Defining a War: Indochina, the Vietnam War, and the Mayaguez Incident Lieutenant Colonel Michael Hunter Marine Corps History, Volume 6, Number 2, Winter 2020, pp. 72-90 (Article) Published by Marine Corps University Press For additional information about this article https://muse.jhu.edu/article/796393/summary [ Access provided at 2 Oct 2021 03:15 GMT with no institutional affiliation ] This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Defining a War: INDOCHINA, THE VIETNAM WAR, AND THE MAYAGUEZ INCIDENT by Lieutenant Colonel Michael Hunter, USA Abstract: Only two weeks after the fall of Saigon in May 1975, Khmer Rouge forces seized the American mer- chant ship SS Mayaguez (1944) off the Cambodian coast, setting up a Marine rescue and recovery battle on the island of Koh Tang. This battle on 12–15 May 1975 was the final U.S. military episode amid the wider Second Indochina War. The term Vietnam War has impeded a proper understanding of the wider war in the American consciousness, leading many to disassociate the Mayaguez incident from the Vietnam War, though they belong within the same historical frame. This article seeks to provide a heretofore unseen historical argument con- necting the Mayaguez incident to the wider war and to demonstrate that Mayaguez and Koh Tang veterans are Vietnam veterans, relying on primary sources from the Ford administration, the papers of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, and interviews with veterans. Keywords: Vietnam, Cambodia, veterans, memory, Mayaguez, the Wall, Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, Koh Tang, Koh Tang Mayaguez Veterans Organization, Gerald R. Ford, Henry A. Kissinger, James R. Schlesinger, U.S. Marine Corps, Admiral Noel A. M. Gayler ometimes regulation fails to match reality. With second- and third-degree burns, Trebil floated “What are you wearing?!” the indignant colo- out to sea before being scooped up by a supporting U.S. Snel demanded while poking the lance corporal’s Navy ship. The Purple Heart was the only ribbon he chest. In the fall of 1975, young Timothy W. Trebil had rated, a highly unusual circumstance for a junior en- a problem after arriving in Quantico, Virginia, from listed Marine in 1975. After Trebil hastily spurted an Okinawa for temporary duty—but it was not clear explanation justifying his Purple Heart, the colonel re- why as he stood locked at attention. directed his fire at what was missing: “Nobody wears “Sir, the lance corporal is wearing his—” that ribbon by itself. Nobody rates just that ribbon— “No. I’m talking about that ribbon!” It was Trebil’s wait here.” He took Trebil’s service record brief, the Purple Heart. He earned it earlier that May during the proof of his existence in the Corps, and stormed off to SS Mayaguez container ship rescue, only two weeks af- remedy the situation.1 ter South Vietnam’s collapse. The Cambodian Khmer President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorized the Rouge shot down Trebil’s helicopter in May 1975 as it National Defense Service Medal (NDSM) in Executive attempted to land assaulting U.S. Marines on Koh Tang Order 10448 on 22 April 1953 as a blanket recognition Island, where the ship’s crew was supposedly captive. medal for military personnel serving at a time of na- tional emergency, though not necessarily in a combat 2 LtCol Michael Hunter, USA, is an Army strategist assigned to Head- zone. According to the 1973 Paris Peace Accords, U.S. quarters, Department of the Army, G-3/5/7, Strategy, Plans, and Policy Directorate; and holds a master’s degree in history from Georgetown University. He is a veteran of the Global War on Terrorism with a re- 1 Timothy Trebil, 2d Battalion, 9th Regiment veteran, interview with search interest in veterans’ history. author, 10 November 2017, Arlington, VA, hereafter Trebil interview. https://doi.org/10.35318/mch.2020060204 2 Exec. Order No. 10448, 3 C.F.R., 1949–1953 Comp., 935. 72 WINTER 2020 73 Official U.S. Air Force photo 090424-F-1234P-028, courtesy of the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force Unidentified U.S. Marines run from a Sikorsky HH-53C Jolly Green Giant helicopter of the 40th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron during the assault on Koh Tang Island to rescue the U.S. merchant ship Mayaguez and its crew, 15 May 1975. combat operations in Vietnam ended on 28 January had two ribbons to his name: the Purple Heart and 1973, but the Department of Defense (DOD) kept is- NDSM.3 suing the NDSM to servicemembers for the national Popular conception, national narratives, and emergency of the Vietnam War until 14 August 1974. wartime decoration regulations do not always match Trebil joined the Marine Corps in September 1974, individual historical experiences. In addition to not missing the regulatory cutoff date. The incongruity warranting the NDSM, the fighting on and around between Trebil’s combat experience, exemplified by Koh Tang—contested by the new revolutionary gov- the Purple Heart, and the absence of other awards ernments of Vietnam and Cambodia—from 12 to 15 for wartime or emergency service troubled the colo- May 1975 also failed to merit the green, yellow, or nel. Although existing regulations said Trebil had not red Vietnam Service Medal (VSM). Perhaps the most served during a period of national emergency, the iconic ribbon from the United States’ nearly 20-year colonel reconciled the regulation’s intent with Trebil’s military effort in Indochina, the image of the VSM experience through an impromptu award ceremony at the Marine Corps Commandant’s office. Now Trebil 3 Trebil interview. 