T. Harry Williams Center for Oral
History Collection
ABSTRACT
INTERVIEWEE NAME: Jackie Moreland #
4700.0967
IDENTIFICATION: Vietnam veteran
INTERVIEWER: Robert Talley
PROJECT: Americans in Vietnam
DATES: 2/11/75
FOCUS DATES: Dec. 1962-June 1966; Feb.
1963-Aug. 1965
ABSTRACT:
Tape 1414, Side A
Born in Texas, 1943; grew up in conservative town of Fort Smith,
Arkansas, population 70,000; military tradition in family; grew
up in Methodist church; received good education; city with
highest church attendance in nation; strict conservative
attitudes; Kennedy years while Moreland was in high school; ideas
about stopping growth of Communism; believed America was always
right; went to Southern Methodist College in 1962, injured in
football, withdrew; chose to enter Marine Corp because it was
disciplined and physically rigorous; boot camp in San Diego,
beginning to train Marines for Vietnam; didn't know much about
Vietnam yet, thought of it as setting of old Humphrey Bogart
movies; assigned to intelligence field, went to intelligence
school for training in information gathering, cartography,
linguistics; first assignment was in Okinawa; realizing there was
a war in Vietnam that the American people knew nothing about; Air
America in Laos was CIA front; realizing that US was planning for
a very big war there; real threat was China; key military
targets; Vietnamese were our innocent victims of US conflict with
China; China's drive to rule the world; at that point, Moreland
still felt US was right; making strategic maps of Southeast Asia
to prepare for battle; combat units getting sent over; men
volunteered to go to Vietnam instead of serving time in brig;
Australia and nationalist China also sent troops; US support of
Ho Chi Minh during WWII, trouble afterwards when French wanted to
resume their power; French defeat at Dien Bien Phu; farce for
Americans to protect interests of French; US supported Catholics
although Vietnam over 90% Buddhist; Buddhists as a natural
barrier against Communist threat; had to get into Laos to make
maps; barbarian tactics to gain support of people; purpose was to
win minds of people to western ideals; complex history of
Vietnam, they thought entirely differently; Gulf of Tonkin
incident; build up without knowledge of American people; US was
mainly concerned with China; many reports of atrocities were made
up; Americans capturing North Vietnamese, rumors intelligence
center started; not sure the war was necessary; empathy for the
Vietnamese people; tragedy of a country that had been at war for
3,000 years; contact with other peoples in area, Thais, Laotians;
Vietnamese culture compared to other surrounding cultures;
Chinese forces had to keep machine guns on Vietnamese in combat
to keep them from running, Vietnamese didn't want to fight; total
lack of discipline in Vietnamese troops; Thai people more
cultured, loyal to their country; working out of Laos; Laos was
training area for North Vietnamese forces; government of Laos;
Americans allowed to work freely in Laos; Laotians were happy go
lucky people; hill tribe people were good soldiers; Chinese
nationalist forces in area; Vietnamese seemed unconcerned, wanted
to be left alone; Buddhists protested war; sabotage techniques
and fear tactics of Nationalist Chinese forces; restricted use of
automatic weapons; US wanted Vietnamese to do the fighting, just
backed up by US forces, but didn't work that way.
Tape 1414, Side B
Most Vietnamese supported communists; frustration of having to
fight a war that you couldn't really fight in; trained that you
should go in and annihilate if going in there at all; realizing
the war would never end, couldn't hold territory in jungle
warfare situation; not much antagonism toward Americans at first;
most Vietnamese civilians didn't realize a huge war was coming;
American influence on Asian black market in Laos; Laotian leader
who ran prostitution ring; difficult to get supplies to American
forces in Vietnam because items stolen; having to buy or steal US
military supplies back from black market; poor distribution
system for goods, corruption; it was a farce, not a war; no
anti-war movement at home in early years; Moreland was brought up
to do as he was told; by late 1964 people started to think it
might be another Korea; no big drug scene in early years, at home
or abroad; popularity of betel nut, drugs, with indigenous
people; ceremonial use of drugs in religion; high morale in early
stages, especially within Marines; no concept of protest early
on; stationed in California, going back and forth constantly to
set up training; job was to brief units who'd be going in to
Vietnam; divisions of parachutists from the Marines being sent to
Vietnam; counter-intelligence, subversive missions; many
intelligence people killed; starting to question US role in
Vietnam, was it worth the lives lost; decided US was wrong to be
there; North Vietnam had a right to rule Vietnam; Ho Chi Minh was
a worthy leader; American people should have had say in
intervention; changes in US government resulting from war; he
would have done whatever he was ordered to then, but now he'd
rather go to jail than do some of the things he did.
Tape 1415, Side A
Moreland was with 3rd Marine division intelligence
office, working with 9th division; full regimental
unit could be loaded out and ready for combat in 3 hours; often
just went to Thailand, then came back; combat units committed;
cooperation with CIA and other intelligence gathering units;
hierarchy of intelligence people; intelligence joining combat
units in field; Chinese movements and installations; North
Vietnam had mostly Chinese and Russian weaponry; China's role and
strength in Southeast Asia, weaponry; China trained many troops
in Laos, served same advisory role to North Vietnamese that US
served for South Vietnam; Ho Chi Minh planned to retake South
Vietnam from the beginning; US fear of domino theory wasn't
warranted; captured documentation from North Vietnam;
intelligence mission on river traffic, river landings; everything
they did, especially topographic maps, was classified, top
secret; involved in preparing and interpreting maps; counter
intelligence work; propaganda portraying North Vietnamese as
murderers, Americans as friendly; blurry divisions between good
guys and bad guys; fear tactics of North Vietnamese, not much
trouble getting support of people; most villagers supported VC
more than ARVNs, really wanted to be left alone; kept
confidential info secret until became widely known; just did what
he was told to do, right or wrong; importance of blind obedience
in war; white god was killed at Dienbienphu, Vietnamese knew
they'd eventually win; he had never heard of Vietnam before he
was sent there; predicts more war for Southeast Asia, perhaps
China will lead an all-Asia army; excellence of Indonesian army;
predictions for future of Asia; US shouldn't commit more troops
to anywhere again.
TAPES: 2
TOTAL PLAYING TIME: 2 hours
# PAGES TRANSCRIPT: 4 page index
RESTRICTIONS: none