarters Support Activity Saigon (HSAS or HEDSUPPACT) compound.  In 1965,  it was the largest and most profitable Navy Exchange in the world.  In November 1965, its sales exceeded 8.7 million dollars; the net profit from 1 June to 1 November 1965 was more than $1.75 million, more than twice the amount registered by the second-ranked Navy exchange at Yokosuku, Japan. 

Inside the Cholon Post Exchange, 1965.  (Photo courtesy Richard P. Clark, Jr. collection)

The Commissary store was a giant supermarket that served the U.S. military community and stocked a million-dollar inventory that included more than 1,500 canned and packaged items, 122 varieties of meat, and forty kinds of produce. 

Inside the Commissary Store, 1965.  (Photo courtesy Richard P. Clark, Jr. collection)

Captain Archie C. Kuntze was the commander of HSAS, the U.S. Navy's largest off-shore command.  In mid-1965, HSAS was a considerable military empire that reported through a chain of command that was independent of MACV.  In addition to the PX and commissary, HSAS had the responsibility of unloading ships in Saigon port, disbursing paychecks to all American military personnel in South Vietnam, operating all bachelor officers' and bachelor enlisted quarters, running a field hospital and dental clinic for sick and wounded troops, and feeding and entertaining American military men in clubs and messes.  HSAS also had the responsibility for administering more than $100 million in U.S. government funds.




Captain Archie C. Kuntze, commander, Headquarters Support Activity Saigon, 1965.  (Photo courtesy U.S. Navy)




















Kuntze was a high-living divorcee who styled himself "The Mayor of Saigon".  He slapped backs and shook hands at cocktail parties and social functions as though he were an American big-city mayor. Kuntze hosted his own parties which the American press reported as the most glittering and the talk of Saigon.   He acquired a Taiwanese girlfriend, Jannie Suen who was nineteen years younger than him, and lived in an elegant villa at 74 Hong Thap Tu in downtown Saigon. 

Kuntze behaved in a manner seemingly calculated to draw attention to himself and to annoy General Westmoreland.  For example, HSAS controlled all non-military vehicles in South Vietnam and was responsible for providing MACV with cars for Westmoreland and his senior staff.  Kuntze's official car was a 1964 Buick sedan with whitewall tires, the only vehicle with whitewall tires in all of Vietnam.  Although Westmoreland was a four-star general and the senior military officer in South Vietnam, HSAS assigned Westmoreland a less-prestigious Chevrolet sedan for his official vehicle.  Kuntze also aggressively courted the American and Vietnamese press.  Rare was the day that his picture or a story about him did not appear in a Saigon newspaper.  Whenever the Viet Cong bombed one of the hotels he had converted into servicemen's quarters, Kuntze rushed to the scene to direct rescue efforts and give briefings to newspeople.

Shortly after assuming command of MACV in 1964, Westmoreland pressed Admiral Ulysses S. Grant Sharp, the commander-in-chief, Pacific, and Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara, to replace HSAS with an Army logistical command.  In the spring of 1965, McNamara approved the logistical command and MACV drew up plans to phase out HSAS and turn over the Navy's responsibilities to the Army's 1st Logistical Command by the spring of 1966.

In mid-1965, investigators from the Defense Department, Navy, and Army flew to Saigon to look into problems associated with Kuntze and HSAS.  One of those problems involved 150,000 cases of hair spray requisitioned by HSAS.  Other problems included unexplained loss of significant quantities of exchange supplies that surfaced on the Saigon black market, and currency manipulation. 

By May 1966, Kuntze's empire collapsed.  The Navy dissolved HSAS and ordered Kuntze to the 12th Naval District headquarters in San Francisco, California.  In a World War II-era barracks at Treasure Island in San Francisco, Kuntze went before a court-martial and faced charges of illegally importing Thai silk in excess of his demonstrated need, illegally converting $12,000 of Vietnamese piasters and U.S. military scrip into dollars, and maintaining a mistress in his personal quarters.  In November 1966, a court composed of three admirals and six captains found Kuntze guilty of three acts unbecoming of a naval officer:  allowing Jannie to live in his quarters; allowing her to use a U.S. government vehicle; and importing Thai silk.   The Navy reprimanded Kuntze and reduced him in seniority, which ended his career.  Kuntze retired shortly after the court-martial.

The Navy handled the case delicately because its investigators had uncovered evidence implicating senior South Vietnamese government and military officials in black market activities.  Jannie Suen disappeared without a trace.

Diary Entry 22: Saigon, Wednesday Morning, 7 July 1965

                                                                                                         Saigon

                                                                                         Wednesday Morning, 7 July 1965

It’s almost unbelievable!  I went to sleep at 7:30 last night and did not get a phone call or other disturbance through the night!  Feel like a million dollars right now.  Will finish writing, bathe and dress, and go over to the Rex for breakfast if the VC didn’t blow it up while I was sleeping.  Believe it or not, hair oil is not available at the PX, and this has been a sore point with me.  The PX has lots of female hair spray and lots of other ladies items even though there are only about 200 nurses in all of Vietnam.  But they don’t have things like men’s hair oil.

Yesterday I spent most of the afternoon at Tan Son Nhut visiting my airline.  We had some operations to plan.  This morning I have to see General Crowley at 8 a.m. and General Westmoreland at 2 p.m.  Subject:  Airlift for rice shipments to civilians.  Gotta get some more planes from some place.