was able last week b scenario of what ma• The theme of the me] to these friends, was Top of the Week the protagonist was N, A reputable prods H ITCH Poland, Frykowski, f: Case of the Green Berets PAGE 26 - no real career in this RD drugs—as a user and The astonishing arrest of Col. last year he had the i B. Rheault, the commander of U.S. Spe- of Gibby Folger, a cial Forces in Vietnam, on suspicion of ious other purposes rich girl who moved murder has raised disturbing questions n's plans for future New York City to the cupations of the mov about both U.S. military justice and the use, has the power money, and Frykows. use of American soldiers in espionage trol and police the it, according to friend: operations. And although the case ways done so with drugs—LSD, heroin, against Rheault and seven of his men is Its military-affairs juana and a new the still shrouded in secrecy, it has already without expertise. —and peddled them cast grave doubt on the future of the de the reputation kowski had two regi ed him in the Pres- Canadians, in his dri elite Green Berets. From files by May- ing military con- he is known to have nard Parker, Kevin P. Buckley and Francois Sully in Saigon, Lloyd 'econd world war. with them. What's me Norman in Washington, Henry P. Leifermann at Fort Bragg, N.C., on was probably are known to have 1: and other correspondents, Associate Editor Russell Watson wrote an anyone else for as recently as two d this week's cover story. In a companion article, Associate Editor Should the wheel Tate's party. Robin Mannock describes Colonel Rheault himself. ( cover approval of this Odd Taste: Frykov photo by Al Satterwhite—Camera Five.) ye devices, as it go, was connected to ight become the much through her husband, Polanski, as weex resinie. it,c octrette, ai wi to uell iiemocrats- best net for a 1972 Presi- through her former fiance, Jay Sebring, angry debate, has refused by a two- dential comeback. with whom Frykowski shared a taste for vote margin to turn down the Presi- odd sexual fun and games. All three liked dent's request for deployment of an NEAR-HYSTERIA to trip together on pot or acid. Friends anti-ballistic-missile defense system. Sense of proportion has been lost in believe drugs were used by the victims The House has passed an admirable the current near-hysteria. It has hap- on the night of the murder (though this tax reform and relief bill but one that pened before. On the eve of the sec- has not been confirmed by the medical would reduce government income too ond world war, the House came with- examiner), but Miss Tate presumably substantially. Both branches have ex- in a vote of suspending the draft. abstained in view of her pregnancy. tended the temporary 10 per cent After that war, public demand to Some suspect the group was amusing surtax, but the Senate has refused to "bring the boys home" was so insistent itself with some sort of black-magic rites— go along with the House on other that the armed forces were all but as well as with drugs—that night, and anti-inflation measures. disbanded. Secretary of Defense Louis they mention a native Jamaican hip to Yet the first seven months were less Johnson was a hero one day for presid- voodoo who had recently been brought in- notable for any of these achievements ing over their dissolution and a scape- to Frykowski's drug operation. Some such than for "the revolt against the Penta- goat the next for the nation's lack of parlor rites might account for the hood gon." This was the phenomenon that preparedness to fight the war in Ko- found over Sebring's head and the rope toned the period. The sound and fury rea. Conditions can change attitudes binding him to Miss Tate. Indeed, one of it were deafening. It was the itch with the speed of light. group of friends speculates that the mur- politicians and the media spent their The Senate-based campaign against ders resulted from a ritual mock execution energies scratching. It was what the the Pentagon would be excessive in that got out of hand in the glare of hallu- ABM debate in the Senate was about. easier times and is especially so with cinogens. Others are convinced that the Its shibboleth, "restore civilian control the world as tense as it is now. The murderers surprised their victims at play of the military," was so pervasive that recent resumption of enemy attacks in —and believe the killers were Frykow- nobody bothered to ask how some- Vietnam and immovability of Commu- ski's Canadian accomplices with whom he thing that had never been lost could nist negotiators in seem to be had quarreled and perhaps also the Jamai- be restored. It was as faddish as mini- the answer to Averell Harriman's the- can. The police, who are known to be on skirts and mutton-chop sideburns. ory that what we need do is set a pa- the Canadians' trail, feel that the killers POLITICAL PAYDIRT cific example in order to stop the fight- at least had their wits about them and cite ing. The Soviets are outbuilding us in the fact that the telephone wires leading Denunciation of the "military-in- strategic weapons and catching up in to the house had been carefully cut. dustrial complex" looked like political naval power, displayed in the Medi- Polanski himself—one of the hottest di- paydirt, and members of Congress, terranean and even in the Caribbean. rectors in Hollywood since the success of especially those sitting in shaky seats, Potentially contagious crises persist in "Rosemary's Baby"—was in England at hastened to dig it. Disillusionment the Middle East and along the Sino- the time of the killing, working on plans with Vietnam, the high cost of sophis- Soviet frontiers and Moscow is delay- for a new film. Whatever he knows has so ticated military hardware and the in- ing arms-control talks. far remained a secret between him and flation resulting in part from paying But we are advised not to be timid the police. But no one is talking about the bills for it made the digging easy. about reducing armaments. After all, Polanski any longer as a master of the Opponents of ABM in the Senate China is a distant threat and the new macabre. At the burial of his young wife came so close to winning and were so Soviet leaders are reasonable fellows. —together with the unborn child who universally applauded for the effort Those who give this advice would do would have been his first son—the help- that they almost all became overnight well to read testimony by Anatoly less director broke down and wept on his military experts. They were soon pro- Kuznetsov, the recently defected So- mother-in-law's shoulder, no more the posing to cut authorizations for an air- viet author, on the stability of the pres- master of this horrible tale than any other craft carrier, for a new tank, for exper- ent Soviet leadership. man would have been in his place. • August 25, 1969 25 7ZZ `id&i:AR 7317.1R/3/-

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erhaps no organization in United ants. "At least four of them," she de- North Vietnamese officers or possibly the D States military history has so quickly clared, "he had never seen in his life until testimony of a double agent—to show captured the imagination of the Ameri- he met them at the investigation." that the man was a traitor. can public as the Special Forces. Dash- In the absence of solid facts, rumors At this juncture, the Special Forces ing guerrilla fighters skilled in all the spawned dozens of theories to explain asked the CIA for guidance. Under- grim arts of war, the Green Berets have the killing and the Army's surprisingly standably, the CIA insistently denies any become an instant legend. They inspired harsh reaction to it. Some said that the vic- central involvement in the Chuyen case. the only movie Hollywood has so far tim had been close to important figures in But there is solid evidence that, at the made about the war in Vietnam—John the South Vietnamese Government. Oth- very least, the Berets requested the ad- Wayne's potboiling jungle Western. They ers hinted that he had been a secret vice of a CIA representative in Vietnam were featured in a hit record, and they peace emissary to Hanoi and had been on how to handle Chuyen. And, quite have received reams of adulatory pub- killed by mistake. George W. Gregory, a conceivably, someone in the agency sug- licity. In Vietnam, they have produced small-town South Carolina lawyer who gested verbally that Chuyen be killed; heroes out of all proportion to their num- had flown into Saigon to act as attorney according to Gregory, the phrase "termi- bers. And at home, they have basked in nate with extreme prejudice" was used. the reflected glory of the Kennedy mys- In any case, on June 20, Chuyen was tique—for it was John Kennedy who spon- shot, stuffed into a weighted sack and sored the Special Forces and to this day, dropped into the South China Sea, a green felt beret lies on his grave in somewhere off the city of Nha Trang Arlington National Cemetery. where Rheault's Fifth Special Forces It was a profound shock to both the Group has its headquarters. But it soon Army and the public, therefore, when appeared that the CIA did not, in fact, the U.S. military command in Saigon an- want Chuyen to be killed. Either he was nounced two weeks ago that the former not a traitor at all or he was sufficiently commander of all Green Berets in South valuable to someone so that he should Vietnam, Col. Robert B. Rheault, 43, have been kept alive. had, almost incredibly, been arrested on Investigation: In most covert opera- suspicion of premeditated murder. Be- tions, a mistake of this kind is generally cause of the gravity of the allegation, hushed up. But this time—some sources Rheault (pronounced "roe") had been said at the insistence of the CIA—the confined in the cramped, squalid Long matter was reported to Gen. Creighton Binh military prison with seven of his W. Abrams, the U.S. commander in subordinates* pending an investigation. Vietnam. And Abrams's reaction was to And for the same reason—ostensibly at order a complete investigation of what least—the Army immediately placed the the