The Fromson File

The obituary page is the one I’d just as soon not read. It usually announces bad news. The latest obit certainly was one of them to me. The headline said, “Frederick C. Weyand, 93, Vietnam Commander Dies,”

Having reported on more than a dozen wars, I’ve come in contact with a countless number of generals. But Fred Weyand was a memorable one, an acquaintance that I daresay blossomed into a friendship, beginning with our first conversation at a cocktail party during the height of the Vietnam war in August 1967. Here’s the way, in part, how I described it in an Op-Ed piece, titled Name That Source, that appeared in the New York Times on December 11, 2006:

“…He whispered to me, “Westy just doesn’t get it The war is unwinnable. We’ve reached a stalemate and we should find a dignified way out.” He was referring to General William Westmoreland, the commander of United States forces in Vietnam…” Weyand was willing to expand his views with me and R.W. (Johnny) Apple of the New York Times when we flew down to the Mekong Delta to talk to him off the record. We agreed and it was a pledge that we kept for more than 40 years until days after Apple died when I convinced the general to release us from our commitment of confidentiality out of respect for Johnny.

Here, in part, is what he told us:

“I’ve destroyed a single division three times. I’ve chased main force units all over the country and the impact was zilch. It meant nothing to the people. Unless a more positive and more stirring theme than simple anti-Communism can be found, the war appears likely to go on until someone gets tired and quits, which could take generations.”

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While the focus of the enormous rescue and assistance effort in Haiti has been on the part played by the United States, dozens of other countries and non-government agencies have made major contributions to a massive humanitarian gesture to relieve the suffering of the island’s population. Brazil, Mexico and Venezuela are participating in the relief effort. Brazil reportedly lost at least 14 officers attached to the UN Mission. Cuba has sent ten tons of medications Since 1998, Cuba’s health cooperation with Haiti has made it possible for 6,000 doctors, paramedics and health technicians to work there. Besides, 450 young Haitians have graduated as doctors from Cuban colleges, free of charge, in the past 12 years.

Ever since I met Martin Hacthoun in New York 25 years ago, he was a Cuban journalist, covering the United Nations. But we have maintained our friendship ever since then, either in Havana or when he was based in Vietnam and India, working for Prensa Latina, Cuba’s national news agency. Martin returned home last year and I emailed him to determine the extent of help the Cubans were providing their nearest stricken neighbors that has not been reported in the United States. Here was his reply:

More than 400 Cuban specialists, 344 of them doctors and paramedics, have been a part of a recent humanitarian program in Haiti, jointly sponsored by the United Nations and the Cuban government. But in the wake of last Tuesday’s disaster, the largest earthquake ever to hit the Caribbean Basin, Cuba dispatched another team of 60 doctors, health technicians and medications to join the doctors on the ground in Haiti, 50 miles away. The specialists are experts in coping with natural disasters. The team then joined the Cuban doctors already on the ground to help the victims. Three of the Cubans, who were in Haiti at the time of the violent tremor were injured, one seriously. A Cuban television correspondent and a reporter of the National Information Agency (AIN) flew together with the doctors to cover the tragedy. We beefed up our coverage by moving our man in the Dominican Republic, to Port au Prince. There’s extensive coverage, including a detailed Cuban TV report scheduled for tonight.

The quake was felt in Cuba’s most eastern provinces, particularly the old city of Baracoa. There was no damage, but miraculously in just one hour, 50,000 people were evacuated to high land for fear of a tsunami. Fortunately it did not materialize. Nonetheless, it was a remarkable feat of logistics. But once the Cuban Seismology Institute and Civil Defense determined there was no danger, the evacuees were returned home to resume their daily lives.

Well, you see, after a long time we are writing each other to compare our responses to yet another human tragedy. Despite the circumstances, it is nice corresponding with you again. I’m now the Chief Editor of our Foreign Desk and also supervise and discuss ideas for our newly opened television service . We are not broadcasting yet, but rather are creating news programs in Spanish, English and Portuguese for airlines and TV stations, a modest service requiring lots of sacrifice and talent.

