18. Sasse, “A History of North Omaha’s June 1969 Riot.”
19. Paul Hammel, “David Rice, Long Known as Mondo we Langa, Maintained His Innocence in 1970 Slaying Until the End,” Omaha World-Herald, March 16, 2016, at http://www.omaha.com/news/nebraska/david-rice-long-known-as -mondo-we-langa-maintained-his/article_44514dcc-2778-5593-a7ff-23f5dcbad22c .html, accessed July 19, 2016.
20. Elena Carter, “The Forgotten Panthers,” Buzzfeed, February 11, 2016, at https://www.buzzfeed.com/e6carter/the-omaha-two?utm_term=.wv1El3bY7# .urzqeLv8A, accessed July 19, 2016. Carter’s father, Earl Sandy Carter, worked in North Omaha in the early 1970s as a Volunteer in Service to America (VISTA) anti-poverty worker.
21. Michael Richardson, “Omaha FBI Office Sets Up COINTELPRO Unit and J. Edgar Hoover targets Black Panthers,” San Francisco Bay View, June 25, 2011, at http://sfbayview.com/2011/06/the-story-of-the-omaha-two-2/, accessed July 19, 2016.
22. Vance, “Chuck Hagel Nomination,” 32; Bolger interview with Charles T. Hagel; Bolger interview with Thomas L. Hagel.
23. Robert Nelson, “War and Peace,” Omaha Magazine, July 10, 2014, 60–61.
24. Ibid.
25. Berens, Chuck Hagel, 37–38, 46.
26. MacPherson, Long Time Passing, 22–23.
27. Westmoreland, A Soldier Reports, 455–56.
28. Stanton, Vietnam Order of Battle, 274, 334. The ARVN 7th Infantry Division and 9th Infantry Division assumed responsibility for the former U.S. 9th Infantry Division area of operations.
29. Davidson, Vietnam at War, 542–47.
30. U.S. Selective Service System, “Induction Statistics” at https://www.sss .gov/About/History-And-Records/Induction-Statistics, accessed July 19, 2016. See also U.S. Selective Service System, “The Vietnam Lotteries,” at https://www.sss .gov/About/History-And-Records/lotter1, accessed May 27, 2016.
31. Sorley, Thunderbolt, 291, 313–14, 317–18; Davidson, Vietnam at War, 653–54.
32. Thomas J. Knock, The Rise of a Prairie Statesman: The Life and Times of George McGovern (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2016), 429. McGovern earned the Distinguished Flying Cross during a 1944 bombing mission over German-held Czechoslovakia.
33. Berens, Chuck Hagel, 45–46; Bolger interview with Charles T. Hagel.
34. Unattributed, “Hastings Youth, 16, Is Victim,” Lincoln Evening Journal, November 17, 1969.
35. Betty Breeding was quoted in MacPherson, Long Time Passing, 420. For Chuck Hagel’s quotation, see Hagel, America: Our Next Chapter, 279. He offered similar thoughts in the Bolger interview with Charles T. Hagel.
36. Berens, Chuck Hagel, 18–19.
37. MacPherson, Long Time Passing, 180.
38. Richard Holmes, Acts of War: The Behavior of Men in Battle (New York: Free Press, 1985), 213–20.
39. Bolger interview with Charles T. Hagel.
40. Grossman, On Killing, 287–89.
41. MacPherson, Long Time Passing, 180. Emphasis in original.
42. Ibid., 180; Bolger interview with Thomas L. Hagel; University of Dayton, “School of Law: Thomas Hagel” at https://www.udayton.edu/directory/law/hagel _thomas.php, accessed July 19, 2016.
43. Berens, Chuck Hagel, 47.
44. U.S. Senate, Senator Charles T. Hagel, “Governor Frank B. Morrison,” 108th Congress, 2nd Session, Congressional Record (April 22, 2004), S4288; Bolger interview with Charles T. Hagel.
45. Bolger interview with Thomas L. Hagel.
46. Carter, “The Forgotten Panthers.”
47. James Moore, Very Special Agents: The Inside Story of America’s Most Controversial Law Enforcement Agency—The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1997), 103–4.
48. The FBI special agent is quoted in ibid., 104 below. For the Des Moines, Iowa, attack, see United Press International, “Des Moines Building Ripped by Explosion,” Chicago Tribune, June 14, 1970.
