Two Days In October

*Left-from the Pentagon Protests-not Madison-my favorite image of Vietnam Era.

This may be the best documentary on Vietnam that I have ever seen, and I have seen quite a few. This post is just a fragmented, hodge-podge collection of notes along with a few comments. More order will be imposed on these records in time, I promise. As I watched it, I started to take notes because it was so important what was being said. Please watch this special, and see for your self. My notes may help you to begin assembling these troubling facts, as disjointed as they are. At least I`ve opened a file now, and I encourage you to do the same, on these few turgid days in October of 1967, that seemed to turn the world upside down.

“We got ambushed”… and later: “I was pretty bitter. I…I…, I considered those people to be traitors. I mean traitors, cowards, and any other dirty name you can come up with. As far as I`m concerned they can line those people up and shoot `em right between the eyes. That`s a pretty hard stand, but that`s the way I feel about it.” First Sergeant Bud Barrow-comments about Vietnam War protesters.

I saw two excellent DVDs yesterday (November 8th), the first was Two Days in October, which tells the parallel stories of a battle in Vietnam and a war protest at the University of Wisconsin. In October of 1967 the Americans of Alpha Company were ambushed by the Vietcong. Sixty-one young Americans lost their lives. Clark Welch, a Vietnam veteran who is extensively interviewed in the documentary, survived the battle and was wounded several times. Terry Allen, Jr., son of the famous WWII general, was in command at this time and ordered Alpha Company to attack the Vietcong position. He has therefore, when looking back in time, been held accountable by the survivors for this senseless massacre.

“To say it`s wrong to liberate the oppressed (to help the Vietnamese was the right thing to do)…It seemed so simple.” Clark Welch-Commander Of Delta Company

Terry Allen was shot through the head while staring at a photo of his three daughters. His wife, Jean Ponder Allen, is interviewed and reveals her gradual objections to the war. This includes a breaking with her husband who was on the other side of the fence. Footage of the battle makes it very real, and many of the Vietcong`s stories (Vo Minh Triet for one) are also recalled. Upper command was urging the soldiers to get into a real scrap with the commies. Terry Allen was being pressured to engage in a real battle.

The student protests at the University of Wisconsin were shocking to watch. You could see police battering students on the head with Billy clubs. The students blocked the administration building in protest to Dow Chemical, who had a presence on campus, and who made napalm, the gruesome jelly gas that burns at 2000 degrees Fahrenheit. Apparently, this was the first student protest of the Vietnam War that turned violent. This incident occurred on October 18th, 1967 when the Chancellor, William Sewell, ordered the local police to break up the sit-in, even though he was an opponent of the war himself. I believe that he was pressured by the governor of Wisconsin.

The introduction to Two Days in October, produced and directed by Robert Kenner, synchronizes and animates newspaper headlines with snapshots from college and high school yearbooks, as well as talking head sound bites. GI VIET DEATHS PASS 10,000…US DEATHS IN VIETNAM SET RECORD… VIETNAM TROOP INCREASE… The music is pensive. Here is one sound bite:

“I`m the first born Jewish son after the holocaust. You don`t just blindly follow, you don`t just blindly obey. You stand up when you see something wrong. Your government like any government can make mistakes.” Mark Greenside

In the fall of 1967 the war was picking up. The nightly news says:171 killed this week, 977 wounded. Walter Kronkite reports: 193 died, 14,000 Americans had died by the fall of 1967. Dow Chemical Company started producing Napalm in 1965, they mainly made sirran wrap heretofore. A piece in Ramparts, read by students, calls attention to this new chemical warfare. The Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin, was an opponent of the war, but he later calls the Madison police when the students stage a sit-in in defiance of the presence of Dow Chemical`s recruiting on campus.

There were now a half million young men in Vietnam. LBJ wanted body count, search and destroy the enemy was the prevailing tactic used by the military. “It was an exciting day, there was movement all around us.” Jim Shelton-On October 17th, 1967. An entire regiment of Vietcong, 12,000 soldiers, were present in the Iron Triangle, forty miles NW of Saigon. The Black Lions were stationed at Lai Khe. The Vietcong had no rice to eat for days, and were dug in bunkers. “It`s a big, hot murderous jungle.” General Hay was told by Westmoreland that we were not aggressive enough (in our pursuit of the enemy). Colonel Allen told the Company, “To pick up the pace.” Was being a hypocrite, but didn`t want to get relieved of command. Allen paid one last visit to his wife and kids in the states.

Allen`s wife, Jean Ponder Allen, from El Paso, was assaulted by images on TV of body bags and flag-draped caskets coming home. She began to doubt what it meant to be a military wife. She now wants a divorce from Terry Allen, but something worse was yet to come. She wrote a ‘Dear John Letter’ saying “I don`t want to be your wife anymore.”

