The Vietnam War and the U.S. South: Regional Perspectives on a National War A thesis submitted to The University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities 2015 Lee R. Dixon School of Arts, Languages and Cultures Contents List of Abbreviations 3 Abstract 5 Declaration and Copyright Statement 6 Acknowledgements 7 INTRODUCTION Southerners All: Plain and Simple? 8 CHAPTER I Myths and Perceptions: Identity and Honour in the South PART I The Nineteenth-Century South 25 PART II Southern Myths of the Vietnam Era 41 CHAPTER II Invested Interests: The Southern Economy and Politics 70 in the Vietnam Era CHAPTER III In Country: The Southerner in Vietnam 117 CHAPTER IV The My Lai Massacre and the U.S. South 179 CONCLUSION Southerners and Vietnam: Distinct and Convoluted 231 Bibliography 238 Word Count 80,324 2 Abbreviations/Acronyms and Glossary AFQT – Armed Forces Qualification Test A.P. – Associated Press ASSC – Armed Services Select Committee Cat I, II, III, IV, V – Category One through to Category Five C.O. – Commanding Officer CYA – Cover your ass (mentality) DMZ – De Militarized Zone DoDI – Department of Defense Instruction DoD – Department of Defense DTIC – Defense Technical Information Center FNG – fucking new guy FUBAR – fucked up beyond all recognition G.I. – General Issue HCAS – House Committee on Armed Services JCS – Joint Chiefs of Staff KIA – Killed In Action KKK – Ku Klux Klan LZ – Landing Zone MAAG – Military Assistance Advisory Group Vietnam MACV – Military Assistance Command Vietnam 3 MCD – Military Command Directive Medevac – Medical Evacuation M.J.C. – Military Judicial Code N.G. – National Guard NVA – North Vietnamese Army O.C.S. – Officer Candidate School P100k – Project One Hundred Thousand Men PTSD – Post Traumatic Stress Disorder RAND – Research and Development RnR – Rest and Recuperation REMF – rear echelon motherfucker SnD – Search and Destroy SRS – Service Rotational System STEP – Special Training and Enlistment Program ToD – Tour of Duty U.C.M.J. – Uniform Code of Military Justice USMC – United States Marine Corp VC – Vietcong VFW – Veterans of Foreign Wars VPA – Vietnamese People’s Army VVM – Vietnam Veterans Memorial 4 Abstract The American South’s cultural distinctiveness has been a central historiographical issue debated by scholars since the first decades of the country’s inception. Implicitly or explicitly, this debate centres largely on one question – why has the South retained its distinct identity for cultural, social, political and economic exclusivity? This thesis examines southern distinctiveness with specific reference to America’s military involvement in Vietnam during the 1960s and 1970s, providing new insights upon an old question. Although a national effort, which encompassed the service over three million men, America’s 16 year involvement in their war against the communist-backed North Vietnamese Army (NVA) and Viet Minh/Vietcong (VC) forces was shaped by distinct southern influences attributed to the region’s history and culture. This thesis demonstrates that the southern influence over America’s political, economic and military theatres profoundly shaped the direction and administration of the Vietnam War. Southerners occupied crucial leadership roles throughout the Vietnam war era, including the presidency and Secretary of State, while both the Senate and the House of Representatives were led by men from South of the Mason-Dixon Line. 5 DECLARATION No portion of the work referred to in this thesis has been submitted in support of an application for another degree or qualification of this or any other institute of learning. COPYRIGHT STATEMENT i. The author of this thesis (including any appendices and/or schedules to this thesis) owns certain copyright of related copyright in it (the “copyright”) and he has given The University of Manchester certain rights to use such copyright, including for administrative purposes. ii. Copies of this thesis, either in full of in extracts and whether in hard or electronic copy, may be made only in accordance with the copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as amended) and regulations issued under it or, where appropriate, in accordance with licensing agreements which the University of Manchester has from time to time. Accordingly, this page must form part of any such copies made. iii. The ownership of certain copyright, patents, designs, trademarks and other intellectual property (the “Intellectual Property”) and any reproductions of copyright work in the thesis, for example graphs and tables (“Reproduction”), which may be owned by third parties. Such Intellectual Property and Reproductions cannot and must not be made available for use without the prior written permission of the owner(s) of the relevant Intellectual Property and/or Reproductions. iv. Further information in the conditions under which disclosure, publication and commercialisation of this thesis, the Copyright and any Intellectual Property and/or Reproductions described in it may take place is available in the University of Manchester’s IP policy: http://documents.manchester.ac.uk/DocuInfo.aspx?DocID=487), in any relevant thesis restriction declarations deposited in the University Library’s regulations and in the University’s policy on Presentation of Theses. 