Wish you the best…. Martin

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Dear Mr. President:

You and many of your constituents shave been praising each other on this Thanksgiving, holiday season, so why not one more?

Those of us who voted for you last year and continue to believe that you are the best president we have had in many years are concerned that you are too reluctant to give your critics a piece of your mind. If there’s one thing Americans respect it is a fighter; a battler. Stand up for what you believe in and then lead. There are those among us who think your upcoming decision on Afghanistan is wrong. It’s not because we are against wars that clearly are fought to protect the national interest, but the argument for more troops is wrong because it is being waged to avoid the onus of “cut-and-run.” This has been the argument of the war hawks ever since Vietnam. But reading of General Stanley McChrystal’s's request for another 40,000 troops or maybe even more to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan, those of us who were in Saigon remember when General William Westmoreland asked President Johnson for another 206,000 troops to defeat the Communists.

However, Mr. President, as you probably know by now, having read Gordon Goldstein’s recent book “Lessons in Disaster: McGeorge Bundy and the Path to War in Vietnam,” you will recall his warning to have listened to the doves before plunging into another quagmire. What you may not have read was a favorable review of that book in the New York Times a year ago by your special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbooke. He concluded: “With the nation now about to inaugurate a new president committed to withdraw combat troops from Iraq and succeed in Afghanistan, the lessons of Vietnam are still relevant. McGeorge Bundy’s story of early brilliance and a late-in-life search for the truth about himself and the war, is an extraordinary cautionary tale for all Americans.”

What also should not be forgotten once the conflict had ended was the declaration by many of our generals that the United States should never again go to war without the complete support of the American people.

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It is amazing how a presidential junket and the meanderings of a silly little woman with pretensions to the White House can bump a war off the front pages or as the lead stories of broadcast news. President Obama, for instance, was attempting to show the better side of our country to Japan, Indonesia and China. But in Tokyo, he also observed the traditional protocol of bowing to the Emperor of Japan. That prompted the rightwing nuts in America’s cable land to go ga-ga as if it was the important news of the day. Then suddenly, the fate of our heroic Marines in Afghanistan vanished from the news as Sarah Palin mouthed off to Oprah Winfrey and a bundle of other cable TV shows. Even the conventional network newscasts could not resist the temptation of giving her free air time to answer patsy questions. Palin’s publisher offered America more than a million copies of a ghost-written memoir that was bound to end up on the remainder shelves within days. Indeed it was, for $4.95 each after one week of sales.

C’mon America. Can we not get real? Can “we,” I mean Republicans as well as Democrats, conservatives as well as liberals, seriously entertain the notion of Sarah Palin as the GOP’s presidential nominee or, heaven forbid, even the occupant of the White House? Is there truly a segment of society so ideologically warped to believe it? Hopefully, we are passed that.
But several weeks ago, returning to the Mother Country after an absence of many years, it was re-assuring to be back in Britain, confronted by a fresh dose of reality. The question in every London newspaper the past several weeks was whether President Obama will or should intensify the war in Afghanistan by providing 40 thousand more American troops on the ground, as their general in charge has insisted was a necessity.

It reminded me of the extent to which wars have plagued Britain throughout history. In the 19th Century, they failed to conquer Afghanistan. In the first ten days of this November in London, the atmosphere was bathed in red as countless men and women wore paper poppies on their lapels or blouses to mark Armistice Day and remember those who served in World War I.. Newspapers and television newscasts conveyed scenes of countless cemeteries or of scenes depicting the great retreat from Dunkirk in 1940. Loved ones or surviving veterans paid their last respects to those who gave their lives in both World Wars I and II as well as Korea. On the first day of the visit with my wife, we were confronted by a half page spread in The Guardian, depicting veterans of Britain’s Second Battalion of The Rifles. The three most prominent soldiers in the color photograph, dressed in their combat uniforms and wearing black berets, sitting in wheelchairs, were amputees. Two of them had lost both legs and the third soldier, one limb. Behind them was a crowd, smiling and obviously proud to welcome home the warriors. It was a chilling reminder of the fact that not only American fighting men were enduring the cost of serving in Afghanistan.

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