74 MARINE CORPS HISTORY VOL. 6, NO. 2 Official U.S. Air Force photo, courtesy of the National Museum of the United States Air Force Container ship SS Mayaguez. now adorns countless black Vietnam veteran hats, United States calls the Vietnam War. But wars are jackets, and memorials across the United States and rarely contained neatly within dates and borders, and serves as a prominent discriminator between those the Vietnam War extended outside the geographical who fought in-country in Vietnam and those who did borders of Vietnam. not.4 The battle on and around Koh Tang to rescue In a narrowly defined policy, service in the the Mayaguez and its crew on the border between Mayaguez rescue operation alone did not warrant the Cambodia and Vietnam was the U.S. military’s final VSM because combat operations ceased in 1973 and episode amid a concurrent wider war for control of President Gerald Ford had officially proclaimed the Indochina—known as the Second Indochina War. Vietnam War over five days before the ship’s seizure.5 France’s colonial exit from Indochina after the 1954 More than 58,000 American servicemembers and Geneva Conference triggered struggles for control hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese, Cambodians, across the region.6 The United States’ main military Laotians, and others lost their lives during what the effort in the Second Indochina War was the fighting in Vietnam, but the term Vietnam War has hindered a 4 Legal and social questions regarding status as a Vietnam veteran or proper understanding of the wider war in the Ameri- Vietnam-era veteran have abounded since at least 1974. For example, see Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act, H.R. 12649, 93d Cong. (1974). 6 Donald Kirk, Wider War: The Struggle for Cambodia, Thailand, and Laos 5 Proclamation No. 4373, Fed. Reg. 20257 (7 May 1975). (New York: Praeger, 1971), 3–15. WINTER 2020 75 Official Department of Defense photo, courtesy of Historical Resources Branch, Marine Corps History Division A Marine and an Air Force pararescueman of the 40th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron (in wetsuit) run for an Air Force helicopter during an assault on Koh Tang Island to rescue the merchant ship SS Mayaguez and its crew, 15 May 1975. can consciousness. Governments, institutions, and years.7 This article will first review the military and historians frame events for various reasons, among diplomatic events in South Vietnam and Cambodia them political, bureaucratic, and a desire for coher- during the winter and spring of 1975 and comment on ence. The most valid reasons for placing the Vietnam existing interpretations. Next, the article will explain War and the Mayaguez incident within the same frame why some view the Mayaguez incident as distinct from are historical. U.S. military participation within Viet- the Vietnam War/Second Indochina War for political, namese and Cambodian territory in spring 1975 was bureaucratic, and social reasons before demonstrating participation in the same war, not separate conflicts. historical and national memory linkages. This article U.S. decision-makers and military leaders in the re- gion understood this at the time and participants in 7 On the importance of historical memory, see David Thelen, “Memory the Mayaguez incident at various levels remembered and American History,” Journal of American History 75, no. 4 (March and memorialized the connection in the following 1989): 1117–29. 76 MARINE CORPS HISTORY VOL. 6, NO. 2 Official Department of Defense photo, by YN3 Michael Chan, courtesy of Historical Resources Branch, Marine Corps History Division A U.S. Marine from the escort ship USS Harold E. Holt (DE 1074) storm the merchant ship SS Mayaguez to recapture the ship and to rescue the captive crew. No one was aboard the ship and the crew were later returned by a fishing boat. provides a heretofore unseen historical argument con- Rouge, the United States evacuated personnel from necting the Mayaguez incident to the wider war and Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital, in Operation Eagle demonstrates that Mayaguez and Koh Tang veterans Pull on 12 April. Similarly, with North Vietnamese are Vietnam veterans.