Background To War

This is a story of what it was like to live and work in Saigon, Vietnam during the tumultuous period of transition from our professed role as military “advisers” to our escalation of the war following the landing of U.S. combat Marines in Da Nang on Mach 8, 1965.


This narrative describes the author’s personal experiences and history of events that occurred before, during and after his two years in Vietnam from April 1963 to April 1965 as a special agent with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (OSI).


Supported by factual accounts, document (official and unofficial), photos, and writings and opinions by journalists, individuals and other authors; it describes an accurate history of the politics and intrigue on both sides of the conflict we called “the war with no end.”


It illustrates how similar the decisions and mistakes by both the military, diplomatic community and politicians during and after the Vietnam War were to those made during the wars with Iraq and war in Afghanistan.


The book depicts Vietnam’s uniqueness as a case-study of future regional conflicts – how they should be fought, if they should be fought, or whether even democracies like the United States should even involve themselves unless there is no alternative to preserve our freedom and survival as a nation.