Berets had been up to. "Clean them case under the strictest secrecy. out," he reportedly told a subordinate. Secrecy: All the Army would reveal Just why Abrams reacted so angrily is in fact, was that the alleged victim had not entirely clear. One reason appears to been a Vietnamese national, who died be that he simply disapproves of illegal on June 20, a month before Rheault killing. "The Special Forces," he told was arrested. But it soon became ap- members of his staff last week, "are going parent that the dead man had been a Associated Press to have to show a higher regard for hu- U.S. intelligence agent who had been Under fire: Green Beret in action man life." In addition, however, some killed somehow during—or after—interro- people in Saigon believe that the killing gation. That fact hardly reflected credit for Major Middleton, declared that the of Chuyen may have been in direct viola- on the Green Berets. But the Army's dead man had been a "dangerous Com- tion of an order from Abrams's head- secrecy—and the shadowy involvement of munist double agent." The flamboyant quarters—an order that conflicted with the Central Intelligence Agency—per- Gregory, who assailed the Army daily the "advice" from the CIA representa- suaded some observers that Rheault and in long, excited news conferences, charged tive. The Green Berets, according to this his colleagues were scapegoats, and that that the CIA had ordered the execution theory, chose to follow the CIA, and the Special Forces were being railroaded and then changed its mind too late. when the agency disavowed any interest by the Army establishment. None of the many theories in circula- in having Chuyen killed, Special Forces Rheault himself denied any guilt. In a tion, however, was convincing in all de- was left holding the bag. letter to his father, he wrote: "I have done tails; only those directly involved knew Indeed, to some of their supporters it nothing to be ashamed of—as a command- for sure what had happened, and they seemed that, even if Rheault and his er, as a soldier or as a man. I would give were in no position to talk. Nonetheless, subordinates were responsible for Chu- anything to be able to spare you the by last week, some elements of the case yen's death, they were nonetheless be- pain and worry and embarrassment." seemed reasonably well established. The ing victimized. Special Forces has long And Colonel Rheault's wife insisted that murder victim, it appeared, had been one been involved in "dark side of the moon" the Green Beret commander—who had Chuyen Khac—although that may well espionage work, and such activities tradi- served in his post for only two months—did have been an alias. Whatever his name, he tionally include murder—and sometimes not even know most of his fellow defend- was important to someone—either to the torture. This certainly has long been Saigon government or to some other known to the U.S. Command in Saigon. *Maj. David E. Crew of Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Maj. powerful organization. Sometime in June, And to suddenly declare such acts ille- . Thomas C. Middleton Jr., Jefferson, S.C.; Capt. Le- Chuyen was arrested and interrogated gal, some Green Berets argued, amount- land J. Brumley, Duncan, Okla.; Capt. Budge E. Williams, Athens, Ga.; Capt. Robert F. Marasco, by the Green Berets. Evidence was pre- ed to ex post facto lawmaking. Bloomfield, N.J.; Chief Warrant Officer Edward M. sented—perhaps an incriminating photo- The fact, however, is that while almost Boyle, New York City; and Sgt. 1/c Alvin L. Smith Jr., Naples, Fla. graph showing him in the company of all Green Berets are potential intelli- 26 Newsweek, August 25, 1969 7%E WAR D VIETNAM gence agents, only a relatively few are itia unit whose most notable feat was to Under CIA sponsorship, Green Berets involved in purely covert operations. massacre the men, women and children specializing in Latin America trained the Those who are so employed belong to of the Mohawk village of St. Francis dur- Bolivian Army Rangers credited with SOG—the so-called Studies and Observa- ing the French and Indian War. And from killing Che Guevara. And in 1965, Green- tion Group, whose assignments reported- then on, in a tradition formalized by the Berets played a secret—and previously ly include missions into Laos, Office of Strategic Services during World undisclosed—role in America's interven- and North Vietnam, as well as the assas- War II, Americans have committed many tion in the Dominican Republic. "We sination of enemy commanders. One SOG ugly acts on behalf of their country—of- flew in by helicopter and landed in ev- unit, known as the B-57 detachment, was ten with the express approval of this na- ery town that had a baseball field," re- based at Nha Trang, and of the eight tion's leaders. called one Special Forces veteran last Green Berets allegedly involved in the Special Forces was modeled, in part, week. "Then we'd fly back to Santo Do- Chuyen murder, six worked in B-57. on the OSS. Formed in 1952, its primary mingo