T. Harry Williams Center for Oral
History Collection
ABSTRACT
INTERVIEWEE NAME: Colonel T. O. Blakeney #4700.0938
IDENTIFICATION: Vietnam veteran
INTERVIEWER: Bert Magruder
PROJECT: Americans in Vietnam
DATES: 4/30/74
FOCUS DATES: 1963-1964
ABSTRACT:
Tape 1367
Growing up, family life; commissioned into Army through Thomason
Act; choosing Army over Marines; chose armor division; trained at
Fort Knox, KY in 1940; no military tradition in family; winter
task force in Alaska called "Task Force Frigid"; plane
crash in 1946; recovery in hospital; offered retirement at age 27
due to severity of injuries; continued military service until
1967; first assignment in Germany; due for hardship tour, offered
choice of Korea or Vietnam; chose Vietnam; went there in 1963 to
command Army Concepts team; serving around Quang Tri, close to
the demilitarization zone; use of tanks in Vietnam; death of
President Diem and ensuing turmoil; build-up in Vietnam by 1964;
beauty of Vietnam; three sections of Vietnam -- delta, rice
country and central highlands; Vietnamese attitudes toward
American military personnel; murderous deeds of Viet Cong;
attitudes of Vietnamese peasants toward Viet Cong; religions of
Vietnamese; fragmentation of Vietnamese people; Vietnam 1,000
years ago under leadership of Trung sisters; demography of
Vietnamese people; montagnards; overseas Chinese who settled in
Vietnam; terrible behavior of American troops in Vietnam;
Vietnamese people fleeing North Vietnam because of religious
persecution after 1954 Communist take over; Japanese influence on
Vietnam; hydro-electric generating system in Da Lat; inflation
and the black market; disconnection between government and small
farmers; Vietnamese love and respect for education, their
yearning for information on the outside world; effects of protest
against war on the war effort; invasion of Cambodia.
Tape 1368
Making recommendations to US government about efficient use of
troops and weapons in Vietnam; Viet Cong use of land mines
detonated by pull strings; recommending troops sit on top of
personnel carriers to lessen effects of mines; officers'
knowledge of drug use within their ranks; black market; soldiers'
savings plans; prostitution; Red Cross has been unfairly
maligned; half-breed children of soldiers.
TAPES: 2
TOTAL PLAYING TIME: 1 hour, 15 minutes
# PAGES TRANSCRIPT: 24
RESTRICTIONS: none