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The Mystery of the Green Beret Murder Affair by Gordon Cucullu

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The Mystery of the Green Beret Murder Affair by Gordon Cucullu The Drop WINTER 2013 The Mystery of the Green Beret Murder Affair BY GORDON CUCULLU 38 De Oppresso Liber The Drop WINTER 2013 A small boat left Nha Trang harbor in bottom of the boat cruising further out In 1961 Rheault won his Green Beret June 1969 headed out into the bay and into the bay. and was assigned to 10th SFG in Europe. deeper water. Light breezes out of the The issue of the double agent and These were the early years of the Kennedy South China Sea gave passengers respite how to resolve it was not brought to the administration. Recognition from the from the boiling heat and humidity, but attention of 5th Group, rather it ran up president authorizing wear of the Green this was not a pleasure cruise. the CIA pipeline to Saigon from which the Beret, ramping up of the unconventional In the bottom of the boat, heavily GAMMA leadership received the usual warfare mission, and, most critically, sedated with morphine, wrapped in “spook-speak” guidance. Apparently they largely expanded budgets, allowed chain, lay a Vietnamese agent, Thai Khac were directed to “terminate the agent with proliferation of several Groups with Chuyen, who members of B-57, also extreme prejudice” a phrase that was later regional focus, including the 8th SFG in known as Project GAMMA, had identified popularized largely because of events yet Panama, the 1st SFG in Okinawa, and as a double agent. He was taking his last to unfold. ultimately the 5th SFG in Vietnam. ride. The boat reached deep water and Add to the mix the amazing spike in Gamma, a Military Intelligence unit rocked gently in the swell as the engines popularity of Special Forces in song, attached to the 5th Special Forces Group were throttled back. Captain Bob Marasco film, and book form, all glamorizing the (Airborne) headquartered in Nha Trang, later claimed that at that point he fired two elite unit, and you have a solid basis for had for the past year been responsible shots into the Chuyen’s head and with professional jealousy. Many senior types for running ground intelligence-gathering others rolled him over the side. The body thought such publicity was unseemly as teams into Cambodia. Using primarily disappeared into the deep. well as a naked grab for disproportionate indigenous Cambodian assets it provided Not least among the many consequences influence (read: budget allocations) in a a significant amount of the human of these events – whether authentic considerably larger institution. intelligence from that theater. or alleged – was that the career of an Concomitant internecine warfare The B-57 team worked closely with CIA exemplary Special Forces officer – Colonel among various Big Army elements and and received much of their guidance from Robert Rheault – had just been terminated Special Forces was exacerbated by wrong- the Station Chief in Saigon and the local as abruptly as the life of the spy sinking headed decisions by then-President Lyndon CIA office in Nha Trang. On the military into Nha Trang Harbor. Johnson and JFK holdover Secretary of side, the unit chain of command extended Defense Robert McNamara to fight an to the commander 5th Special Forces. Due Who was Robert Rheault? ever-expanding war in Southeast Asia. in large part to compartmentalization Colonel Bob Rheault passed away Previously restricted to advisory and of information and activities and the peacefully earlier this year. Despite his covert action by CIA, Special Forces, and a convoluted threads of responsibility and brief tenure in Vietnam he had become limited US commitment, the war became authority that characterized the war in an iconic figure in Special Forces history a personal affair for LBJ. “Bring me a Southeast Asia, it was common for and legend. His story remains shrouded in coonskin to nail on the wall,” he told the a commander to be kept in the dark mystery. In many ways it exemplifies the Joint Chiefs of Staff. over actions of a unit he – on paper – latent institutional conflict inherent in the Men and material began to pour commanded and was responsible for. events surrounding his time in Vietnam. into Southeast Asia and the US Army Since Cambodia and Laos were given Most disturbing is the fact that these issues unceremoniously shoved the Vietnamese to protected status by US policy makers, are relevant to present day. Specifically the sidelines, offering to “show them how only covert intelligence gathering units the oft-repeated conflict between Special to fight a real war.” The French experience? operating under the strictest and most Forces and Big Army. “They lost,” staff officers said dismissively. illogical rules of engagement were Details of Colonel Robert “Bob” Rheault’s The advisory, intelligence gathering, and permitted access to the country. As a life are easy to find, and we won’t dwell on force multiplier role of Special Forces was result, the North