in their fight against the North, or America took it upon itself to volunteer in the crusade against communism, a nefarious ideology circling many nations around the globe at the time.
Regardless, the Americans arrived in Vietnam in the early 1960s to help stop the spread of the evil empire, but it would take over a decade and the loss of 50,000 men before they realized that they had failed and their mission would not be achieved.
It is known for certain that America's primary objective upon their arrival was to simply advise the South Vietnamese on military strategy and basic warfare principles. It turned into something more, however, something that perhaps the U.S. itself escalated.
Parker was part of a group that included not only CIA operatives and military “advisors,” but also South Vienamese military and several guerilla factions opposed to Ho Chi Minh. The South Vietnamese were a motley bunch, a ragtag assortment of shady, untrustworthy characters with questionable interrogation techniques and oftentimes unreliable intelligence. The group committed unspeakable acts that could never be revealed to the American public or the international media. If any of the group's missions became known, the backlash it could have caused would have made the anti-war movement a hundred times stronger than it was. The doves would have had enough ammunition, so to speak, to nearly guarantee that American soldiers would not be stepping away from their own soil for a very long time.
But that did not happen.
Their missions remained top secret, even from them until it was absolutely necessary to disseminate the mission objectives. The group managed to cause major disruption in North Vietnam and there seemed to be a brief spell of outrage at the government from its citizens, but it was to be short-lived. A small blip on the radar screen of populist unrest in North Vietnam. The country's citizens were rural people who did not involve themselves in politics and warfare. It was only after the Americans arrived that the people felt they had been pushed into a war of survival.
One night, four Americans were captured in the dark of night near Hanoi, the capital of North Vietnam. Their avarice had gotten the better of them as they attempted to strike where it would hurt most. General Parker had been on the mission, but he managed to escape, the only one lucky enough to do so.
The four Americans were tortured and interrogated for days, which slowly turned into weeks and then months. The North Vietnamese press were given copies of signed confessions that the Americans had given, detailing secret missions financed by the South Vietnamese and the United States. The “signatures” were illegible, forgeries no doubt, but the damage would soon be done.
The North Vietnamese were careful not to parade the captured Americans around in front of any television cameras, photographers, or journalists, Ho Chi Minh's reasoning being two-fold: first, by not flaunting their “prize” to the rest of the world, he knew the United States would claim that the North Vietnamese government was not, in fact, in possession of American captives. The United States would assert that the North Vietnamese had not captured American soldiers behind enemy lines because indeed, there were no Americans supposedly fighting behind enemy lines. U.S. soldiers were present acting only within the official capacity as military advisors. Therefore, the obvious effect Ho Chi Minh foresaw was that if the U.S. military was conducting operations in North Vietnam, they would cease immediately for fear of additional American soldiers being captured behind enemy lines. Perhaps weighted more heavily, it could lead to a very embarrassing situation for the United States on the diplomatic front and on the world stage for a war the Americans had no right to be involved in.
The second and less obvious reason was that Ho Chi Minh saw no purpose in igniting the fury of the American public by putting on display four of their own, barely holding on to their lives and desperate to be rescued. This would certainly raise the level of sentiment and eagerness for war in the consciousness of the American people. Ho Chi Minh obviously did not want every American man within fighting age enlisting to go to war against his nation because he allowed his pride to get the better of him. Little could he know that in the years to come, many of these so-called “fighting age” men would burn their draft cards and flee to Canada to avoid fighting in the upcoming war, a fortunate and unforeseen variable that would benefit the North Vietnamese.
In their response, the American government denied the existence of the captured men, secret missions behind enemy lines, or the signing of any confessions, but nevertheless, the North Vietnamese once again believed in the strength of Ho Chi Minh for staring down the United States.
Soon after, a cryptic message was sent from Washington, D.C. to their “advisors and agents” in South Vietnam, demanding the termination of any unauthorized operations that were planned in North Vietnam.
For Christ's sake, Parker thought at the time, all the missions were unauthorized as far as the U.S. government was concerned, especially when they went wrong.
They were to “cease and desist all activities that may jeopardize the lives of American soldiers or intelligence agents” and “remain only in the capacity as advisors to the South Vietnamese military.” And that was it. The captured men were left out to dry.
Parker cabled Washington a dozen times, demanding, then pleading, and finally begging for a rescue attempt of the four men. He devised several different rescue missions that he guaranteed would retrieve the men from Hanoi without causing any kind of political fallout or embarrassment to the United States. But time and time again, as expected, his requests were emphatically denied.
He even briefly considered conducting a solo mission, but he knew that without assistance, it would essentially be a suicide run. Parker was outraged, first at his government, then at himself and the captured men, and finally, the North Vietnamese. He came to realize that all soldiers assume certain risks, and they know the risks they take are dangerous, sometimes fatal. Whether the men had cracked under questioning was trivial because they died defending the flag, defending the world against communism, the evil force that it was at the time. They were heroes, unrecognized at that, but heroes nonetheless. And Parker dedicated himself to also being a hero, an unacknowledged one like the captured men.
When the United States “officially” entered the war, Parker fought like a man possessed. His sole mission was to kill and destroy everything in his path. He had no conscience and no time for mercy. He led Special Forces troops on slaughter-filled rampages of the Vietcong that lasted weeks. He burned down dozens of villages, no matter if they were North Vietnamese or South Vietnamese. He did it all for the four men who would never be recognized by their government, whose deaths would be denied until every politician on Capitol Hill was blue in the face from saying that these men never existed.
They existed to Parker, in his mind and in his heart every day, knowing that it could have been him rotting along with them in that shithole. The same thoughts course through his head almost each and every day since then:
What would I have done?
Would I have folded under questioning?
No fucking way.
The next major conflict for the United States was the Persian Gulf War. While it was Stormin’ Norman Schwarzkopf who attained all the glory and basked in the limelight of the press, it was General Parker's strategy that brought a swift and merciless victory for the Americans. He took charge, as he always does, disregarding fame or adulation to ensure a quick and decisive victory and bring the dictator Saddam to his knees.
General Parker played a major role advising Schwarzkopf in positioning of troops and glaring weaknesses in the Iraqi army. It was his experience with warfare that gave the Americans the ultimate edge, along with a couple thousand “smart” bombs. He emerged from the war fully decorated once again and he soon became a five-star general.
