Oral history transcript, George McArthur, interview 1 (I), 10/31/1985, by Ted Gittinger
Title:
Oral history transcript, George McArthur, interview 1 (I), 10/31/1985, by Ted Gittinger
Number of Pages:
67
Description:
McArthur's work for the Associated Press; the difference between working for a wire service and a daily/weekly publication; Mrs. Eva Kim McArthur's work as Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker's secretary; Bunker's attitude toward McArthur's and Eva's relationship; McArthur's relationship with Graham Martin; Americans and Vietnamese selling scrap brass from Vietnam; Vietnamese military involvement in drug sales; American soldiers' marijuana and heroin use; drug use among African American soldiers; opium use among the Vietnamese; Air America, Civil Air Transport (CAT), and the CIA's involvement in transporting drugs and drug trade; the number of Viet Cong casualties in the Tet Offensive; McArthur's experience in Vietnam following Tet; press briefings from Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV) and the accuracy of their figures; local intelligence regarding troop locations and numbers versus official reports from Saigon; General William Westmoreland's 1968 request for 200,000 more troops; a push for operations in Laos and Cambodia by Westmoreland, Bunker, and General Creighton Abrams; the Joint U.S. Public Affairs Office (JUSPAO) under Barry Zorthian; Philip Habib and his relationship with Zorthian; the role of political counselor at embassies; Edward Lansdale's missions to Vietnam and his reputation in Vietnam; John Paul Vann; journalists Denis Warner and Wilfred Burchett; the battle of Ia Drang; Stanley Karnow; spies that worked for news agencies in Vietnam; Ward Just; Charles Mohr; Peter Braestrup and his book Big Story: How the American Press and Television Reported and Interpreted the Crisis of Tet 1968 in Vietnam and Washington; Don Oberdorfer and his book Tet!; McArthur's Tet experience; charges of abuses in the Phoenix program; the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army after Tet; the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) in 1972, its success and failures; the military defeat of the South Vietnamese; Graham Martin's reluctance to evacuate Americans from Vietnam in 1975; McArthur's efforts to get people out of Vietnam; commercial flights out of Vietnam; PanAm employees' departure from Vietnam; Jim Eckes; criticism of Graham Martin's reluctance to evacuate Vietnam and his insistence that he could negotiate with the North Vietnamese; General Charles Timmes' communication with Duong Van Minh; McArthur leaving Vietnam; protection of the U.S. Embassy building until the last helicopter left Saigon
