Summons of the Trumpet, by Dave R. Palmer
Patton, George S.
BOOKS IN REVIEW - "Summons of the Trumpet, by Dave R. Palmer" people live on cooperatives and state farms and toil unendingly. Here, with modern society smashed to pieces, the wheel is continually being reinvented. It was the boast of Radio Phnom Penh, a year...
...During the action we succeeded in capturing a slightly wounded North Vietnamese captain...
...Phu: I have not been home for eight years...I cannot answer more...
...This was a crucial turning point because it demonstrated that the Viet Cong were tough, that they could inflict serious damage, and, most important, that the United States had a long way to go before it could put its stamp of approval on a truly combat-ready South Vietnamese Army...
...In so tautly organized a society there is obviously no room for dissentient attitudes...
...It is a distinguished history of those strange and confusing years at the end of which our great nation suffered its first (and hopefully last) strategic defeat, at the hands of an eighth-rate nation which simply demonstrated one of the priceless ingredients needed for success in war—a national will to win...
...I arrived and found our prisoner, whom I shall call "Phu," sitting under a tree smoking an American cigarette and drinking a cold Fresca...
...g. , Buddhism—are specifically outlawed by the Kampuchean constitution...
...You have few weapons, no food, medical supplies are scarce...
...Further, he had the guts to get up and say what he believed...
...Phu" was right—as right as Colonel Palmer is in Summons of the Trumpet...
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...Horrific they must be, or George McGovern would hardly have noticed...
...There was a short but sharp engagement between our elements and a North Vietnamese battalion...
...We served together in 1962 when I first arrived in Vietnam and he was assigned as Senior Advisor, 7th ARVN Division, in the Mekong Delta...
...The entrance of Richard Nixon, the search for peace, Vietnamization, literally all of the steps taken until that final helicopter sortie from the grounds of the American Embassy in April 1975, are well described...
...after-action report, which I prepared, was "sanitized" after the battle by a senior staff officer in HQ MACV...
...Box 877, Bloomington, IN 47401 Dear Baron: Please send me my very own American Spectator Turkey tee shirt (Paris Green on white...
...Phu: My Colonel, your country will simply tire before we do...
...He had been wounded in the hand, requiring some minor medical treatment...
...Out of this battle emerged one of the great characters of the period, John Paul Vann...
...The chapter, "Rolling Thunder," is a must, particularly Palmer's discussion of the selection of targets by OSD civilians in the Pentagon—the centralized controls of a time when "policy makers...seemed to do everything but actually fly the aircraft...
...Since the senator's confession, Tom Hayden and Jane Fonda have also expressed their concern...
...34 The American Spectator December 1978 We now know the unpleasant answer...
...This was a rare event and, accordingly, my Intelligence Officer, Major Andrew O'Meara, called me to the scene to confer with this POW before he was evacuated...
...On Christmas Day, 1975, a Khmer friend said to him: "In France there are societies for the protection of animals and factories which manufacture special food for dogs and cats...
...I have personal knowledge that the immediate Major General George S. Patton is Deputy Commander, HQ VII Corps, New York...
...It is my view that this perception of weakness continues today, especially among some of our allies...
...Phu: I had been wounded...
...EIjritmag urkep: $6.00 American Spectator Turkey tee shirts and jackets are ideal for students, part-time athletes, contemplatives, bons vivants, and for those who are merely into chic...
...Reactionary religions"—e...
...we had sustained several casualties and I saw no point in resisting further...
...I congratulate him for making yet another significant contribution to history...
...It is precious enough,...to be valued, but because it is of unlimited abundance, one can hardly use too much of it...
...If this is the case, why don't you let us get you a loudspeaker, put you in a helicopter, and fly you over yourbattalion area so you can announce to your troops that it is all over and that they should come out...
...In mid-January 1969, we experienced a minor enemy contact slightly north of Bien Hoa in the III Corps Tactical Zone...
...When I last saw him in March 1969, he told me that he knew he was to die in Vietnam...
...Enclosed is $12 per jacket, three for $30...
...Thus that which we husband the most carefully, they [the North Vietnamese] expend the most liberally...
...The price of Vietnam is heavy and abiding...
...Phu: Yes, I have lost this battle, but you did not ask me who will lose the last battle...
...From "struggle" a new race is to be born, though, as Ponchaud notes, "only by killing an old art of living compounded of freedom, tolerance, and respect for life...
...It rings true...
...Writes Palmer, time `is an endless stream flowing from an in-finitely regenerating source...
...At this time, Palmer writes, arose the question of who would back down: Hanoi, as a result of our rising military assault, or the United States, be-cause of the national dissent movement...
...All is warfare against nature and the elements, not to say the reactionaries...
...Colonel Palmer next turns to one of the vital episodes of the war, the battle of Ap Bac on 2 January 1963...
...For hawk, dove, or moderate, either at home or abroad, this is a superb account of what really happened in Vietnam and cost our nation not only tragic losses of men and materiel but also much of its national prestige...
...The American Spectator December 1978 35...
...Perhaps the most scholarly section of the book is that which deals with operation "Rolling Thunder," the orchestrated bombing of North Vietnam intended to convince Hanoi to cease its aggressive acts...
...It's the Official American Spectator Turkey, designed exclusively for The American Spectator through the coordinated efforts of the world's toniest fashion salons in Paris, London, and Gary, Indiana...
...I first met Vann in the fall of 1957 when he and I were classmates at the Command and General Staff College in Leaven-worth, Kansas...
...There can be no bleaker land anywhere...
...So would Ponchaud...
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...Chou En-lai him-self is said to have urged restraint on Khieu Samphan...
...Thus, with Palmer's negative appraisal of Vann I must disagree...
