Diary Entry 54: Saigon, Saturday Night, 4 September 1965

                                                                                                     Saigon
                                                                                                     Saturday Night, 4 September 1965


[Major] Harry the Hoss [Brockman] is packing up his things tonight so he’ll be ready to leave tomorrow to go up-country to Nhatrang.  He has to close up his business with Special Forces which has headquarters there and he’ll sign out and be back here next weekend and go home on Tuesday.  I sure envy him going home.  Harry went shopping today and I believe he spent all of his money as I had to treat him to dinner.  He kinda bought up Saigon to take souvenirs to everyone.  Had planned to go shopping with him but things happened and I had to get back to the office.  At the rate he spent money today, it’s a good thing I did not go with him!  I’d have been broke and neither one of us would have gotten supper tonight.

This morning I got off at 9:00 a.m. to move to my new BOQ [the Vinh Loi] and spent about 2 hours carrying things down the street.  Like my new place very much.  Quite comfortable.  It’s a relief to be in a place where you don’t have to put up with people like my roommate.




The Vinh Loi Bachelor Officers' Quarters, 129-131 Ham Nghi Boulevard, Cholon, Saigon, South Vietnam, 1965.  Clark lived in Room 406 from September 1965 to June 1966.  (Photo courtesy Richard P. Clark, Jr. collection)




After getting moved I went down to the Rex for lunch while Harry went over to MACV I to begin his out-processing.  At 3:00 p.m. we were going shopping together but I got a call to get back to work right away as some things suddenly turned up wrong.  We had a big flap going when I got back so we had a conference set up to try to settle things.  It was not a success, I’m afraid that I did not make many friends at the conference, but all concerned got my honest views anyway.  We have another conference set up tomorrow but that one probably won’t settle anything either.  I think we have a pretty bad situation, but not very many people want to hear bad news and I’m not willing to cover it up.

Harry and I had dinner at the Rex with Captain Jacques, US Navy, who is CO of the Military Sea Transport Service in Vietnam.  It was a real pleasant dinner (I had fried shrimp) and then we went out on the Rex patio to listen to the band and singers until 10:00 p.m. and then walked back up here.