Two months ago at 1..ongbinh jail near Saigon, Colonel Rheault took regular morning exorcise (above) with three fellow firma Beret pris- oners. Today, resigned from the Army, ho is at home in Brookline, Masa. with his wife Non talkmg over the end of a 23-year military career. The Fall of a 'Lost Soldier'

In France in the 1950.r the }Hung men of killed. That doctrine had collided with and their place in the Army would re- the elite paratroops returned from the the broader ethical standards of the ci- main clouded. The most ironic conse- wars: in Indochina and Algeria, too early vilian world, which in this event the quences of the whole affair have fallen hardened and too early disaffected. They Army command upheld. For Vietnam upon the commander himself, Colonel had believed one way, while the peopre and for America, the case of the Green Robert Rheault. Here was a man whose back home, with a more complicated Berets would always evoke haunting single-minded purpose from the age of vision, believed another way moral and legal questions. 17 exemplified national ideals of patri- Had there been a trial with a de- otism, challenge and duty. Now his ca- In Vietnam last summer a suspected cisive outcome, that might have pro- reer as a professional officer had abrupt- South Vietnamese double agent named duced some answers. But when the lycollapsed. Now by the aberrant, equiv- Thai K hac Chuycn was killed near Nha- charges were dropped by the Army, it ocal principles of war as it is waged in trang. Within a few weeks eight mem- meant that henceforth these men would the shadows, the model soldier had him- bers of the U.S. Army's Special Forces always reside in a moral twilight some- self become its victim stood accused of his murder—and at the where between guilt and exoneration. center of a painful, ambiguous dilemma. Unconvicted, they remained free men . . . Sometinres, usually abroad, these They believed their conduct had been with nothing on their official military men were called the Centurions. Back in dictated by time-honored. pragmatic records but high marks and decorations. France among thenrsetres, they were military doctrine: kill the enemy or be Vet without acquittal, their reputations coiled les soidats perdus, the lost soldiers.

35 A believer in self-reliance and elitism

by FRANK McCULLOCH

On Oct, 31, his 44th birthday, cd to them in a wartime situation." The second reality was the key Fort Riley. Kansas. He spent the rive months rifler taking a com- Colonel Rheault's decision to re- to Rheault's decision, for he and years there as an mand he had coveted for years, a sign pains him deeply. As he talks, the Berets were made for each oth- O.C.S. and intelligence instructor, little more than four months after changing expressions chase them- er. Despite his years in the Army. unavailingly "heating my head the death of Thai Khac Chuyen„ selves across his patrician features Rheault is essentially a loner who against the wall trying to get to three months after he had been re• with amazing rapidity. His gray revels in activities that test the in- where the action was." heard and arrested, one month eyes harden and his brow furrows dividual. His sports are skiing, He finally reached Korea in after the charges against him and beneath his graying blond brush• mountain climbing and hunting, 1953, as a captain, just as the shoot- the other Green Berets had been cut, making him look older than which pose maximum personal ing stopped. Promotions came dropped and they had returned his years. "My decision to resign," challenge, and Rheault does all su- slow in the postwar Array. But af- to the U.S., Colonel Robert B. he says, shifting the six-foot body perlatively well. "Challenge is ter 71I4 years as a captain he made Rheaull resigned from the U.S. that tarries the same 160 pounds what life is all about," he says. major while head or the French de- Army. It was the most difficult it bore when he was a first-year ca- "Without it, there is no meaning." partment at West Point. During step, the colonel says.. he has ever del, "was based on art objective, Rheault, wearing combat boots, three years of duty there, he be- taken. Since he entered West Point cold-blooded evaluation of the fu• can still run a mile in sin and one- tmme fascinated with the mission as a 17-year-old cadet, he had done ture." Thai evaluation revealed hall minutes and dots sit-ups, and concepts of a new semisecret nothing but soldier. The Army had two harsh realities as far as he was push-ups and chin-ups every day. outfit in the Army. the Special been his work, his challenge, his concerned. He believes in personal initiative, Forces. Rhea Lilt was drawn strong- satisfaction, and he was shocked "The Army offered me several sett-sufficiency and elitism; being a ly to an all volunteer elite com- when Army Secretary Stanley R. pretty good jobs. after I got back, part of, a leader of, "the best of prised of the smartest and best the Rtwor. in announcing that the but that didn't change the fact that the best" brought him the deepest Army had. charm against the Berets had been my chances of further promotion satisfaction of his career. At the same time, Rheault dis- dropped, implied expediency was were almost nonexistent. I didn't covered that he wan "splitting off the reason. want to become a bitter old fad of The career that ended Oct. 31 be- emotionally from the great mass of "The charges should have been a colonel mumbling into my mar- gan in the summer of 1943, when the Army, the endless treadmill or diepped," says Colonel Rheault, tinis about the star I should have Bob Rheault left Westwood, Mass. trying to get myself and other peo- "because to conduct the trial had but never got. for West Point, Like many officers ple ready for World War 111, 4 pos- would have been dangerous and "And even if I had been permit- of his generation, he is still embar- sibility which for me had faded into damning.. It would also have been ted to finish my tour in Vietnam, I rassed that he spent World War If the background." He was glad that a Travesty of justice to try dedicat- would never be able to serve in the in the security of the Point. After "there were people who were will- ed soldiers for doing their job, car- Special Forces again—and that ex• graduating from there, he put in ing to sit around planning peroom- rying out their mission, and pro- pert ence was so great that it spoiled three years as a lieutenant in Eu- ic divisions, and all or that stuff— tecting the lives of the men entrust- me for any other Army service," rope, followed by an assignment to hut it just wasn't for me."