49. Ibid., 104.
50. In Operation Pandora, on July 25, 1971, the KGB directed emplacement of bombs “in the Negro section of New York,” preferably at a black-majority college. See Andrew and Mitrokhin, The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive, 238.
51. Unattributed, “Students, Police to Be Topics of UFAF Confab,” Omaha Sun, January 1, 1970. This source refers to the United Front Against Fascism, an alternative name for the National Committee to Combat Fascism. That latter name was on the sign in front of David Rice’s house.
52. Carter, “The Forgotten Panthers.”
53. Ibid.; Moore, Very Special Agents, 104.
54. Carter, “The Forgotten Panthers.”
55. Bolger interview with Charles T. Hagel.
56. Hammel, “David Rice, Long Known as Mondo we Langa, Maintained His Innocence in 1970 Slaying Until the End.”
57. Carter, “The Forgotten Panthers”; Bolger interview with Thomas L. Hagel.
58. Jennifer Mascia, “People Were So Stunned That a 12-Year-Old Could Be Holding a Gun,” Trace, July 30, 2015, at https://www.thetrace.org/2015/07/omaha -nebraska-urban-gun-violence-city-limits/, accessed July 20, 2016.
59. MacPherson, Long Time Passing, 420; Bolger interview with Thomas L. Hagel.
60. Todd Cooper, “After 35 years, Witness Still Says He Was 911 Caller. Duane Peak Holds Firm on the Recording That Led to the Death of an Omaha Officer and the Convictions of Two Men in the 1970s,” Omaha World-Herald, May 14, 2006. For Chuck Hagel’s thoughts on due process, even when it is very unpopular, see Hagel, America: Our Next Chapter, 101.
61. Penner, “Interview with Charles Timothy Hagel and Thomas Leo Hagel, Part 10 of 21”; Bolger interview with Charles T. Hagel.
62. Davidson, Vietnam at War, 706–10.
63. Edward Doyle and Terrence Maitland, The Aftermath, 1975–1985, The Vietnam Experience (Boston: Boston Publishing), 102. For Chuck Hagel’s thoughts on the differences between Saigon of 1968 and 1999, see Hagel, America: Moving Forward, 8–9. Following his stint as a public defender, Professor Tom Hagel served on the law faculty of Temple University and then the University of Dayton. He also filled in as an acting municipal judge in Dayton, Ohio.
64. Brad Penner, producer, writer, reporter, Echoes of War, Nebraska Educational Television, 1999, at http://memory.loc.gov/diglib/vhp/story/loc.natlib.afc 2001001.88134/, accessed July 21, 2016.
65. The complete set of available raw video footage and sound can be found at http://memory.loc.gov/diglib/vhp/story/loc.natlib.afc2001001.88134/, accessed July 20, 2016.
EPILOGUE. THE OLD SERGEANT
1. George Santayana, “Tipperary,” Soliloquies in England and Later Soliloquies (London: Constable, 1922), 102. Santayana wrote these lines following the armistice of November 11, 1918. The quotation is often attributed to Plato, most notably on the wall of the British Imperial War Museum in London. It was also linked to Plato by General of the Army Douglas A. MacArthur in his famous “Duty, Honor, Country” speech to West Point cadets on 1962. The words appear again as Plato’s aphorism at the beginning of the 2001 film Black Hawk Down. No extant work of Plato includes this quotation.
2. Karen Parrish, “Hagel Visits Afghanistan to Assess Operations,” American Forces Press Service, March 8, 2013, http://archive.defense.gov/news/newsarticle .aspx?id=119473, accessed August 2, 2016.
3. Mirwais Harooni and Phil Stewart, “Suicide Bomber Kills Nine Afghans in Kabul During Hagel Visit,” Reuters, March 9, 2013, http://www.reuters.com/article/us-afghanistan-blast-idUSBRE92804220130309, accessed August 1, 2016.
4. Karen Parrish, “Hagel Offers Observations After Meeting with Karzai,” American Forces Press Service, March 10, 2013, at http://archive.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=119483, accessed August 1, 2016.
5. Karen Parrish, “Suicide Bomber Attacks Nearby During Hagel ISAF Meeting,” American Forces Press Service, March 9, 2013, at http://archive.defense .gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=119480, accessed August 1, 2016.
6. Chris Carroll, “On Hagel’s First Afghan Visit, Karzai Alleges US, Tali
ban Are Colluding,” Stars and Stripes, March 11, 2013.