and report whatever we had Their commander was Major Middleton, mission was to organize and train native learned to the intelligence coordinator, who, in his other capacity as intelligence guerrilla movements behind enemy lines. who was a CIA man. He'd show it to officer for Fifth Special Forces, reported And since the most likely foe in those [Ambassador Ellsworth] Bunker. They'd directly to Colonel Rheault. days seemed to be the Soviet Union, the erase the Special Forces heading on the Ruthlessness: Obviously. then, Colo- Green Berets included many refugees report, type in 'CIA' and send it to the nel Rheault and the other Green Berets from Eastern Europe, all thirsting to lib- White House." Then, smiling nostalgic- currently in custody had very special erate their homelands. Distrusted by the ally, he added: "Once there was an knowledge of covert operations. But in military establishment, Special Forces open contact in the field between us some degree the great majority of Green Berets are involved in the seamier side of war. Officially, Special Forces does not instruct its men in terror tactics. "We don't have any classes for assassins," says one Green Beret officer. "But there isn't a Special Forces trooper anywhere who isn't familiar with all kinds of ways to kill. Let's leave it at that." And in some in- stances at least the Green Berets have used their deadly knowledgeability with frightening ruthlessness. At one Special Forces camp in Vietnam, recalls a Green Beret who was there at the time, "two prisoners were brought in without blind- folds. As it happened, they turned out to be harmless. But we couldn't release them because they had seen the entire camp. So they were taken into the jungle and six guys fired at them simultaneous- ly. That way no one man could be held responsible or feel guilty about it." Many Green Berets, moreover, argue that this kind of ruthlessness is both nec- essary and justified. And few of them feel any sympathy for the late Chuyen UPI Khac. "When a double agent is uncov- Pointed threat: A Special Forces mercenary interrogates a prisoner ered," said one Special Forces man last week, "you get rid of him. And get rid of languished in near-neglect during its ear- and the agency. This agency guy walked him means just that. Kill him." But the ly years, and even the beret itself was dis- right up to one of our officers outside a actual killing, this veteran added, is usu- continued. Then John F. Kennedy took town on the coast, gave him a sack full of ally left to "the locals." Then, ruminative- office. "President Kennedy was very money and told him to develop a net- ly, he concluded: "What I don't figure is keen on the Green Berets, and Bobby work of agents. But that was unusual; why—if this thing happened—they didn't Kennedy was sold on them, too," former field contact of this kind is supposed to let the South Vietnamese kill the guy." chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. be avoided." (The answer to that appeared to be that Maxwell Taylor told NEWSWEEK'S Lloyd Aim: When the Green Berets were the espionage network to which Chuyen Norman last week. "Bobby wanted deployed in Vietnam in 1961, their mis- belonged was exclusively American-op- 50,000 of them." That ambitious target sion was relatively simple: to train, equip erated and that the Green Berets did not was never met. But Jack Kennedy—who and advise South Vietnamese guerrillas, want to compromise its security by call- conceived of Special Forces as the Amer- whose job would be to harass the Viet ing in the South Vietnamese.) ican answer to Mao Tse-tung's "wars of Cong. But, partly at the insistence of Gen. Principles: To most civilians, such cold liberation"—restored to the Green Berets William Westmoreland who, initially, had calculation is highly repugnant. And to their unique headgear and Special no other American combat troops at his any man of goodwill it must seem rea- Forces swelled in number from 1,800 disposal, the Green Berets soon altered sonable to ask whether any nation whose men to more than 9,000. that approach. Instead of keeping the avowed principles forbid torture, assassi- Originally, all Green Beret troops enemy off balance by staying continually nation and betrayal can afford to defend were triple volunteers: volunteers for the on the move, they settled down in a net- itself by those very means. Army, for parachute training and for Spe- work of some 60 forts, each costing some- Regrettably, the realistic answer to cial Forces itself. Often fluent in one or thing on the order of $3 million. Instead of that question is that nation-states, re- more relatively exotic languages, each teaching South Vietnamese guerrillas to gardless of their professed ideals, have Green Beret was "cross-trained" in at least fend for themselves, they formed a private always found it expedient to do so. And two skills—medicine, demolitions, com- army of more than 40,000 mercenaries— the U.S. is no exception. Americans have munications, operations and intelligence, mostly