American Valor Quarterly Issue 2 - Spring 2008 | Page 32

Left: Joe Portnoy/American Veterans Center; Right: U.S. Army Photo

Joseph Galloway: Well, the general and I have
been back six or seven times. Two years ago, I
was in Hanoi, Hue, Da Nang, and Saigon, and I
hit Saigon as they were having the 30th anniversary
of the fall of Saigon to the communists. But they
didn’t want to, excuse my French, piss off the
Americans because they do a lot of trade with us,
somewhere in the vicinity of $8 or $9 billion a
year, interestingly about the same amount of trade
they do with China. They like to keep things in
balance. The Vietnamese are very skillful, very
interesting people. So they’re having their victory
parade; they scheduled it for 7:00 in the morning,
and they post police three blocks in either direction.
The public is not allowed to attend the victory
parade. Curious, but that’s part of what they
wanted to do. They did it for television and
broadcast it up north, and that sufficed. But they
The Ia Drang panel at the American Veterans Center’s 10th Annual Conference
flew in General Vo Nguyen Giap, the victor of
on November 10, 2007.
fights against Japan, China, the U.S., the French,
From left to right: Joseph Galloway, Lt. General Hal Moore, Col. Tony Nadal, Lt. Col.
the Cambodians, you name it. They flew him down
George Forrest, Col. John Herren, Lt. Col. Bruce Crandall, and Bill Beck.
as the grand reviewer of the parade, and I
watched him closely—Hal and I have interviewed
Another principle that I have employed all my life, since before I him about three times. He was up on the platform and the third
went to West Point, is that in any situation, you’ve got to think, or fourth float in the parade was the American Express credit
“What am I doing that I should not be doing?” and “What am I card float. And there were Vietnamese girls in Ao Dai costume,
not doing, that I should be doing to influence the situation in my dancing around and shaking large American Express cards in the
favor?” There’s always one more thing. And finally, next to last, face of this old revolutionary, and the third float after that was
trust your instincts. I learned early in my life that your instincts are the Visa card float. And I thought to myself, he’s got to be standing
the product of your experience, your reading, and your personality. there saying, “We won the war, but we lost the peace!” I left this
And throughout my life, and particularly on the battlefields of last trip feeling that Vietnam had changed, and changed for the
Vietnam and Korea—I was a captain infantry officer in the Korean better. That some of the benefits of this new prosperity were
War, and fought on Pork Chop Hill twice, Old Baldy, T-Bone, trickling down to the ordinary people on the street and in the
Charlie Outpost—I learned you must trust your instincts. And paddies and out in the villages, and that’s a good thing. They’re an
when time is critical, your instincts are your best resource. If your interesting people.
gut tells you one thing, and your heart tells you another, I go with
Lt. Col. Bruce Crandall: My oldest son was in Hanoi about
my