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Three million Americans served in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War.
This is the amazing story of one man who came early and stayed late.
Jim Parker survived 5 years on the battlefield, serving initially as a 22 year old 2nd Lt platoon leader with the 1st Division that gyroed over from Fort Riley. His battalion was the first to encounter the Cu Chi tunnels and months later led the 1st Division in the successful Minh Thanh counter-ambush. Wounded and honored for bravery, Parker returned to what appeared to be an ungrateful nation.
He married, returned to UNC/Chapel Hill and was recruited as a CIA operative in August 1970. After a year of CIA special ops and clandestine intelligence training, he was posted to Laos where he led Hmong guerrillas in General Vang Pao rag tag army against invading North Vietnamese.
After the Lao cease fire, he transferred to the delta of Vietnam to work as a spy and to liaise with South Vietnam Army commanders. His wife and two adopted Thai children lived in safe havens first in Vientiane, Laos and then in Taipei, Taiwan. He was the last man out of Vietnam, leaving two days after the American embassy was evacuated.
Parker preludes his personal war story with a chronology of events that led to the US military involvement in Vietnam; pulling no punches in criticizing US policy makers for enormous mistakes in laying out the battlefield and the Department of Defense for developing bad strategy.
For those who haven't read much about combat in Southeast Asia, The Vietnam War Its Ownself will be a start to finish education. It begins and ends with the respectful pledge... Duty, Honor, Country... but it is a fun read, full of history, adventure and - juxtaposed to the catastrophic horror and weariness of war - great humor. Writing in his unique, loose-gaited southern style, Parker introduces readers to memorable men and women; Peterson, Bratcher, Dunn, Spencer, Woolley, Burke, Brenda, Jerry, Hog, Kayak, Vang Pao, General An, Mim, Joe, Hardnose, Loi, General Hai and General Hung.... The good American, Lao, Thai and South Vietnamese G.I.s, the bad American war managers.
For those with a library of Vietnam books, there is much new in this tome... some aspects took more than two years to clear the CIA's Publication Review Board including one item that appears in this book for the first time in any literature on Southeast Asia fighting, 1965-1975.
The Vietnam War Its Ownself is a compilation of Parker's Last Man Out, Codename Mule, Covert Ops and Timeline: Battle for Skyline Ridge with new declassified information, transitional stories and much additional detail. Following are reviews on those books.
"Couldn't put it down. I recommend this book to anybody." By a customer amazon.com (Covert Ops)
"Uplifting and insightful....a skilled storyteller with a knack for weaving quick tales with revealing punch lines....." Publishers Weekly (Last Man Out)
"I've read and re-read this book many times over the years and shared it with many of my friends and team mates. These true life stories, from our forgotten heroes in another war, serve as valuable "special warfare" lessons for today's world and those future conflicts."By genosfga amazon.com (Covert Ops)
"An enlightening story..."Library Journal (Last Man Out) "A great read!" By Firewood Buddha amazon.com (Covert Ops)
"Candid, realistic, exciting, very readable. "Ed Burke, President, 28th Infantry Association (Last Man Out)
"The book is a meticulous log of events in a part of the Secret War in Laos. I would rate it tops."€ By Charles H. Harpole amazon.com (Skyline Ridge Battle)
"Fantastic. One of the best books about Vietnam I've ever read." Reat - Barnesandnoble.com Review of Last Man Out (Last Man Out)
"Buy This Book. Every American should read this book. It is filled with history and humanity. The author has gifted us all with this thoughtful memoir." By Charles M. Leonhard amazon.com (Codename Mule).
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666 country homilies, urban legends and one liners that have been collected around the world over the past thirty years. World class, attention getting funnies to make you laugh out loud, guaranteed.
This story is about a fierce 100-day battle in the "Secret War" in Laos, no quarters asked for or given.
Internationally accepted rules of combat did not apply.
It is about the military fight for Laos between the CIA rag-tag army of asian irregulars under command of Hmong General Vang Pao and two invading North Vietnamese Divisions under command of PAVN General Nguyen Huu An... and it came down to a single ridgeline.