enrolled in units known as Civilian enshrined in their folklore such guerrilla and weapons. And as they were trained, Irregular Defense Groups—under their organizations as Rogers' Rangers, a mil- the men were promptly put to use. own de facto command. (The great ma- Newsweek, August 25, 1969 ° 31 "You would even be willing to be killed when he is in command," recalled one WILL HE EVER former Special Forces fighter—simulta- neously conceding that he found Rheault a tough and unforgiving superior. "He is GET HIS STAR? a man of tremendous honor and pride. He is a professional officer and you would uning in to the grapevine at the Fort be willing to follow his orders without T Bragg, N.C., headquarters of the question." Green Berets on the subject of Col. Rob- Quiet: Rheault dedicated himself to ert Bradley Rheault is like eavesdropping a military career as a child—perhaps as on a sodality meeting of the West Point- a result of listening to his French-Cana- ers' Mutual Protection Association—ex- dian father yarning about his service with cept that many of the soldiers who know the Royal Mounted Police. After adven- and admire the colonel never made it tures as a Mountie, which won him mem- to the Point. When a veteran noncom bership in the Explorers Club, Rheault's home from dropped the father married one of the social Bradleys word that Rheault had been relieved of Massachusetts and settled down to be- of command of the Fifth Special Forces come a financial consultant in Boston, Group, Fort Bragg at first speculated Colonel Rheault: Forever gung-ho where Robert Rheault was born on Oct. that he had been pulled out so that he 31, 1925. Somewhat to his embarrass- could be promoted to general. "Every- force of Green Berets to spring the colo- ment, Rheault is listed in Boston's Social body knew he was in line for a star," nel from his cell in the Long Binh stock- Register. "The papers have run this so- said a grizzled Green Berets sergeant last ade. "I don't think he was kidding that cially prominent thing into the ground," week. "He's a helluva officer and a hell- much," Mrs. Rheault told NEWSWEEK. Mrs. Rheault complains. uva man." And when it turned out that Perhaps not. Even now that be is be- At Phillips Exeter Academy (Class of the colonel was under arrest, one Special hind bars, Rheault can count on a host of '43), the colonel is remembered as "quiet Forces trooper called Rheault's blond highly conventional military types—in- and well-mannered" by vice principal wife, Caroline, to tell her that there was cluding Army Chief of Staff Gen. William Robert W. Kesler. Rheault averaged B talk about putting together a raiding C. Westmoreland—to defend his name. grades or better, rowed on the varsity

jority of the mercenaries were drawn from various virility symbols. "Some of the Vietnam's ethnic minority groups—mon- nam, seventeen former Special Forces guys," admits one Green Beret, "carry all camps had been handed over to the Vi- tagnard tribesmen, Cambodians and the caste marks—the montagnard brace- etnamese, and Fifth Special Forces itself tough fighters of Chinese ancestry known let, the sapphire ring from Bangkok, the was slated to be disbanded entirely in as Nungs—all of whom were thoroughly Rolex watch, the sports car, the divorce." due course. Training requirements had disliked by the South Vietnamese them- Men of that disposition sometimes have been relaxed considerably, reducing the selves.) Perhaps worst of all, the Green trouble getting along with their col- quality of Green Beret personnel. Berets fought on the remote borders, in- leagues, and perhaps no more unsuitable stead of operating in the more heavily pop- Future: "There was nothing the legs match has ever been arranged than that could do when Kennedy was in office, ulated interior as JFK had intended. "Lord between the Green Berets and the because we were his pet," said a former knows," said a former Kennedy adviser, LLDB or South Vietnamese Special Beret. Now, however, the future of the "every Presidential policy directive was Forces. In general, the Green Berets have Green Berets is seriously in doubt. For either reversed or ignored by the men little respect for their Vietnamese allies. one thing, they are likely to have even in the field." There have been many fist fights—and greater difficulty in attracting profession- Such independence comes naturally to even gun battles—between Green Berets al officers. "Why," asks one officer now the men who wear the Green Beret. In and their South Vietnamese counterparts. in the Pentagon, "should a bright young the early years, they were responsible "When a Beret or a Vietnamese leader primarily to the CIA, which furnished captain join the Special Forces when he fails to return from a patrol," said an ex- sees Bob Rheault—as fine an officer and them with lavish funds and encouraged Green Beret, "you never know whether them to act unconventionally. "Some- a gentleman as you'll ever meet—slapped the VC got him, or whether one of his into a cell like a common criminal?" Be- times