Engineer Memoirs
roster. The same set of people that were violently opposed to the ABM deployment in
the '60s are now violently opposed to the SDI. On the other side, it's pretty much the
same. That isn't to say that the SDI is right--only to say that the same sets of people
are involved. The views that led to these two sides are enduring in America, and it's the
same cast of characters.
Q:
Do you envision a similar evolution towards another treaty, another agreement?
A:
Well, of course, that's what's going on.
Commander, 34th Engineer Group, 19681969
Q:
You went to Vietnam from the Secretary's office.
A:
Yes.
Q:
How much confidence could you have had going to command in Vietnam having seen
what went on in the Pentagon?
A:
That's interesting. I wasn't as concerned about the lack of support for our effort over
there. When you get right down to it, we lavished support on Vietnam. It was the best
supported war that any country has ever fought.
As we were talking earlier, I said it was wasteful in the lavishness of the support. We
should have fought it on a more austere basis and we would have done better.
I was a little apprehensive about how well I would do as a commander there. I had been
with the 44th Engineers in 1958 and '59. It had been ten years. The job of troop leading
in Vietnam I perceived to be quite different from the kinds of leadership that I had been
exercising in the States in that intervening period.
One thing happened, though, that helped. When Stanley Resor made his annual trip to
Vietnam in July of that year, I went with him. We went everywhere. We visited every
division. There were seven divisions.
I remember particularly our visit to the lst ARVN [Army of the Republic of Vietnam]
Division, which was up in the I Corps area on the border with North Vietnam. But we
went all over, were briefed by every division, saw every type of unit, and observed
some outstanding exercises.
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