2 February 1967:
“…[T]his damn Chinese new year truce coming up… may well ruin the 2 months of blood & sweat we’ve put into this operation. We are so close to a North V. regiment, but if we don’t catch them by next week, this truce will give them a chance to either get away or attack us in force & kill us all while our hands are tied. I’m convinced that human life means no more to [President Lyndon] Johnson than to Mao [Zedong] or Ho [Chi Minh].”
Lt. Rasmussen and 'Damnit', a dog he rescued. "He was bitten on the lip today by one of the scout dogs (a big German Shepherd),” Rasmussen wrote on February 6, "& is sulking at the moment.”
6 February 1967:
“…We’re still out here in the same area, which is pretty nice—… now that the monsoon ended over a week ago…."
“I went from here to Qui Nhon (we have a large base there) for medical supplies today—mostly by jeep rather than helicopter. This was flat & [a] rice paddy area & yet the dust was so thick that driving was difficult. I believe that up in the tall mountains is the only part of the country that is clean & dust free—mainly because there are no natives living up here. The filth & poverty in this country is unbelievable—India cannot possibly be worse. And I thought that Morocco & Mexico were dirty. It’s no wonder there’s a lot of malaria here, with all the stagnant water in the rice paddies. Luckily there are no rice paddies in the Pleiku area, but we’re over 100 miles from there at the moment (which suits me fine).“
"We rescued [a] puppy… from a native’s dinner table—a perfect illustration of the poverty. But the natives are lazy—especially the ones in Saigon, who still have to run the country….”
8 February 1967:
“…I’ve already written Mr. [Congressman David] Satterfield and Sen. [Harry] Byrd about the [poor] mail [service] & this damn truce. It started last night & there have already been 22 violations—according to radio Australia. No one got any sleep last night because a large enemy force had been spotted moving into this area in our direction. Because of the truce we couldn’t touch them & they knew it. We’ve been in this area over a month & had just about cleared it out (rumor had it that we’d be leaving this week), but now we’ll have to start over again. We expected them to attack either us or 1 of our other 2 battalions last night. I believe only a human wave suicide type attack would have a chance against us in our present location, but it would be no problem for them to shell us with mortars in these mountains. Every night our artillery battery fires at random into the surrounding area throughout the night to protect us & our 3 companies, which are always in the immediate area. Our 5 guns fire $5000 worth of ammunition every night at no specific targets. It makes sleeping difficult, but it seems to do the job. We can’t do this during the truce because we might hit some of the enemy, sneaking up on us to either attack us or shell us. Now we don’t know where they are or whether they intend to shell us or attack us. If they ever had a golden opportunity to do it, this is it & they’d like nothing better than to destroy our artillery, which is an integral part of our concept of operations in this terrain. I can think of no period in our history, where the lives of our troops have meant so little. And now I’m a sitting duck too."
“Did I tell you that several days ago we captured a tremendous amount of medical supplies. These were for the regiment we cleared out of here (now another has moved in) & they had double the amount we would have on hand for this size unit. There was stuff from Russia, eastern Europe, & Japan, but the majority of their drugs was penicillin (they were using it to treat everything) which came from the U.S. In fact it was the exact brand & package size that we use. We’ve been low on penicillin lately & now we know why. Usually we get the majority of our supplies arriving over here, but in this case the enemy got the majority of our penicillin, due to the corruption of the natives. We don’t have enough troops over here to unload our ships & therefore the enemy gets a percentage of our supplies.“
"…[T]he monsoon has been over for several weeks in this area. It gets fairly hot during the day but cool at night—a nice climate here. But when we move it may be to a monsoon area. The weather is very strange—it’s different in each part of the country…."
“There go some jets over us, which is unusual; we don’t usually fly at night. I don’t know why they’re flying since they’re not used for observation. If they see anything, their can’t attack it, although they can warn us & I’ll sleep in a bunker—I have 2 feet of sandbags around my tent (an arctic tent, which is big, anyway).”