we just made our own foreign pol- `allies' did." yond that, the usefulness of Special icy," said one officer. "It was just the In their own way, moreover, relations Forces units may well prove to have CIA and us—and mostly us." between the Special Forces and the rest been gravely impaired. "You can imagine Heroes: Because of this freedom, the of the U.S. Army are almost equally the trouble we would have with some Special Forces attracted some unusual strained. Even though the Fifth Special foreign governments if we offered them recruits. "My general feeling about the Forces Group was officially wedged back Green Berets," says a World War II com- a Green Beret team now," said one into the normal army chain of command Washington official last week. mando officer, "is that in guerrilla work, in 1964, the Army establishment has nev- you get some true heroes and some In one sense, none of this is likely to er relaxed its opposition to the creation of disturb the Army establishment which screwballs." The majority of Green Be- an elite unit. Thus most career officers rets are neither of these things; they are seems inalterably bent on bringing the are reluctant to remain in the Special Berets to heel. (Significantly, Col. Alex- just gung-ho soldiers who want to be Forces—or even to join at all. "I think the where the action is. But the corps does ander Lemberes, the officer named to Special Forces idea is good," says Max- replace Colonel Rheault, is neither a ful- include both heroes and screwballs, and well Taylor, "so long as men don't stay ly qualified Green Beret nor a para- there have been just enough of the latter in too long. If the officers go in for two to give rise to endless and sometimes trooper—but does have a considerable years and then get on with their careers, reputation as a troubleshooter.) But if it damaging legends about the Green Be- their experience works its way through rets. Old Vietnam hands recall one Spe- is likely to prove a disaster for the Spe- the Army. But I don't believe in a super- cial Forces, the Rheault case and the cial Forces officer who liked to hand cilious super-corps apart from the Army." out business cards proclaiming: "Have intraservice bickering and intrigue which Even before the Rheault case broke, in it has revealed also seems certain to give Nungs, will travel." And even yet, Spe- fact, the "legs" were chipping away at cial Forces troopers tend to irritate other the Army as a whole a black eye. Last Special Forces—with malice aforethought, week, when the Saigon command "tem- soldiers by their ostentatious display of according to the Green Berets. In Viet- porarily" suspended its investigation of 32 Newsweek

THE WA 11R7 VIETNAM marines themselves, however, was not crew, sang in the glee club and, true to cial list reserved for outstanding officers. Rheault's gung-ho approach to soldier- light: 177 leathernecks wounded and his "straight arrow" approach to life, left twenty dead—including a 37-year-old behind no memories of beer thinking or ing is epitomized by his insistence on physical fitness. At 43, although his close- lieutenant colonel cut down by machine- other hell raising. gun fire while leading his battalion From Exeter, Rheault moved straight cropped hair is graying, he has preserved the physique of a man in his 20s and, against an enemy position. to the Military Academy—on an appoint- Cav Losses: Stiff fighting took place, ment from Henry Cabot Lodge, then if he feels that his subordinates ought to be in better shape, is capable of going too, in Binh Long Province, where the senator from Massachusetts. A mediocre provincial capital, several artillery bases student, he graduated 224th in a class of out and leading them in a mile run. Ski- ing is a favorite sport, and he played and a base camp of the First Air Cavalry 875 in 1946 but was first in his class in Division were hit by elements of three French—which he spoke at home. Per- football at prep school until he fractured his leg. (That youthful injury almost North Vietnamese regiments. In one of haps on the strength of that record, he those engagements—in which First Cav was later sent to the Sorbonne to perfect cost him his chance of becoming a para- trooper, a sine qua non for the Green troopers were sent out to relieve South his command of French, and taught the Vietnamese troops who had been over- language at West Point for three years. Berets. But today he wears a master- parachutist's badge signifying a minimum run by the Communists—the U.S. lost (He also holds a master's degree in in- seven armored personnel carriers as well ternational affairs from George Washing- of 30 jumps.) "My husband will come out of this with as seven men killed and 32 wounded in ton University.) a matter of minutes. "We didn't think Volunteer: Rheault's early Army ca- his name completely cleared," insists Mrs. Rheault. "They can do nothing else but anyone could do that to the Cav," mut- reer was totally conventional; he served tered one battle-weary GI who survived in Germany, Korea and at Fort Riley, to exonerate him completely and apolo- gize publicly." And what then? Among the fighting, "Boy, they really made us Kans. (which he once described as "the look like a bunch of suckers." center of the U.S.