John Paul Vann plots strategy in Vietnam, 1962
Published: September 26, 2012
Al Chang ©Stars and Stripes
South Vietnam, October, 1962: Lt. Col. John Paul Vann, left, senior U.S. adviser to the South Vietnamese army's 7th Infantry Division, plots strategy with 11th Infantry commander Maj. Nguyen Duy Bach, Capt. Tran Tien Khang and Maj. Harold E. Dill. The Vietnamese troops were on the trail of Communist guerrillas who had ambushed a 50-member Catholic volunteer paramilitary force, killing 13. Vann was an outspoken critic of U.S. and South Vietnamese tactics, and was forced out of his position in 1963; he later returned as a civilian. His story is told in Neil Sheehan's Pulitzer Prize-winning "A Bright Shining Lie."
RELATED MATERIAL:
An appreciation of John Paul Vann, written after his death in 1972.
