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Acknowledgments
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Acknowledgments It was through and because of the course I teach on Vietnam War history at the University of Southern Mississippi that that I not only came to a real study of the Vietnam War but also came to have occasion to travel to Vietnam, where I met Pham Van Dinh. Many veterans participate in the course, and it was because of them that Vietnam became my passion. I owe each of these brave men my gratitude and my undying respect. Many veterans have participated in my class over the years, but, at the risk of slighting some, I would like to thank the late Roy Ainsworth, Charles Brown, and especially John Young. Also, I would like to thank Dr. Leslie Root and Dr. Raymond Scurfield, himself a Vietnam veteran, for their undying devotion to the Vietnam veteran population and for their help in making our trip to Vietnam a reality. Several key administrators and colleagues at the University of Southern Mississippi helped to make both the journey to Vietnam and this book possible. Dr. Tim Hudson, then Dean of the College of International and Continuing Education, gambled that a trip to Vietnam would not be a disaster. In the History Department, I owe special thanks to our past chair, Dr. Charles Bolton. Finally, I would like to thank the dedicated and overworked staff of what is now the Office of International Education in the College of Arts and Letters: Susan Steen, who now is the Director of the Office of International Education , Frances Sudduth, Sylvia McNabb, and Melissa Ravencraft. As always , I would like to thank the Administrative Assistant of the History Department, Shelia Smith, for both her friendship and her constant help. In my research for this project I relied in the expert help of a fine group of archivists and field experts. I would like to thank several persons and the institutions that they represent: Mitchell Yockelson and Cliff Snyder of the National Archives Records Administration; Dr. Jim Ginther, Personal Papers Archivist at the Marine Corps University Research Archives of the Gray Research Center in Quantico, VA; Craig ix Tibbets of the Australian War Memorial; Dr. James Reckner, Steve Maxner, and their staff at the Vietnam Center at Texas Tech, a true leadership team in the field of Vietnam studies; Mike Sloniker of the Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association; and the staff at the Air University Library at the U.S. Air Force Air War College. Much of my research relied on oral histories conducted with numerous Vietnam veterans. I would like to thank Dr. Curtis Austin, Dr. Stephen Sloan, and the late Suzy Rodriquez, at the Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage at the University of Southern Mississippi , for their advice and help in the process. I would like to thank Joe West, of Counterparts, An Association of the Second Indochina War & Their Foreign Counterparts, for helping me locate several U.S. advisers to ARVN units. Rick Ryan and the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam Association were indispensable in locating AATTV advisers to ARVN units. When all else failed, I turned to Major General (Ret.) Benjamin Harrison for help in identifying, locating, and making crucial first contact with several of my veteran subjects. Without his gracious help in many ways, this book would not have been possible. A number of other people provided me with very specific aid at different points in the project. Courtney and Trang My Frobenius, of Vietnam-Indochina Tours, were both instrumental in helping me organize a successful trip to Vietnam and first introduced me to Pham Van Dinh. They were also pivotal in my interview process with Dinh. I would also like to thank Jim Williams for allowing me access to several interviews with U.S. helicopter pilots. I owe Ned Devereaux a special debt of gratitude for providing me with information on the life of Tran Ngoc Hue. One of the best things about being a historian is working with others who are so knowledgeable in the field. During the years that it took to plan and execute this project, I was lucky to have a group of history-minded friends who allowed me to bounce ideas off them in conversations in places that ranged from London pubs to the Internet. For their help in this regard, I would like to thank Chris McCarthy, Dale Andrade, Lewis Sorley, Robert Brigham, Bruce Davies, Sean McKnight, Gary Sheffield, Stephen Badsey, Dennis Showalter, Mary Kathryn Barbier, Paul Harris, Stephen...