6 Acknowledgments Although I do not want to produce an exhaustive list of everyone who has assisted me throughout the research and writing of my thesis, I do need give my appreciation to particular individuals without whom I would not have been able to complete this work. My greatest thanks are to my academic supervisors Dr David Brown, Dr Ana Carden-Coyne and Dr Natalie Zacek, who throughout my thesis have endeavoured to help, encourage, wheedle and be available to me. Thanks are also warranted to my fellow academic colleagues Dr Mark Crosher, Dr Patrick Doyle, Benjamin Knowles and Katie Myerscough, who all took the time to read and offer their own support on my thesis. The support of Andrew Tilsley is also appreciated as my thesis came together. Outside of the university, the help of academics, Professor Brian Ward — who initially supervised my thesis — Dr Patrick Hagopian, Dr Kendrick Oliver and George Lepre were crucial and appreciated in the early stages of my research. Special thanks are also due to the six American Vietnam Veterans: Ben Humphries, Eldson McGhee, Rick Owen, Rick Roll, Ben Sewell and Solomon Smith, all of who kindly offered to answer my questions on their war experiences. Finally I need to thank my partner Catherine for listening to and dispelling my academic woes and tantrums, my eldest brother William for subjecting himself to constant commentary on my thesis, and Warburton for his persistent canine company. *************** 7 Introduction – Good ol’ Simple Folk In 1973, the book Red Hills and Cotton: An Upcountry Memory, was granted its third reprint by the University of South Carolina Press. Its author, novelist and Associated Press journalist Benjamin Franklin Robertson, was described as ‘a loyal son of the South’ and an individual who ‘repeatedly lamented the region's many shortcomings, and [the South’s] tendency to blame all of its twentieth-century problems on the defeat of the Confederacy’.1 Unlike the canonical works of southern history, such as C. Vann Woodard’s The Burden of Southern History (1960), Robertson’s book is not generally renowned as a pivotal work on U.S. southern history. Notwithstanding, by 2008, it was a text considered by many white southerners as a ‘must read’ that had gone through a further two reprints. Notably, the 1973 third edition of Red Hills and Cotton was the book’s most successful issue by far, in terms of sales figures. It is not clear why this third reprint, acclaimed then, as a memoir that reiterates that ‘only the wars that are lost are never forgotten’, was so successful.2 However, this version of Robertson’s book coincided with a crucial and turbulent period in American history, as it became apparent that the United States was losing the war in South Vietnam, after fourteen years of conflict. For white southerners, the impact of this potential second defeat – with the American Civil War being their first – this period served to enhance the cultural myths established throughout the preceding century to encourage southerners to re-evaluate their regional and national identity. Coinciding with the reprinting of Robertson’s book, in August 1973, the United States confirmed that militarily they were no longer directly involved in hostilities against the North 1 1991 review of Benjamin Robertson, ‘Red Hills and Cotton: An Upcountry Memory’ (South Carolina, 1991), http://www.sc.edu/uscpress/books. 2 Review of 1973 edition of Red Hills and Cotton/www.kirkusreviews.com/ben-robertson-2/red-hills-and-cotton. 8 Vietnamese Army (NVA) and South Vietnamese Viet Minh forces.3 Up until this point, the Unites States could still assert that their nation remained undefeated in the theatre of war. The importance of such a claim cannot be underestimated in the martial history of any nation, especially that of the United States, which had established itself as the world’s superpower in contrast to the dubious — in the eyes of many westerners — Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.). Historian, Stephen Morillo contends that being undefeated in war often results in the victorious countries writing of their conquest in a familiar triumphalism often associated with the jingoistic notions of powerful regimes throughout history. Consequently, Morillo reiterates that ‘ground roots’ military history is not the most respected branch of historical enquiry in academic circles, ‘because there exists deep suspicion that to write about war is somehow to approve of it, even to glorify it – a suspicion not unfounded in the writing of military history’.4 Despite Morillo’s view on the historical recording of military conflicts, white southerners were particularly proud to reiterate and promote the efforts of their region’s men in previous wars, but particularly the controversial causes of their ancestors in the Civil War.