Where I Stand — Mike O’Callaghan: Concoction about what did or didn’t occur in Vietnam

Wednesday, July 1, 1998 | 11:17 a.m.

TWO WEEKS AGO, the nation was startled by an unexpected revelation that during the Vietnam War, 16 commandos were ordered to find and kill some defectors living with the enemy. Even more startling was the claim that the lethal gas sarin was used on civilians and enemy soldiers during this escapade.

The story created headlines throughout the country because the report came from CNN television and Time magazine. It even raised my attention until I learned that Peter Arnett had helped write it. Arnett's conduct as a reporter in Vietnam and later in Baghdad during the Gulf War gives good reason to question any U.S. military story with his name on it. He has always been too eager to grab on to, and report, stories damaging American military operations.

Since then, several men involved in the Laos operation, dubbed Tailwind, have stepped up and stamped "lie" over the story. It now appears that the guts of the story came from one individual who just recently recalled what happened after 24 years. Another man, seeking disability compensation, suspects they used lethal gas, according to Newsweek magazine.

There may be more to this story, but right now my tongue is firmly in my cheek.

From what I have learned, even if I could get past Arnett's involvement, the comments made by a college professor in the New York Times appears to make sense. Here's an excerpt taken from the story written by Joe Sharkey:

"Allan Young, an anthropologist at McGill University in Montreal who wrote 'The Harmony of Illusion: Inventing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder' (Princeton University Press, 1996) said he was 'very, very dubious' about the claims on the CNN program. Dr. Young spent two years at a V.A. hospital in the United States studying Vietnam veterans claiming emotional disabilities.

"He has been fascinated by new narratives emerging as Vietnam fades in memory, he said. While many patients obviously had arduous combat experiences, a growing number of cases 'involve a veteran who was not in Vietnam -- or if he was in Vietnam, he was not in combat,' he said. In group therapy sessions, these patients assemble shards of others' claims and even snippets of movies into fantasies of personal combat experiences, usually heroic actions or harrowing peril.

"But more intriguing, he said, is a small subdivision of that group -- men who falsely implicate themselves in atrocities. 'They make up war crimes for themselves,' Dr. Young said.

"Why would anybody do that?

"Dr. Young said that a motive could involve a quest for sympathy, for bigger disability payments or something far simpler.

" 'Guaranteed attention,' he said."

Former Undersheriff Eric Cooper's eulogy of Sheriff John Moran was most appropriate and sensitive. He ended it as one Marine addresses another, "Semper Fi, John," Metro Officer Gary Robey, now retired and living in Arizona, sent me mail about his remembrances of the late sheriff. "He had really put up a great fight which certainly fit his character. He was always a fighter yet in the last years of my career, while working directly under his leadership, he always had a keen sense of humor. When he held his morning staff meetings next door to my office, his staff always left with a smile and confidence I am sure he instilled in them. During his early term, I remember him calling me in the office one afternoon and saying how difficult it was to have to use his position to deal with troubled officers. It really pained him to end a man's career or take his pay from his family. I know he never forgot the families of the men he worked with and always related their troubles to how it would have affected his own family." ... The Rev. Tom Grey really gets under the skin of gamblers who are spreading their business into other cities and states. Even Grey's most outspoken gambler critics must admit he's not all wrong and like any other business, gambling does have problems. As for Grey's integrity, there are even fewer who can challenge it. I have watched his actions and questioned him in editorial boards and am convinced he started his ministry against gambling with very few dollars and will leave it with less. Strange as it may seem, he could become Nevada casino owners biggest helper as they fight this spread of gaming in California. Grey is dedicated to stopping it from spreading into all new venues, but isn't out to hurt it in places like Las Vegas and Atlantic City where it's already established. ... Las Vegas Mayor Jan Jones, now running for governor, was eager to pass on the good news given her by the doctors. Because her cancer had been caught early and treated, it should have no ill effect on her active lifestyle. ... Here we go again! This time it is Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt along with the governors of Colorado, Idaho, Nevada and Wyoming seeking to have a combined presidential primary in the year 2000. This idea springs to life every few years because these states plus Montana and North and South Dakota have good reason to believe they are ignored by major candidates. Please spare any tears for Nevada because during the past three or four presidential primaries all major candidates came to the Silver State more than once. Nevada has been courted heavily by Clinton, Bush and Reagan. Yes and they were all winners. ... As the major powers sweat over nuclear weapon proliferation into Pakistan and India they should look back in history for the answer. It was 17 years ago that Israel's Menachem Begin had his planes destroy Iraq's nuclear reactor. Americans can be thankful for his action otherwise the Gulf War probably would have had nuclear weapons involved.