Rheault and the mysterious case of Thai Khac Chuyen evening of June 21, in Nhatrang, Rheault received a call from Security resin-ohms prevent Calo- namese agents working for B-57 its Colonel Rheault arrived from Oki- Abrams. Could the Chuyen mis- mel Rheaufr from discussing the the field suddenly refused to accept nawa on May 29 to take command Stun be recalled? No. sir, it could Chuyen case. But the fallowing forts direction and quit furnishing intel- of all Special Forces operations in not, Rheault replied, and asked if about his role are known: ligence. Obviously an important el- Vietnam, the Berets were con- he could call back on a special se- ement in the net had broken down. vinced that Chuyen was in fact a cure circuit to explain. Never mind, Thai Khac Chuyen was the prin- A Few weeks later, in a captured double agent. It is unlikely, con- the general reportedly said. Come cipal Vietnamese agent for a small, roll of film, developed at Green Be- sidering the size of his command to Saigon immediately yourself. highly classified Green Beret sub- ret FIQ in Nhatrang, Chuyen's (3,000 men), that Rheault was told When Rheault got to Saigon that unit called B-57, whose mission is Amerimul "handler" saw his agent about Chuyen at this time, But he same night, he related the agreed- intelligence gathering in the border talking with a known North Viet. allegedly approved the mid-June upon cover story to an audience areas of . In late nem= officer. Chuyen wan kept Green Beret decision to eliminate consisting of a CIA representative April or early May, a team of Viet- under surveillance. By the time the agent. The Berets asked the and several high-ranking military CIA for advice about Chuyen, but officers. Abrams was not present. In Vietnam last spring Rheault met with Asian Special Forces commanders the CIA told them in essence that There the matter might have the agent was a Beret problem. On rested, had not another Beret the night of June 20 Chuyen was — Chuyen's former "handler - executed. A cover story—that he - suddenly turned himself in at war °don an extremely dangerous the CFA heintIverterim in Nnetrang mission into —was con. and refuted the cover story. When :rimed to mask his disappearance. word reached Saigon. Abrams Rheault reportedly okayed it. reportedly blew up, demanded a For unexplained reasons. the full investigation, and one by CIA became uneasy about the case, one eight Berets were arrested. and told U.S. military commander Rheault was the last. On July 21 he General what was relieved of his command and they thought had happened. On the placed under guard at Longbinh. 'I thought Dad was in Vietnam to kill Vietcong'

