Hell in An Loc: The 1972 Easter Invasion and the Battle That Saved South Viet Nam

Notes

251 Notes Introduction 1. Reader’s Digest, March 1973, p. 151. 2. James H. Willbanks, The Battle of An Loc (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005), 164. 3. Lam Quang Thi, The Twenty-Five Year Century. A South Vietnamese General Remembers the Indochina War to the Fall of Saigon (Denton: University of North Texas Press, 2002). 4. Robert G. Kaiser, “The Arrogance of Power Revisited,” San Jose Mercury News, January 21, 2007. 5. William M. Hammond, Reporting Viet Nam: Media and Military at War (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1998), 269, 270. 6. Hammond, 115. 7. Tran Van Nhut, Cuoc Chien Dang Do (Unfinished War) (Santa Ana, CA: An Loc Publishing, 2003.) 8. Nguyen Ngoc Anh, Chien Thang An Loc (The Victory of An Loc) (Austin, TX: Self-published, 2007). Chapter 1 1. John Prados and Ray W. Stubbe, Valley of Decision: The Siege of Khe Sanh (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1991). 2. “Quan Luc Viet Nam Cong Hoa.” Quan Su 4, 1972 (ARVN, Military History 4, 1972), p. 124. 252 Notes 3. ARVN, Military History 4, p. 125. 4. Ibid., 128. 5. Martin Windrow, cont., Rolling Thunder in a Gentle Land, ed. Andrew Weist (Oxford UK: Osprey Publishing, 2006), 43. 6. ARVN, Military History 4, 147. 7. Ibid.,151. 8. ARVN, Military History 4, 152, 153. 9. Ibid., 154, 155. 10. Ibid., 155. 11. Ibid., 160. 12. Ibid., 172. 13. Ibid., 209. 14. Ibid., 109. 15. “Battle of Khe Sanh,” Wikipedia, accessed October 21, 2007. 16. Ibid., 4. 17. Ibid., 5. 18. Ibid., 8. 19. Ibid., 9. 20. Ibid., 10. 21. Prados and Stubbe, 297. 22. “Battle of Khe Sanh,” Wikipedia. Chapter 2 1. There is a Vietnamese proverb: Phep vua thua le lang (Royal decrees are worth less than the village’s customs). 2. Lewis Sorley, cont., Rolling Thunder in a Gentle Land, 185. 3. Willbanks, 62. 4. Dale Andradé, America’s Last Vietnam Battle (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2001), 389. 5. Ibid. 6. Andradé, 391. 7. Willbanks, 67. 8. Frances FitzGerald, Fire in the Lake (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1972), 369. 9. Edward Metzner, More than a Soldier’s War (College Station : Texas A&M University Press, 1995), 193. 253 Notes 10. Willbanks, 10. 11. Andradé, 373. 12. Ibid. 13. Mach Van Truong, “Trung Doan 8 Bo Binh va Tran Chien An Loc” (8th Regiment and the Battle of An Loc) unpublished memoir; copy in author’s possession, p. 6. 14. By naming their offensive in honor of a national hero who routed the Chinese invaders in the nineteenth century, the North Vietnamese showed a remarkable lack of political savvy as they needed massive Chinese military assistance for their planned invasion . 15. Andradé, 384. 16. Ngo Quang Truong, The 1972 Easter Offensive (Reprinted in Vietnamese in Ranger Magazine 21, Sept. 2007), p. 137. 17. Ibid., 136. 18. Andradé, 384, 385. 19. Nguyen Duc Phuong, Chien Tranh Viet Nam Toan Tap (Comprehensive Narrative of the Viet Nam War) (Toronto, Canada : Lang Van, 2001), 568. 20. Lewis Sorley, “Reassessing ARVN,” A Lecture Delivered at the Viet Nam Center, Texas Tech University, March 17, 2006, p. 23. 21. Ibid., 22. Chapter 3 1. Ngo Quang Truong, The 1972 Easter Offensive, 140. 2. Tran Van Nhut, 118. 3. Colonel Nhut was later elevated to brigadier general and assumed command of the 2nd Division in I Corps after the Easter Offensive. 4. Lt. Col. Nguyen Thong Thanh was one of my best battalion commanders when I commanded the 9th Division in the Mekong Delta. 5. Tran Van Nhut, 118. 6. Nguyen Ngoc Anh, 24, 25. The details of the demise of TF 1-5 were based on an interview of the author with Lt. Col. Nguyen Huu Duong., the former task force commander. Colonel Duong 254 Notes currently lives in Australia. 7. Willbanks, 47. 8. FAS Military Analysis Network, CBU-87/B Combined Effects Munitions (Website: 66.218.69.11). 9. Willbanks, 47. 10. Ibid. 11. Tran Van Nhut, 120. 12. Andradé, 399. 13. Willbanks, 46. 14. Nguyen Cong Vinh, Letter dated June 16, 2006; copy in author’s possession. 15. Tran Van Nhut, 120. 16. Ibid., 121. 17. Mach Van Truong, 5. 18. Ibid., 6. 19. Willbanks, 41. 20. Ibid. 21. Ly Tong Ba, 25 Nam Khoi Lua (25 Years of War) (np: Selfpublished , 1995), 162, 163. 22. Willbanks, 58. 23. Mach Van Truong, 5. 24. Conversation with Maj. Gen. Le Minh Dao, former 18th ARVN Division. 25. Willbanks, 51. 26. Ibid., 52...