Word: walts
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...husky Kansan, winner of two World War II Navy crosses, was so committed to pacification that the Marines became known as "Walt's Peace Corps." While assault units like the 1st (Airmobile) Cavalry rode their helicopters to major set-piece battles against big Communist forces in unpopulated areas, Walt's outnumbered Marines, for the most part, had to fight mile by mile, hamlet by hamlet...
...switch in tactics from the gung-ho role in World War II and Korea made Walt a frequent target of criticism. The controversy also pointed up a split between Marine and Army commanders. Army men, pointing to such bloody engagements as la Drang, argued that the way to win was to kill the V.C. first and pacify the population later. The Marines replied that search-and-destroy tactics suitable for the wastes of the Central Highlands could not be employed in the populous seacoast of "Eye" corps. Moreover, they pointed out, wherever Army troops pulled out, the Viet Cong flowed...
Unfailingly Considerate but... Burdened with defense of the major jet bases at Danang and Chu Lai, committed to winning over a skeptical population and handicapped by having only 230 helicopters (v. 430 in one Army airmobile division), Walt fought the kind of war that the terrain demanded and his experience dictated. As popular with his troops as with the Vietnamese urchins he daily fed candy, Walt was known to enlisted men as "our squad leader in the sky" because of his tireless helicopter visits to combat areas. His blue eyes often misted over the sight of wounded Marines; yet they...
General William Westmoreland, who was quick to appreciate Walt's achievements-as was the Pentagon, which awarded him his third star after just nine months in Viet Nam-asked the Marine in the spring of 1966 to extend his one-year tour for six months. Then, after Walt's smashing defeat of a North Vietnamese division last summer, Westy asked him to stay another six months...
Soldier's Soldier. Six weeks ago, with 76,000 Marines and 19,000 soldiers under his command, Walt finally closed with major elements of 71,000 guerrillas and regulars threatening I Corps. Though the Marines pulverized the Communist forces, they took high casualties. Walt's critics cited the U.S. losses as the reason for his surrendering command to Lieut. General Robert E. Cushman Jr. Actually, it was known long before the DMZ battles that Walt, bone-weary from endless rounds of 15-hour days, was leaving Viet Nam at the end of his second year...