Word: vann
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...Split. For the Certains, as for the others, the timing seemed the cruelest blow of all. Robert was shot down on his last mission before flying home. "The family was gathering home for Christmas," said Mrs. George Vann, Certain's sister, from her parents' home in Silver Spring, Md. "My brother and his wife Robbie were coming from Arkansas. He was due home on R. and R. for Christmas." Another brother. Captain John Certain, is a tanker pilot based in Thailand...
John Paul Vann was a legendary figure in the long history of the U.S. presence in Indochina. A romantic and a perfectionist, he retired from the army in 1963 after a dispute with senior U.S. officials over American policy in South Viet Nam. After returning two years later as a civilian adviser, he conducted the notably successful pacification program in the Mekong Delta with his usual impatience and abrasiveness. Thirteen months ago he became the senior American adviser in the Central Highlands. By the time he died last week in a helicopter crash, while flying by night from his headquarters...
...short, wiry man with a sharp tongue, Vann had a penchant for being in the thick of the fighting. In late April, two helicopters were shot out from under him before he managed to rescue several American advisers from the surrounded headquarters of the 22nd ARVN Division at Tan Canh. In the last weeks of his life, Vann dedicated himself to the defense of Kontum. "There is nothing else for him now," TIME Correspondent John Mulliken wrote recently, "but the saving of Kontum. Like a French colonial, he has no real ties any more with home. He will live...
...Vann himself seemed to agree. "My entire involvement here," he once said, "has been to try to bring some reason and justice to our effort. One thing is for goddam sure, I'll never be able to get a job anywhere else...
John Paul Vann, the self-assured U.S. pacification chief of Military Region II, last week flatly predicted a step-up in Communist guerrilla activity followed by a major push-though no attempt at the countrywide "general uprising" that the Communists tried in 1968. His reasoning: at that time, 75% of the Viet Cong infrastructure was located inside population centers. Now the figure, according to Vann, is only...