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The Fall of a 'Lost Soldier'

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The Fall of a 'Lost Soldier' Two months ago at 1..ongbinh jail near Saigon, Colonel Robert 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 Korean war 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 South Vietnam. 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 Cambodia—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.
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