The interviews with Paul Soglin and Jane Brotman really shed light on their evolving perspective. Paul Soglin became a professional protester after a very early start, dating back to protests against U.S. support of Ngo Dinh Diem. Jane Brotman, less of a professional, gradually turned against the war, especially when she was an eyewitness to the police brutality. She could hear the crack of the bats against student skulls when she walked upon the scene of confrontation. A combination of film footage, black and white stills, and eye witness testimony give this a poignancy of realism that riveted me. Scary were the words of Keith Hackett, a Madison cop who seemed to enjoy cracking the heads of students and who still seemed to relish those glory days. No remorse for his brutality could be detected in this 2005 documentary.

THE BATTLE OF ONG THANH

On October 16, 1967 Delta and Bravo Company made contact with the enemy, or on the edge of the base camp anyway. They had hit a ‘vital organ’. “we got the Vietcong where we want them.” A ‘frontal attack on a fortified position’ is not such a good idea (Clark Welch). There was a full moon that night. On October 17th Allen, who had never moved a company on the ground, began moving the troops in position. Heard a clicking sound, then the battle started.

The Americans had 160 men, the Vietnamese had 14,000 men. They were just 10 or 15 meters away. Fight very close. Alpha Co. just disappeared, now it was Delta. Machine gunner Sikorski is dead. “Anybody that was in the sunshine was being shot.” Mike Troyer. All of a sudden they had disappeared. They were gone. Everything was dead silence. 142 went out, 64 died. Almost everyone was wounded. It was a massacre. Diane Sikorski had an intense dream. Danny had his arms out. He had a giant hole in his stomach. It was a nightmare.

THE DOW PROTESTS OF OCTOBER 18TH

The kids were playing musical instruments. DOWN WITH DOW! DOWN WITH DOW! They chanted. William Sewell calls the Madison police. The Madison cops came mainly from the working class part of town. The students were East coast money. Keith Hackett says they were young and dumb. “You start anarchy, you have a fight on your hands.” James Rowen, a student protester, says: “ Expulsion from school could be a ticket to the war.”

When the cops showed there was an electric tension in the hallway. The officers were speaking through their clubs. 65 students had to go to the hospital. The bodies were stacked up like cordwood. 4,000 other students were watching the proceedings. Hackett says: “I`ve never seen the hate that was in these kids faces.” Chanting SEIG HEIL! SEIG HEIL! *The photo to the left is a demonstration in Seattle, October 16th, 1965. This is from my great book, Vietnam-A Complete Photographic History.
COVER-UP

After the ‘ambush’ at Ong Thanh of Alpha Company the military tried to spin it to look like a successful campaign. A private, Mike Arias, was told “not to mention it was an ambush.” The documentary shows old newspapers, then highlights the headlines, and enlarges the type so you can read it good. This is shocking the way the military spins this. Here are a few of them. “Threat Of Cong Attack Nipped In Jungle”… “Cong Repulsed”… “103 Reds Killed”… “Communists Withdraw”… “Victory”…. Okay, nothing could be further from the truth. General Hay was pleased that Charlie stayed in place briefly. General Westmoreland rewarded the purple heart to a few of the survivors of Ong Thanh.

The spin of the ‘Dow Protests’ by the Madison press and the university was equally nefarious. Some of the newspaper headlines that were projected were: “Campus Strike”… “Face Civil Arrest”… “Riot Leaders Suspended”… “Legislators Demand Penalties”….A witch hunt was on by the governor for protesters. A credibility gap between the media and the students is created. Now they could see that the university was on the side of Dow, the war profiteers, weapons makers. Jane Brotman, a freshman at Wisconsin in 1967, realized it was her civic responsibility to say what I witnessed was wrong. The anti-war movement only grew after ‘Dow Chemical’.

One headline reads: Communism Is On...Campus.

*(A collage I did a few years ago-not related to this special.)

DO NOT FAIL TO READ MY PIECE WHY VIETNAM? FROM 2005!

THE LESSONS LEARNED FROM THOSE DAYS IN OCTOBER OF 1967
“I think back then if people tried in anyway to stop the war, they probably felt that they were doing the right thing. On the other hand, the boys in Vietnam felt that they were doing the right thing. In the end I wonder who was right?” Diane Sikorski-sister to Danny Sikorski, a gunner who died in Vietnam on October 17th, 1967.

Diane Sikorski recalls the painful news on October 20th when the soldiers showed up to tell her family that Danny had been killed in action. Danny was dead and she had dreamed it the night before. Jean Ponder Allen lost her husband. She found it to be meaningless. She still feels a deep anger about the war. Most of the people in this special are far from healed yet.