Comrades in a lost war

Thursday, Nov. 10, 2005 | 8:59 a.m.

Ba says the insurgent forces in Iraq are well aware of U.S. military history, particularly the 1973 pullout of Vietnam amid mounting protests at home. With U.S. deaths in Iraq recently topping 2,000, terrorist forces believe all they have to do is hold on until similar protests force a pullout of Iraq, Ba said.

"It could mean the destruction of everything -- the collapse of the U.S. economy, the loss of the fuel to run capitalism," said Ba, 74, who came to the United States in 1987 and became a citizen in 1996. "The Roman Empire fell, as all empires have fallen. The United States can, too."

Ba should know what can happen when the United States pulls out of a war.

After years of leading South Vietnamese forces that fought alongside U.S. troops, Ba was captured by the Viet Cong in 1975 and spent the next 12 years in a Communist prison.

On Friday, Ba and other South Vietnamese veterans will participate in an 11 a.m. Veterans Day ceremony at the Gobel-Lowden Veterans Museum at 3333 Cambridge St. to thank local U.S. Vietnam War veterans for their service in the only war in which the United States failed to achieve its political objective.

Ba, a Las Vegas resident in the 1990s who for the last six years has split his time between homes in Las Vegas and Temecula, Calif., is viewed in American Vietnamese communities and among the anti-Communist underground in his homeland as an enduring hero.

There are about 3,500 Vietnamese living in Clark County, the U.S. Census Bureau says.

Ba began fighting in Vietnam as a second lieutenant in 1951. He was considered a brilliant strategist, particularly as leader of the 23rd Infantry Division in the victory at the Kontum Province during the Easter Offensive in May 1972.

"Col. Ba carried out the tactic principle of 'luring tigers (enemy) out of the forests,' concentrating his men in the Kontum perimeter," former South Vietnamese teacher and soldier Phan Vu wrote in his memoir, "The Vietnam War: A Free Vietnamese's Viewpoint." "He prepared the killing grounds for VCs. ...

"Ba came to the defense frontlines ... to encourage fighting men. ... The 23rd ARVN (Army of the Republic of Vietnam) and Kontum Province Regional and Popular Forces had confidence in their victory. That was the core of the victory. And Ba got it."

Ba, who also is the author of the autobiography "Hoi Ky 25 Nam Khoi Lua," also participated in the Battle of Ap Bac in 1963 and commanded the South Vietnamese 25th Infantry Division from 1973 until he was captured. He maintains that if U.S. troops "had stayed a few more years, we would have won the war."

While local Vietnam War veterans say they respect Ba for his bravery and leadership -- and are sorry he suffered for so many years in prison because of his close ties to U.S. forces -- many disagree with his belief that a longer U.S. presence in Vietnam would have brought about a different conclusion.

"As long as there were healthy North Vietnamese soldiers, they never would have stopped coming down the Ho Chi Minh Trail to attack us," said Las Vegan Ralph Licon, 74, who served with the Army Special Forces in Vietnam in the mid-1960s and got cancer from exposure to the jungle defoliant Agent Orange.

"We'd still be there fighting today."

Ed Gobel, founder of the local museum and a Vietnam War veteran with the 101st Airborne, said, "there never was a clear strategy to win the Vietnam War. That is one reason why, for (many of) us, the war will never be over. There was no closure."

Then what of Iraq?

"I believe it will be more of an albatross to us than Vietnam was," said Las Vegan Peter Krommenhoek, 70, a Special Forces captain who served two tours of duty in Vietnam in the late 1960s and today suffers from post traumatic stress disorder. "The protests at home against the Vietnam War were too strong for us to stay there. Now, with U.S. deaths mounting in Iraq there is a perception at home that we are not doing so well there. The same thing could happen," he said.

Gobel, who also has severe war-related disabilities, says the exit strategy for Iraq is similar to the one in Vietnam -- a formula for another disaster. He noted, "In Vietnam, we trained the ARVN to defend themselves after we left. In Iraq we are training the police to take over when we leave."

Ba says that had the South Vietnamese prevailed, he believes his country today would have been a modern, thriving nation, "prosperous with technology, ideology and education -- and freedom."

While Ba and Gobel say they would not visit Vietnam today, Green Berets Licon and Krommenhoek say, despite the propaganda Communist leaders are using to attract American tourism dollars to that Southeast Asian nation, they would like to see their old stomping grounds.

"I'm curious to see what they did with our camps," Krommenhoek said. "I'd also go there to remember the lives of so many Americans that were lost."

Gobel said bringing together veterans from South Vietnam and the United States for Veterans Day gives them "a chance to share thanks -- perhaps for the first time. It will give our veterans a feeling that we did some good over there."

Ba agrees: "U.S. troops helped us fight for freedom and democracy. The just cause of the Vietnam War is that it was an attempt to help people. And Vietnamese people love the Americans who fought to help us, and we respect those who died in that cause."

Ed Koch can be reached at 259-4090 or at koch@lasvegassun.com.