7. Daniel P. Bolger, “Notes on Events of March 10, 2013,” NATO Training Mission—Afghanistan commander’s journal.
Index
Abbott, James Frank, 142
Abrams, Creighton
background, 210
description/traits, 210, 239
Ewell and, 93
on military strength, 127
on Saigon, 178–179
task of “losing war” and, 210
Vietnam, 178, 210
Acheson, Dean, 106
Advanced Individual Training/Chuck Hagel
leave/return to Nebraska and family, 50
Officer Candidate School offer and, 49
Redeye antiaircraft missile training, 49–50
training description, 47–49
Afghanistan/fighting, xii, 265–268
Agent Orange, 157
Agnew, Spiro, 206
Ali, Muhammad, 54, 163
American Civil Liberties Union, 261
American Independent Party, 137, 141
American Spirit Honor Medal, 47
Amin, Mohammed, 267
Amnesty International, 261
Andrews Air Force Base
description, 17–18
as target, 17, 18
anti-war movement, 52
anti-war movement/Vietnam
by 1967 and, 10–11, 51–53
Chicago riots (1968) and, 204, 205–206
college students losing interest in, 254
draft and, 52–53
march on the Pentagon (1967), 52
media and, 85–87
military claims on enemy casualties and, 177
rallies/sayings, 52
Tet Offensive and, 85–87, 145
US people/statistics (1967), 10–11, 145
See also specific individuals
APC (armored personnel carrier)
advantages/disadvantages, 70–72
maintenance and, 102, 117
movements, 161
tanks vs., 71
Apollo 11 astronauts, 248
Apple, R.W., Jr. (“Johnny”), 10, 65
Arapaho, 13
Armstrong, Louis, 138
ARVN (Army of the Republic of Vietnam)
Nixon/Vietnamization and, 254, 255
role of, 7
Tet Offensive and, 86
US military views of, 7, 231
Asterisk, 142
attack (March 28, 1968)
aftermath, 124–125
Claymore explosion/casualties, 120, 121–123
getting to water/using trail, 119–120
helicopter lifts and, 123–124, 129
“measure of success,” 130
night lift/“walking wounded,” 129
US shooting back, 120–121
attack (March 28, 1968) and Hagel brothers
going back/reasons, 122–124
injuries, 121–123, 125
leading others out/trip wire, 125–126, 128–129
medical treatment/rest, 130–131, 134–135
awards system
overview/problems, 200–201
See also specific awards; specific individuals
Bacon, Edward E. (“Gene”), 127–128
Ball, George, 106
Barnes, Brice H.
medal/recognition, 81–82
Tet Offensive, 80, 81–82
Barsanti, Olinto, 104
Bartek, Ronald, 104
basic training
centers for, 40
cleaning/repairs and, 41
evaluations summary, 43
marching/equipment carried, 44–45
marine-style Basic Combat Training overview, 39–40, 43
numbers of privates, 40
overview, 39–40
Tom Hagel/MOS, 50
See also Fort Bliss, Texas
basic training/Chuck Hagel
awards/recognition, 47
description/traits, 37, 40, 42, 43–44
drill sergeants and, 38
as leader, 37, 40–41, 42, 43–44, 45
MOS/Advanced Individual Training, 47
on other recruits, 43
as soldier/skills, 41, 42, 43–44, 45, 46, 47
travels to Fort Bliss, Texas, 37, 38
See also Advanced Individual Training/Chuck Hagel; Fort Bliss, Texas
Beam, James W., 209
Berens, Carlyne, 31
Bergeron, Robert J., 221
“best and the brightest,” 10, 57, 106
Binh Phuoc description/defense, 236–237, 238–239
Binh Son rubber plantation, French Michelin Company, 119
Bivens, Eddie, 221
Black Lives Matter movement, 296n36
Black Panthers
Chicago (1968) and, 205
disbanding in North Omaha, 262
FBI and, 250–251, 252–253, 259
Omaha, Nebraska, and, 139–140, 250–253, 259–261, 262
See also specific individuals
Bockscar, 18–19, 30
Bolden, Eddie, 252
“boonies,” 229
Bowman, Paul H., 169, 170
Bradley, Omar, 106
Breeding, E. J., 254, 256
Bronze Star, 200, 201, 306n60
Brown, James, 150
Buffalo Chip, 142
Bundy, McGeorge, 10, 106
Bush, George W., 55
Butler, William
rank, 127
Tet Offensive/effects, 78–79, 118
VC tunnel network and, 118
Caine Mutiny, The (Wouk), 43
Caldwell, Larry G., 168
Casey, George, 104
“checkerboard” operation, 211, 212
Cheney, Dick, 55
Cheyenne, 13, 83
Chicago (Democratic National Convention, 1968) riot
Daley and, 205–206
description, 204, 205
Vietnam and, 204, 205, 207, 210
civil rights
1960s and, 138–141
blacks in Omaha, Nebraska, and, 137–138
See also specific individuals
Civil Rights Act (1964), 144
Civil War (US)
descriptions, 88, 89–90
paying a substitute, 55
World War II comparisons, 22, 23
See also specific individuals
Clayton, George M., Jr., 221
Clifford, Clark, 107, 146
Clinton, Bill, 55
Cody, Buffalo Bill, 30–31
COINTELPRO (Counterintelligence Program) tactics, FBI, 251, 259–260, 261–262
Cold War
descriptions, 24
FBI and, 250–251
“Looking Glass” and, 19
SAC headquarters and, 17, 18–20
Soviet foreign/military intelligence (KGB/GRU), and, 17, 20, 140, 250–251, 274n17
See also Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska; specific countries/individuals
Corrilla, John, 78–79
Craig, James B.