Vietnamese exploited them here other than to set the stage. At denigrated and underappreciated. the situation by staging division-sized first glance, Bob Rheault’s early military LBJ refused meanwhile to deviate elements in Cambodia, striking across the career appears to epitomize a fast-moving from his goal of providing the American border, then retreating to refit and rearm. officer in the Big Army institution. He public with extravagant domestic programs The leadership at GAMMA was was a graduate of USMA, Class of ’47, simultaneously. In order not to disturb concerned because far too many teams fought and decorated with the Silver voters, Johnson also chose to rely on a had inexplicably disappeared over the past Star in Korea, and seemed almost a pre- conscript military to fight the war while few months. They were convinced that a designated general officer selectee even eschewing call up of Reserves and National double agent had infiltrated GAMMA’s after several years of teaching French at Guard. While this course of action was ranks. After a week of interrogation they West Point, an assignment that might have opposed by the uniformed military believed that the spy in question lay in the derailed another career. leadership, few had the moral courage to De Oppresso Liber 39 The Drop WINTER 2013 take a public stand or resign in protest. authorized the killing, knew of the body incident of immorality in a war they Many military leaders, including disposal plan, and by promulgating the opposed. Army Chief of Staff General Harold K. shallow cover story, lied directly to GEN From this point on, the case became Johnson, bitterly opposed expansion Abrams. even more tortuously complex. Army of UW forces arguing that it was too When Abrams learned of this he appointed defense attorneys moved for great a concentration of NCO talent reportedly lost all control and ordered dismissal on lack of evidence and refusal in small units. His point was that such the immediate arrest of Rheault and the of CIA officials or GEN Abrams to testify talent would serve the larger institution GAMMA officers and NCOs involved in although they called on both to do so. Not more effectively by being spread among the incident. They were to be brought to backing off, Abrams vowed to pursue the conventional combat units. Long Binh military prison (known to GIs case. Predictably, acolytes of Johnson’s as LBJ, or Long Binh Jail) and charged On the evidentiary side, the defense position were many who occupied with first degree murder. “Get up there possessed a photo taken by a GAMMA positions of increasing authority including and clean that bunch of bastards out,” team that purported to show the agent General Creighton Abrams, successor Abrams directed. Initially the seven were in a meeting with high ranking NVA as COMUSMACV to General William arrested, tossed into small, solitary cells intelligence officers in Cambodia. The Westmoreland in June 1968. without air conditioning and held virtually photo cut both ways since it justified the Eleven months later, Rheault was named incommunicado. killing on the one hand, and demonstrated commander of 5th SFG Vietnam, the motivation for it on the other. moving from Okinawa where he had been Through their military attorneys the in command of 1st SFG. In those days this accused requested civilian assistance. was a normal pattern of succession, with The civilian attorney, Henry Rothblatt, commanders moving from Camp Sukiran was a specialist in courts martial. He took to Nha Trang. Rheault had a previous tour the case and immediately deposed CIA in Vietnam in 1964 as operations officer agents. He received maximum pushback on 5th Group staff. and refusal to testify, all counter to When he assumed command of 5th the established principles of executive Group the MACVSOG counterpart privilege that the agents claimed commander was Colonel Stephen prevented their testimony. Cavanaugh. While relationships between Rothblatt confronted the military the two commanders were informal, SOG authorities with a dilemma: “The recruited heavily from 5th Group and they government, the prosecution, can’t shared common goals. have it both ways, I declared. ‘Either lay Rheault was barely three weeks all of the evidence on the table and make into the job when the incident with it available so that we can examine and GAMMA filtered into Abrams’ office cross-examine, or forget the case.’ I then through the CIA liaison. COMUSMACV As one of Abrams’ staff later added, ‘And I suggest that you forget the immediately got Rheault on the line and commented, “Abe forgot to count to case.’” pointedly asked him if his people had ten.” Overnight a case that the Army, There was still no actual proof of a killed the alleged double agent. On an CIA, and administration might have killing – no corpus – so fighting another open line, Rheault was reluctant to discuss preferred to handle out of the limelight move to dismiss, Abrams directed that details but Abrams’ infamous temper was received immediate media attention.
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