oPerriseito earn a Plaster's degree in interna- tional relations from George Washington University; the sec- ond at the Pentagon, where he was promoted to full colonel and worked for the Joint Chiefs of Staff an special operations for Southeast Asia; and the last as commander of the 1st Special Fnrom Group DES Okinawa. Berets in his command were involved in operations from Korea to Thailand. Rheault left Okinawa to take charge or the Special Forces in Vietnam on May 28, electing not to take leave to return his family to the States. He arrived at Nha- trang on the 29th, and three weeks later Chuyen died. Had Rheault taken his leave, the matter might never have touched his life. But lease was out of the ques- tion. "This was the greatest com- mand in the world for me,- he says. "I think I was the test qualified man to hold it, not because I'm no great personally bus because it was a job I had been preparing myself for for 10 years." The men who have served undtr him, however, leave no doubt how great they think he is. When Rheault and his companions were in custody at the U.S. Army base at Longbinh, one possibly apocry- phal story has it that other Berets in Vietnam plotted to break them out, even going so far as to pre- pare false passports for the inert. But ward of the plan reached Rheault, and he quietly sent back instructions to drop it Trite or riot, the story reflects the intense loyal- ty Rheault inspires its hit teen. On the second night or his im- prisonment, Rheault wrote to his wife Nan. Within the severe limits of security and a wish not to wor- ry her unduly, he tried to explain what had happened. Nan reacted to the letter, she says, ''tis though it were a snake that had just bitten me. For a while, I just didn't know pouring in in such volume that the some pincers received him coolly, On his return to the U.S.., Rheault what to do, where to tuns." Rheaults had to hire a secretary to but others urged him to stay in. stood bowed before a press confer- When the news broke and she help answer it. Of She hundreds of Then a three-star general for wham ence at Travis air base in California. had her talk with the children—Su- messages, all but two of them of- he has particular respect asked: sanne, 28, Michele, 17, and Rob- fered support. "Bob, if you could have any jab ert Jr. or "Skid," II—they re- Without any firm ideas of what in the Army you wanted right now, ceived it calmly. "What's all the he wanted to do in civilian life oth- what would it be?" At a park across from his home in fuss about?" Skid said. "I thought er than a long-standing interest in Almost without thinking, Bob Brookline, he talks quietly with 11- that's what Dad was in Vietnam for conservation work and teaching, Rheault replied, "Command of the year-old Skid, his youngest child. —to kill the Vietcong" Rheault says, "I bad to find out 5th Special Forces in Vietnam." Together again,Bob Rheaultand where I stood with the Army, and When the general smiled, and his family set about "sorting out where the Army stood with me." spread his hands wide, Rhcault our thoughts, trying to decide what He visited the Pentagon for sev- says, "f knew then what my should come next," Mail came eral days in mid-October, and decision had to be." g

Si In 1.935m age 10,53011 Rheault and his father. at one time aCa- multaa Mountie, climbed Mt. Chocorua in New Hampshire. In 1947. after three months of marriage, Bob and Nan Rho:talc stood laughing outside barracks at Eisenstein, Germany. Rheault was then in the 6th Armored Cavalry Regiment.

Rheault saw clearly that since our jobs right. when they grabbed atomic weapons had made °Driven. a local German by the throat and !tonal war unlikely, guerrilla war asked him where to find the Green fare had become an exceedingly Berets. he'd send them thrashing powerful instrument. If that force up the wrong mountain." was to be checked, then a compa. He says he also learned a harsh rabic counterforce had to be cre- lesson: "You must never let your ated. Rhesult joined the IBM Spe- guard down against infiltration. cial Forces Group at Bad Tale. No matter how well you've done Germany in 1460, and during his your job, no matter how hard and three years there, the Berets added well you've planned, no matter counterinsurgency to their original how tough and competent your role as guerrillas. His assignment people are—one double agent can "I was never that young," says Rheault about this with the 10th was richly fulfilling. bug out and do you all in." West Point picture, taken at his graduation in 1996. He commanded his own Special Before the Bad TOIL tour had In 1959, while he was based at Fort Leavenworth. Forces team for three years and ended, Rheault had been promoted Kans., the young couple posed in their apartment for a —in serious war games with the to lieutenant colonel and had vol- family picture with their children. left to net, Mi. nicknamed -Skid," and Susanne. U.S. Seventh Army and NATO al- unteered for the growing war in citric, Robert Jr, lies—he learned the hard lessons of Vietnam. He arrived there in April, guerrilla and counterguerrilla war- 1904 and as executive officer of the fare. In such a conflict, he learned, Special Forces.. he ranged the coun- the winner Is generally the side wit h try from one end to another, to see the best intelligence—which is al• for himself "what was working and most always a fruit of winning the what wasn't." During that year trust and confidence of the people Rheault decided there was one job on whose land she battle is being in the Army he wanted more than waged. any other; to command the Berets "I'd sit up there in a mountain in Vietnam. There were three stops hideout, and I'd look down on on the way, the first at the Army some outfit that was chasing us, War College at Carlisle Barracks, and I'd know that if we had done Pa., where he also found time to