—equidistant from any many soldiers, the feeling is that even if Rheault is exonerated, the cautious men Inevitably, the resumption of fighting place you would rather be"). But in touched off speculation as to just what 1960 he volunteered to be a member of who run the U.S. Army will never again entrust him with a major command. But purpose the Communist attacks were in- the Special Forces. And unlike many tended to serve. In Saigon and in Wash- other career officers, he courted estab- at least one senior officer who has served in Vietnam disagrees. Says he: "I think ington, there was some thought that the lishment disfavor by staying for several scattered clashes heralded a major en- tours of duty. Nevertheless, he won pro- Bob Rheault still has a career ahead of him and could make general." emy offensive that might hit a peak in motion to lieutenant colonel on a spe- September. Another theory was that Ha- noi, by increasing the level of casualties among U.S. troops, sought to lend new the case, some observers thought the fuel to the antiwar movement in the U.S. Army hoped to sweep the matter under Lull's End —and thus to force Mr. Nixon to accel- the rug, and that Rheault and his col- For U.S. military commanders, one of erate the tempo of U.S. troop with- leagues might never come to trial. But it drawals. Many seasoned military men, the countless frustrations of the war in seemed to be too late for that. Congress- however, were inclined to shrug off all men, editorialists and many ordinary cit- Vietnam is the fact that no one ever such explanations as being unnecessarily izens were already demanding a full seems to know for sure just what Hanoi has up its sleeve. And this element of elaborate. "I never interpreted the lull explanation. And many agreed with Rep. as anything more than a period of low- Peter W. Rodino of New Jersey, who uncertainty seemed as prevalent as ever last week when an eerie battlefield level activity while the Communists built called the incident "a miscarriage of up their forces and replenished to re- even military justice." "lull," which had persisted throughout Vietnam for the better part of the past sume more intensive operations later," The Rheault case also seemed likely said one U.S. officer. Then he added: to revive public debate over the moral two months, was abruptly shattered by enemy shellings and ground attacks "It's difficult to say from the events of the justification for murder and torture in last few days whether the lull is over. All covert operations. With considerable pi- against U.S. and South Vietnamese posi- tions all the way from the Demilitarized you can say is that the activity on the ety, the CIA publicly insists that it does battlefield has increased." not condone such activities. But many Zone to the Mekong Delta. members of the intelligence community The enemy offensive got under way would privately argue that "dirty tricks" with a rash of attacks against strong are unavoidable facts of life in a nation's points held by U.S. marines just south of struggle for survival, and that killing in the DMZ. In one such assault, nineteen espionage is no different from killing on Americans were killed and 80 wounded. the battlefield. The following night, the shooting began That is, at best, a debatable point. in earnest as the Communists lobbed And in any case most ordinary Americans rockets and mortar shells into some 150 find it intolerable that such actions targets that included Da Nang, the Bien should be committed by men wearing Hoa air base, the U.S. Ninth Division's their country's uniform. One conceivable headquarters at Dong Tham, and parts of result of the Rheault case and the at- Saigon and Hue. At least twenty Com- tendant uproar might be to get the Army munist commando attacks against U.S. out of covert operations and to put the and ARVN camps were beaten off. And responsibility for "black" intelligence—if in the delta, a South Vietnamese artil- "black" intelligence there must be—back lery unit was overrun and its guns into the hands of the civilian agency cre- turned against the U.S. military airfield ated by Congress for that purpose. Cer- at Vinh Long. tainly, such a development would be Though it ranked far below the 1968 welcomed by many military men. For Tet offensive in ferocity, the wave of only then can there be complete truth to enemy attacks caused a sudden spurt in the heartfelt assertion made by one sen- U.S. battlefield casualties—and produced ior officer in Vietnam last week: "There some nasty, if relatively brief, fire fights. are no circumstances—none whatsoever— In one series of battles in the paddies UPI in which murder is legal in the United southwest of Da Nang, U.S. marines fighting killed 213 of the enemy. The cost to the Vietnamese wounded in new States Army." 33 1 August 25, 1969