Company B appointment/description, 164, 228
injury, 175
Mini-Tet and, 166, 169, 173, 174, 175
Cronin, William B., 200
Cronkite, Walter, 86
Custer, George A., 15
Czajak, Daniel J., 221
Dakota, 13
Daley, Richard J., 205–206
Darnell, George W., 168
Davison, Frederic E., 151
DDT use, 178
Dean, Arthur, 106
DePuy, Bill, 104
Dillon, Douglas, 106
DISCOM and 2-47th, 212
Distinguished Service Cross, 81, 93
draft. See military conscription
drill sergeants
Fort Ord, 48
in movies, 36–37
recruits and, 36–37
See also specific individuals
Duerson, Dave, 163
Dunn, Elizabeth (“Betty”)
, 31
See also Hagel, Elizabeth (“Betty”)
Duvall, Jerry, 60–61
Dye, Jimmy, 164, 168, 169
Echoes of War (documentary film), 263–264
Eisenhower, Dwight D., 137
Emerson, Henry E. (“Gunfighter”)
death, 199
description, 228
Ewell and, 189
jitterbugging and, 189, 199, 304n26
Enola Gay, 18–19, 30
Enquist, Arthur John, 183
Ewell, George W., 90
Ewell, Julian J.
background/ancestors and, 89–90
description/traits, 89, 91, 93
education, 90
medals/recognition, 93
military background, 90–93
parachutes/paratroopers, 90–92
World War II and, 91–93, 98
Ewell, Julian J./Vietnam
beer and, 232
changes made (overview), 102–104, 129
“checkerboard” and, 211, 212
comparison to other military leaders, 104–105
critics of, 104
on guerrilla foe, 98
Hagel brothers and, 111, 232
jitterbugging and, 190, 197, 211, 212
kill ratio and, 103–104, 177, 179, 183
mechanized units and, 97, 155, 211
Mini-Tet and, 165, 169, 170, 172, 177
new tactics (1968) and troop views, 211, 212
night flights and, 189
“night hunter” and, 211, 212, 213
numbers of men/tasks and, 101–103
personality/applying pressure, 97, 102, 104, 117, 125, 155, 164, 176, 177, 181, 183, 185, 197, 211–212, 222, 223, 225, 228, 232, 239
posting/9th Infantry Division and, 94
report demands and, 103
reputation/killing VC, 88, 89, 103, 104, 107, 118, 164, 181, 185, 197, 211–212, 240, 241, 242
riverine units and, 97, 103, 155
situation on arrival (1968), 94–98
tactics, 115, 117
World War II methods and, 104
Ewell, Jamie Offutt, 90
Ewell, Richard Stoddert, 89–90
Falana, Lola, 150
Fall, Bernard, 237
Fallaci, Oriana, 9
FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation)
Black Panthers and, 250–251, 252–253, 259
COINTELPRO (Counterintelligence Program), 251, 259–260, 261–262
King and, 147
Omaha, Nebraska, and, 140, 143, 250–251
Omaha, Nebraska, bombing (August 1970) and, 259–260, 261–262
See also specific individuals
“flyover country,” 14
Forrest Gump (film), 69–70, 283n23, 304n25