...Ponchaud also blames the feu-dal nature of postcolonial Cambodia for creating a revolutionary atmosphere...
...For answers, Ponchaud turns to the Cambodian character—unforgiving of enemies...
...But where are the protest marches, the waving banners and shrieks of outrage, that once enlivened Pennsylvania Avenue and the Berkeley campus...
...Summons of the Trumpet analyzes the enemy's 1968 pre-Tet strategy, the battles of Tet, and the subsequent withdrawal of President Johnson from the presidential race...
...Look what we have here against you...
...In short, Colonel Palmer has put the whole tragic story together in a readable, factual volume which is the finest work on the Vietnam War that I have seen...
...Had some of his words been heard by more important and influential listeners in 1963, it is my view that our nation would be better off today...
...CO 11 Cav: Why...
...The next several chapters relate to the vast military build-up which commenced during the spring of 1965 and continued through Tet, 1968...
...We will endure longer than you and thus we will win...
...The Cambodians must be less than animals, then, since nobody can be bothered to defend them...
...He faults the erratic policies of Prince Sihanouk, the country's leader from 1941 to1970, for having undercut its stability and made possible the Communist triumph...
...Barron and Paul would like to know...
...It is well to remember that during this period (1966-1968), anti-war movements in the United States were daily gaining in intensity...
...Why so thoroughgoing a transformation —such a transformation as not even China or Russia experienced...
...CO 11 Cav: But you say you have lost this battle...
...CO 11 Cav: OK, who will lose the last battle...
...Our exchange, conducted originally in French, follows: CO 11 Cav: I understand that you surrendered to us a short while ago...
...but I cannot do that...
...It is important to note that the results of the Ap Bac battle were not accurately reported at the time to CINCPAC and presumably the JCS...
...Phu: That is a tempting suggestion, very tempting...
...The escalation of the advisory effort is examined and the milestones of that involvement—such as General Maxwell Taylor's visit of November 1961 and the establishment of the Military Assistance Command Vietnam (of which I was an early member)—are accurately recounted...
...It was the boast of Radio Phnom Penh, a year after the conquest, that "medicines are be-coming increasingly scientific...
...From this developed our strategy of the mid-sixties, known as "graduated response...
...Number wanted: Large Extra Large (XL is recommended for most people as these 100% cotton shirts will shrink) Please send me my very own American Spectator Turkey jacket (white on Navy Blue...
...His prediction was correct...
...This book begins by describing United States activities in the so-called "Advisory Decade," 1954-1961, which came hard on the heels of the Korean War...
...prone to take a simple idea and push it "to the limits of its internal logic and often to the point of absurdity, without any regard for realities or any forethought for practical consequences...
...please print Name Address City State Zip Gift for: Address City State Zip Gift card to read "From 1112 -rSPECTATOk Now for the gimmick...
...I have reflected on this conversation many times since January 1969...
...We will ship the items posthaste, via United Parcel Service if possible...
...He was a great soldier, thoroughly dedicated to what he believed to be right for both Vietnam and the U.S...
...Life in Kampuchea is geared to "struggle," a favorite word of the regime...
...BOOK REVIEW Summons of the Trumpet Dave R. Palmer / Presidio Press / $12.95 George S. Patton Summons of the Trumpet is "the story of American military involvement in Vietnam—why we entered, what we did, and how we left...
...Avoid the Christmas rush...
...To receive your very own American Spectator Turkey tee shirt or jacket—or to have us send one to some turkey on your Christmas list—just clip the order form, or send a reasonable facsimile, along with your check to The Saturday Evening Club...
...You can't eat this turkey but you can wear it...
...Thus the higher levels of command were denied knowledge of what really happened at Ap Bac...
...We know that...
...I do believe you will keep your word, my Colonel...
...and human relations, in-cluding the upbringing of children, have become the care of the state...
...This strategy discounted time, and correctly perceived an inherent weakness of our society—our passion for quick victories in war...
...As you probably have guessed by now, these turkeys adorn the American Spectator Turkey tee shirts and jackets, which we are trying to sell to you through this advertisement...
...He then carefully analyzes the gently-shifting strategy of Hanoi and its great revolutionary leader, Ho Chi Minh, into a protracted war-fare scenario...
...THE SATURDAY EVENING CLUB P.O...
...CO 11 Cav: You say you were defeated just now—your unit...
...CO 11 Cav: Why did you do that...
...Is that correct...
...He had commanded a ranger company in Korea (in the early days), and literally symbolized the energetic, professionally motivated, and capable soldier so badly needed today...
...Colonel Palmer takes us through the overthrow and execution of President Diem, recalling the political turbulence and unstable leadership that afflicted the Vietnamese republic in the early 1960s...
...Today, even after three years, the killing and oppression go on...
...We will provide your people with hot food, cold drinks, tobacco, whatever they want, and I will give you my word as a fellow officer that we will not shell or bomb them while this is going on...
...Phu: Yes...
...For Cambodia the world has turned upside down...
...My country will win in the end...
...How can you say that we will eventually lose...
...By this I mean South Vietnam...
...CO 11 Cav: How long have you been in this particular area...
...It's as easy as that...
...We became fast friends...
...Three years later he was killed as a result of enemy action...
...Several battles, such as the Ia Drang Valley and Cedar Falls, are described in detail, and the evolution of our tactics in accordance with the strategy of "graduated response" is fully explained...
...He was not in pain...
...I n this connection, I would like to recount a personal experience which occurred while I was privileged to command the 11th Cavalry in 1968-1969 in Vietnam...
...Phu: The United States will lose the last battle and the war...
...That failure generated a lack of world confidence in what the United States is willing to do by force of arms...
...Enclosed is $6 per shirt, three for $15...
Vol. 11 • December 1978 • No. 12
