Triumphant Warrior by Peter D. Shay

Author:Peter D. Shay
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Military / World War II
ISBN: 9781612007649
Publisher: Casemate
Published: 2019-05-19T00:00:00+00:00

Vinh Long Airfield Battle Area sketch during Tet Offensive, January 1968. (Modified by A. E. Weseleskey)

Explosions at Vinh Long. (Courtesy of A. E. Weseleskey)

CHAPTER NINE

Bystanders Trapped During Tet

Sister Joan Gormley: “I felt like the world of the Good Shepherd Sisters Convent was collapsing before my eyes.”

Good Shepherd Sisters: Anne, Mary, and Joan standing next to Good Shepherd Statue in Vinh Long, 1967. (Courtesy of A. E. Weseleskey)

A month later, as the Tet Offensive began to wind down to a series of ongoing skirmishes, MACV, in its calculation of enemy losses, concluded that the enemy’s offensive had been poorly executed. The goal of bringing about a general civilian uprising was not attained. Even more encouraging to MACV was the decimation of so many main NVA and NLF units, leading to the belief that most of the Communists’ fighting resources had been exhausted. It was estimated by the allied body count experts that nearly half of the 84,000 fighters committed had been lost, as compared to the loss of 1,000 American lives.

But in the eyes of the American public there was no way that the huge NVA losses compensated for the American loss of life. No mercy would be given to the American leadership by the American public after the widespread publishing of a few horrific photographs—one in particular being, the perfectly timed photo of the national police chief, Brigadier General Nguyen Ngoc Loan executing a Viet Cong prisoner with a round from his personal, silver-plated snub-nosed revolver. With his arm extended straight, the executioner’s single bullet traveled just inches before piercing the side of the head of sapper commander Nguyen Tan Dat. The distorted grimace as the bullet entered the brain of this small man standing in his torn plaid shirt and dark shorts, with hands tied behind his back, appalled millions. And with the clicking of the shutter of Eddie Adams’s camera and the simultaneous recording of Vietnamese cameraman Vo Suu’s NBC newsreel footage of the execution, showing the details of Dat crumpling to the ground with blood bursting out of his head, the war began its own death throes. 1 The date was February 1, 1968. Saigon and most of the rest of the country were in utter chaos, and it was only the beginning.

Could anything fruitful have resulted from the huge loss of civilian life and destruction of property in the Mekong Delta towns of the prosperous My Tho, Ben Tre, and the important central Delta city of Vinh Long?

The Good Shepherd Sisters convent, training facility, and dormitory was located less than one kilometer northeast of the Vinh Long Army Airfield on a piece of property provided them in 1958 by the Diem government and blessed by President Diem’s brother, Archbishop Monsignor Ngo Dinh Thuc. Its buildings ordinarily housed about 100 girls and young women between the ages of 9 and 25 “in need” of professional guidance. 2 Many of the young women had been referred to the convent by the local government and were engaged in providing laundry and sewing services to the Vinh Long base personnel.

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