Marvin Daniel - Expendable elite: one soldiers journey into covert warfare

Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Marvin

United States Army Special Forces (Retired)

Table of Contents

E XPENDABLE ELITE

One Soldiers Journey into Covert Warfare

Copyright 2003/2006 Daniel Marvin

All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted by the 1976 Copyright Act or in writing by the author. Requests for permission should be addressed to:

Daniel Marvin

C/O TrineDay

P.o. Box 577

Walterville, OR 97489

Movie and television rights are the exclusive property of Robert Francis Logan Productions.

Edited by William C. and Jeanne Calabretta.

Marvin, Daniel.

Expendable Elite / Daniel Marvin p. cm.

Includes bibliographical refernces. ISBN 0-9777953-1-4

1. Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-75Special Forces 2. Counter insurgency Vietnam 3. Assassination attemptCambodian Crown Prince Norodom Sihanouk

I. Title

959.704'3373-dc21

DS558.Ma

Victory Edition (Second Edition)

This manuscript recounts many conversations held over a long period of time and recon- structed from notes, letters, records, reports, audiotapes and memory. In each instance the substance and tone of these conversations is accurate; the dialogue is as precise as the notes, letters, records, reports, audiotapes and memory permit.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2003103612

Printed in the United States of America.

DISTRIBUTION TO THE TRADE BY:

Independent Publishers Group (IPG)

814 North Franklin Street

Chicago, Illinois 60610

www.ipgbook.com

D EDICATED TO:

My wife, Katherine Ann

Former ARVN Lieutenant General Quang Van Dang

Former ARVN Lieutenant Colonel Phoi Van Le

All those American and South Vietnamese Special Forces, civilian employees and the estimated 64,000 residents whom I had the pleasure to serve and to serve with from December 1965 to 2 August 1966 in An Phu District, South Vietnam

Pastor William C Calabretta and his wife, Jeanne

Kathryn Carlyle Burns

Kris Millegan

THIS BOOK OF TRUTH WAS BEGUN IN 1984,

THE YEAR I ACCEPTED THE LORD JESUS CHRIST AS MY PERSONAL SAVIOUR.

W hat is it about a book? Why do they excite such passionsburn them, ban them, read them, write them, venerate them. We kill for them. We construct rooms around them. We mold lives around them. They are sacred. They are profane. Books are powerful. A book presents focused thought, the codified word that may burn ones soul. A book may change your life. A book is where the rubber hits the road: it takes conscious decisions, concerted effort and determined dedication to bring forth thoughts and ideas into something that you may hold in your hand. It is, at days end, an act of creation. And as with any creature, a book may have a life of its own. Maybe even a soul.

This book, a modest venture, the simple telling of a soldiers war storysome- thing as old as the campfire, where the young warriors learn from the victories and failures of yorehas become something more than what it began as.

A crusade, and a catharsis, a healing for souls ravaged from war, hiding from the savagery and brutal inhumanity behind a shield of camaraderie, loyalty and bravado. A journey of truth hitting many rocky shores along the way, finally making its way to the ocean of common discourse only to be challenged and set upon by lawyers, the seemingly preferred profession for 21st century book-burners.

You shall, hopefully, read the whole story in the pages that follow, and be able to make-up your own mind. Included in this book are the documentation, photos, etcetera that display the forthrightness of this tale.

Although it does have the elements, this not an action story, it is a story to learn from, to learn the courage, the sacrifice and the unheralded civic actions of our Special Forces, to learn the tenacity and beauty of the Hoa Hao people and culture, to learn that war is more than what is presented in history books. To learn that a country and our fighting men and women may be mislead by our political leaders.

Those who have been to war, to kill or be killedsometimes simply for an idealare truly the only ones who understand the actual reality of war, the deci- sions that must be made, the burdens that must be borne, the shock, the terror, the blood, the guts, the adrenaline the smell. They understand the hypocrisy, the insanity of war that allows death and destruction to fester. That the lies told by far-removed leaders may result in misery, mayhem and murder for many.

Was it just because LTC Marvin let the air out of an old lie? Was that the reason for the attack on this book? Or was it more endemic to the Special Forces and their values and sensibilities? Or was there something deeper, a systemic avoidance of the truth, a routine obfuscation of past misdeeds, a sacrifice to the god of plausible deniablity, secrecy for secrecys sake?

Federal District Court is no free lunch, and the SFA hired lawyers playing hard-ball till the end, even demanded a unanimous verdict. After we won, one of plaintiffs attorneys puts me on notice threatening to sue us again, using other members of Dans team.

What is going on? Speaking from experience, litigation in Federal District Court is not cheap . It cost Dan and I over $150,000 for the privilege of defending ourselves successfully (and for which we still have years of payments left). We just had ourselves, a pair of lawyers and the truth. They had seven people and three lawyers, They had several paid witnesses. Their costs may even be higher than ours. The financial backer of the lawsuit, the Special Forces Association had in 1998 a total annual operating budget of only $146,000.

Which may lead one to wonder, who is really paying the bills? And what is so threatening about this book, a Vietnam-era memoir of covert warfare? There are hundreds, even a coffee-table book, a slick photo history. Are there deeper threads to this story, or deeper secrets of Special Forces experiences that the talkative Dan may reveal? Is that why? Who knows? There may be many reasons. That isnt what concerns me here.

Where does the SFA claim this right to bully our history. Where in our federal Constitution is a semi-military organization appointed to serve as the thought police, the monitor of the official record? For our trouble was not a first for the SFA. Except that we went beyond their bluster, under their influence, over their hurdles, actually defending ourselves in court, and prevailing. For it seems that even in these jaded times, our legal system, justice by the people, still stands.