Diary Entry 112: Saigon, Monday Night, 3 January 1966

                                                                                Saigon
                                                                                Monday Night, 3 January 1966


As the Vietnamese would say, today was No. 1 day; yesterday No. 10 day. Today I got lots of work done and feel like what I did was worthwhile. Yesterday was mostly spent in very inconclusive conferences, meetings, and discussions. I hate conferences because you wind up usually with a committee decision: neither good nor bad and mostly neutral. As a consequence, little if anything gets off dead center and you just maintain the same old status quo.

Today I mostly worked by myself and got some things off the ground. Whether they will later get shot down by the less bold remains to be seen.  No new word from Niederman on the trip back to the States. Perhaps I will hear something this week. I’ll be glad to come [home]. I need a rest. A year is just about all a man can take of the tremendous pressures generated on people over here. I’ll probably have a hard time adjusting to a slower pace when I leave here.

Oh yes, one thing coming up is that [I] must give a briefing on Thursday to General Westmoreland on passenger airline service with high speed aircraft for the troops. Reckon tomorrow I’ll start getting ready for it. Just like teaching another class at Leavenworth. Must be glib and convincing.

No news on my future assignment as yet. Ought to get some sort of orders next month or in March. I wrote a personal letter to [Major] Gonzalez [a staff officer in the Officer Personnel Office, Transportation Corps Branch, Department of the Army] to see what he could do to get me put fairly close to Montgomery if not there itself. About the only suggestion he had was Strike Command at Tampa, Fla. Well, so far as location goes, it sure beats Washington.

The Chinese are celebrating some kind of holiday today, and although it is strictly forbidden, they are setting off  firecrackers every now and then. I’ll bet this makes the MPs and Vietnamese police a little nervous. It is hard to distinguish a firecracker explosion from a gun shot.

Noticed by the paper this morning that the 173d Airborne is on an operation down in the Plain of Reeds in the Delta region and they have made pretty heavy contact with the VC. Sure hope Lee Surut doesn’t get tagged in his last few months over here. He will rotate in May and the 173d has been on almost continuous operations since I arrived.

This will probably continue, so he runs a high risk. But expect he’s got sense enough to take care of himself.

Diary Entry 111: Saigon, Saturday Night, 1 January 1966

                                                                     Saigon
                                                                     Saturday Night, 1 January 1966

Today was the day that I was going to sleep late and then get caught up on my writing. Well, it just didn’t quite work out the way I planned. But that is par for the course in Vietnam.

By my usual waking hours, did manage to sleep a little late until 7:30 a.m. The air conditioner [in his quarters] is shut off every morning at 6:15 so by 7:30 I was forced to get up as a result of the heat. Went down to the Hong Kong BOQ for breakfast and took along my camera with the idea that it would be good to get some more pictures.

After breakfast I went by the office to read over the message traffic which had arrived during the night to see if there was anything hot that General Crowley would be interested in. It’s a mistake to be a conscientious worker. There’s always work for the guy who is interested in things. Had 2 real hot wires marked "personal from Mc" [Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara] and "personal from Sharp." [Commander-in-Chief Pacific, Admiral Ulysses S. Grant Sharp]  So from about 10 a.m. until 8 p.m., I was busy working as usual. The only difference was that I was wearing civilian clothes instead of the usual uniform.




Clark at Movements Branch, 1 January 1966.  (Photo courtesy Richard Paris Clark, Jr. collection)


After we finished all the conferences and discussion, I went to the Hong Kong again and had supper before coming back here to my roost. Tomorrow I have to go to work early and finish up in polished form what we drafted today. Seems like I write so much during the day that it’s a wonder that [I have] the wrist strength to pick up a fountain pen at night!

[Lieutenant Colonel] Lee Surut [commander of the 3rd Battalion, 319th Artillery, 173d Airborne Brigade] came down from Bien Hoa to visit me on Thursday. We had lunch together. He looks very good---very tanned and tough looking. We had a pleasant couple of hours talking. He has orders to Washington and he said that he hoped I would go there too. Told him I wasn’t the least bit interested; wanted something down south close to Montgomery.

[Major] Harry Brockman sent me a Xmas card and a letter. I have to write to him soon. [Major] Carl [Smith] and [his wife] Charlotte also sent a card and Carl wrote a letter. He is expecting orders to Vietnam when he finishes his tour at Leavenworth. Sorry Bout That! By that time it should be a real big thing over here.

Just went upstairs to see if [Lieutenant Colonel] Grady [Cole, a staff officer in Counterintelligence Branch, MACV J-2] was home but he wasn’t. Wanted to wish him a Happy New Year and see what poop he had from Leavenworth or about the VC. Maybe I’ll try later.

When I first came over here, I thought it would be nice to keep a lot of notes so someday if I wanted to write about my experiences there would be sufficient reference material. Well, that’s okay for platoon leaders but when you are privy to high level operations, you just can’t do it. It was a good idea which was not realistic.

From The Editor: "We Are Getting Visited To Death": Official Visitors to MACV Headquarters, 1965

Source:  MACV Command History, 1965.

Note the sharp increase in high-ranking official visitors in October and November, when the port congestion crisis became critical.

From The Editor: Railroad Status in South Vietnam, 31 December 1965

Source:  MACV Command History, 1965.

From The Editor: MACV Cargo and Passenger Airlift Statistics, 1965

Source:  MACV Command History, 1965.

From The Editor: MACV In-Country Cargo Movement Statistics, 1965.

Source:  MACV Command History, 1965.

Diary Entry 110: Saigon, Friday Night, 31 December 1965

                                                                        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.