13 February 1967 [from Senator Harry F. Byrd, Jr.]:
“My dear Lieutenant Rasmussen:—Thank you for your letter which I received this morning. Yours is a thoughtful and well-reasoned letter. “I am most interested in your first-hand report from Viet Nam—especially was I interested in your statement about the captured North Vietnamese medical supplies which were from America. I shall be discussing this with my colleagues on the Armed Services Committee….“
"You might be interested to know, that my youngest son is a Private in the Marine Corps and will be going to Viet Nam within a few months.“
"To you I send my best wishes.”
Helicopters were able to supply the forward command posts in their remote locations.
15 February 1967:
“…I’ve been back at base camp at Pleiku for the past several days; I’m going back out tomorrow. Pleiku right now is a windy dust bowl, similar to the one in the southwest during the depression era. I’ll be glad to get out of here. I had to come back to serve as defense counsel at a court martial (the lowest ranking people get these details). But I talked the major out of a court martial & he just fined the guy $60 & busted him from PFC to Pvt. The guy had gotten drunk & spent the night in town & hadn’t gotten back until ten the next morning. This isn’t terribly unusual for enlisted men, but it just so happened that the btn. [battalion] left for the field at 9:30… He would have gotten 6 months in the stockade & a much larger fine…. But he’d done a good job for 8 months over here & the major realized it. In a war this kind of thing is serious, but I was real happy because this guy impressed me as being a good man…. [W]e’re fortunate in having some real fine officers in the btn…."
“As to that idiotic truce, one of our companies on a neighboring hill was attacked two evenings in a row (no casualties—we killed a few). We were supposed to move last Sun[day] up to Da Nang on the DMZ to help the marines, who don’t seem to be doing the job (no wonder as they don’t have the new rifles or helicopters—[Secretary of Defense Robert] McNamara must hate them), but due to the truce, we’re going to start all over again where we are as more enemy were allowed to move in. We just don’t have enough troops over here for this old fashioned type of war….“
"We can get most anything by calling it ‘medical supplies.’”
The ruggedness of the terrain of the central highlands was one factor that dictated the course and duration of the war.
21 February 1967:
“…We’re lucky in that we get a hot meal for supper, usually, from our supply depot (20 miles away—10-15 minutes by helicopter) back in the valley, but there’s not much variety. There’s always plenty to eat & I’m amazed how well we’re supplied in this terrain, so I’m not complaining at all….“
"…[T]he mountains extend to the sea & … the beaches are poor as on the Riviera. At Qui Nhon, on the coast, you would expect to get sand only 100 yds. from the sea instead of dust, but you don’t. Qui Nhon is as typically dusty & filthy as Pleiku. To say that this country is wealthy is absurd—it’s poverty galore."
“We haven’t had too much going on lately, which is not especially good, meaning we haven’t been able to corner the enemy. Our causalities have been light for the past 2 months but mainly because of this fact. It’s a crazy war in which success is measured in the number of enemy killed in the most overpopulated part of the world! Things may be looking up however. This evening they spotted VC on a neighboring hill & called in helicopters, which attacked the wrong hill, using up all their ammunition. But returning they spotted a platoon in the open & called in our artillery. Luckily the first round was right on target & we probably got them all.“
"I got a kick out of the colonel several days ago authorizing me to evacuate our puppy back to Pleiku to be wormed & also furnishing a courier. The dog is unfortunately named ‘Damnit’ & isn’t always sure when he’s being called.”
23 February 1967 [from Congressman David E. Satterfield III]:
“Dear John: This is to acknowledge your letter of the 5th. I cannot agree with you more about the observance of truces in Viet Nam…. I shall do all I can to oppose any future observances."
“We are well aware of the thefts that have occurred in our shipments to Viet Nam, including medical supplies. Efforts are being made to spot this….“
"I have written several times about mail and hope it will improve…."
“Please let me hear from you again and the best of luck to you.”
27 February 1967:
“… I’m putting most of my money in the army 10% savings account you can get over here…."
“Not too much has been happening around here.”
