Was this anecdote about the bad effects of military secrecy told by Colin Powell?

Upvote:1

There are some elements that make this quote sounds imaginary.

First, the fact that only two elements are involved: ONE outpost and ONE airfield: of course, one outpost is not enough to cover an entire airfield from ennemy's approach. An entire circle of defense is needed to defend an airfield. Outpost would not be isolated.

Second element, the lack of usefulness: the only case in Vietnam I could think about for such an isolated outpost to exist would be:

  • The isolated outpost defends a loyal civilian settlement from the Viet-Cong guerilla
  • The isolated outpost is an artillery "firebase", a tactic that indeed extensively used air supply, but was not used to defend airfields

So overall there must be a reason for the isolated outpost to exist.

However, there could be case in which an airfield is established and is only there to supply the circle of defense made up to defend it, with no interest for the zone in which they are because no patrolling is done around the airfield. This was the case for the French airfield at Dien Bien Phu

Upvote:6

The anecdote is directly from Colin Powell's memoirs, pg. 81 of My American Journey.

I won't repeat the details, but will follow up with Powell's summary of the situation:

From my training at Fort Bragg, I knew our formal role here. We were to establish a "presence", a word with a nice sophisticated ring. More specifically, we were supposed to engage the Viet Cong to keep them from moving through the A Shau Valley and fomenting their insurgency in the populated coastal provinces. But Hieu's words were the immediate reality. The base camp at A Shau was there to protect an airstrip that was there to supply the outpost.

So the situation existed, and is part of Colin Powell's memoirs concerning his time in Viet Nam.

A couple of points usually seem to get glossed over when this is brought up. An earlier paragraph on the same page cited above points out the location of this base (emphasis mine):

Directly behind A Shau, a mountain loomed over us. I pointed toward it, and Hieu said with a grin, "Laos." From that mountainside, the enemy could almost roll rocks down on us.

So it may seem strange to establish an outpost on some mountainside, but if that mountainside is the border to another country, a country through which troops and supplies were known to pass, its location seems somewhat more logical.

Another point is can be seen by looking into to history of the Vietnamese officer Powell is speaking with, Nguyễn Văn Hiếu Looking over this officers command, a pattern of the use of fast strikes using Rangers and Airborne and other Special Forces troops is notable. Having remote bases in remote locations from which to strike in a war known for its guerilla tactics, seems again somewhat logical to me.

(There is an interview on historynet.com where Collins admits the airfield allows further operations, but I am cut off on that web site now without subscribing, so can't properly cite that interview)

But I am far from an expert on military behavior, and bottom line is that the question was did Powell make a certain statement concerning this base, which he certainly did. The rest is for, well, historians to debate...

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