*****
Between December 1971 and April 1972, when most of Southeast Asia was quiet, one of the great battles of the Vietnam War took place in northern Laos. 27,000 North Vietnamese main line soldiers attacked positions held initially by 4,000 Lao, Thai, and Meo irregulars in the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) mountain army.
It was a Dien Bien Phu setting in many ways, though the results were entirely different.
Despite fighting as fierce as any in the Vietnam War, few people have heard of the battle for Skyline Ridge because it happened under tight security of the "secret war." It deserves to be remembered.
North Vietnam’s main military objective in the 1960s and early 70s was the invasion and occupation of South Vietnam. As a lesser objective, they invaded Laos with intentions to bring it into their sphere of influence. If Long Tieng had fallen and the local CIA forces under command of Meo General Vang Pao eliminated, the North Vietnamese would have had direct access to the Mekong River valley and Vientiane.
Previously North Vietnam soldiers had invaded Laos and defeated Royal Lao forces (FAR) in Nam Tha in the northwest and Nam Bac in the north and with the loss of Long Tieng in the northeast, the PAVN could claim control of the countryside in northern Laos and ask for the Royal Lao Government’s surrender. At the least they would have an enhanced position at on-going negotiations deciding Laos’ future.
The battle culminated the successful efforts by the CIA – on direction of the President of the United States - to start up and run a secret guerrilla army to preserve Lao independence. It was an impressive victory – against all odds - for anti-Communist forces in Southeast Asia.
This is a book unlike any others on the war in Indo-china. Often hand to hand combat, casualties by the hundreds day after day, but the rag tag army of CIA guerrillas held out and at the end, the North Vietnamese commander said, “No more. We are defeated. Retreat.”
Do your self a favor and buy this book.
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Codename Mule
Codename Mule, Fighting the Secret War in Laos for the CIA was first published by the Naval Institute Press in 1995. It is the story of Jim Parker’s CIA recruitment/training and his early 1970s tour as case officer with the Hmong guerrillas fighting out of the Long Tieng valley in NE Laos. Photos. Forward by Dr. Bill Leary.
At the special request of the Chinese Government to the Naval Institute Press this book was published in China in the late 1990s (ISBN 7-5014-1759-8).
Now out of print in the US.
Available as an amazon.com Kindle ebook for $8.63.
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Last Man Out
Last Man Out (ISBN 0-345-48482-7) was published by the Ballantine Publishing Group of Random House in 1996. Trade Paperback.
336 pages on Parker’s US Army training and deployment to Vietnam in the fall of 1966 as a 22 year old 2nd Lieutenant platoon leader, his year of jungle combat northwest of Saigon, his return for a final US Army tour in Ft Ord, California, his CIA recruitment and training, his first assignment upcountry Laos and finally his deployment back to South Vietnam in 1974. He was the last man out, leaving 3 days after the American Embassy in Saigon was evacuated.
This book was the Military Book Club summer selection for 2000. All total it has sold more than 50,000 copies. It is the only first hand account of the Vietnam war that covers the US involvement from start to finish.
Currently, Last Man Out is #6 on Doug DePew’s "My Favorite Vietnam Books," amazon.com's Listamania! list, up from #7 on his 2010 "All-Time Best Vietnam Memoirs" Listmania!.
Now out of print, used copies are available on amazon.com or from other used book sellers.
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Covert Ops
Covert Ops (ISBN 0-312-96340-8 EAN: 8031296340-8) was published by St Martin’s Press after the Naval Institute Press stopped printing Codename Mule in November 1997. Mass paper back. It has the same basic text but fewer pictures of the Codename Mule story of Parker’s early 1970s tour in Laos.
In the summer of 2011 this book was Norman Welch’s amazon.com Listamania # 15 on “Top Vietnam War Books”
Now out of paperback print, it sold more than 20,000 copies.
Used copies are available on amazon.com or from other used book sellers.