Word: war
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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WHEN the President's Midway announcement crackled over transistor radios tuned to the Armed Forces Viet Nam Network last week, few G.I.s even paused in their tasks to listen to it. Rumors of troop withdrawals had been making the rounds in the war zone since peace talks got under way in Paris a year ago; when nothing happened, the results were skepticism and indifference. Then word reached the men of the U.S. 9th Infantry and 3rd Marine Divisions that some of them would be among the first 25,000 to be replaced by Vietnamese troops. Green second lieutenants and combat...
...overwhelming change in the arithmetic of U.S. commitment. Yet it is a tangible and substantive measure that is part of a larger strategy. For the first time since the initial contingent of 35 American military advisers arrived in Indo-China in 1950?it was the French-Viet Minh war then?the level of U.S. participation in the conflict is going down, not up. So is the draft call, which is dropping more than 3,000 in July to the lowest monthly figure so far this year. Richard Nixon's approach may fail. The effect on the Paris negotiations...
...individual fighting men, like soldiers in all wars, are relatively unconcerned with the big picture. In the 9th Division, which will part with its 1st and 2nd Brigades, and in the 3rd Marines, which will detach its 9th regimental landing team, some men began packing their bags. Many were already nearing the end of their tour; others still had several months to serve. Fighting in a war of attrition, in which kill ratios are more important than territorial objectives, they have come to believe that their one-year tour of duty is something to be endured. For most, personal survival...
...will remain behind when the first chosen units depart Viet Nam for other stations in the Pacific, or in the case of 8,000 men, for the U.S., the war goes on. To the majority, the withdrawals remain little more than a gesture. Those just beginning tours in the combat zone might hope for future troop cuts. But few look beyond the next patrol. "Man, it doesn't mean nothing," said a member of a 25th Division weapons platoon on hearing the news, and his remarks were echoed by most of the men in his unit. Some servicemen share...
...most G.I.s, the withdrawal is a political rather than a military move, and one that will have little immediate effect on either them or the war. "This business is meant to pacify the folks at home," commented a military policeman in Saigon. "We're going to stay here for a long time." Pfc. Jimmy Poston, born in Guam, a 20-year-old draftee who serves as an assistant gunner in a mortar platoon, is also unfazed. "All the political speeches and stuff don't mean anything when you're over here," he says. "Boy, you know they were talking about...