From Reporting Vietnam: American Journalism 1959–1969
Interesting Links
PFC Jimmy Laverne Williams (Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund)
Video: “Jimmy Williams: A Story in Stone” (2 mins.; Andersonville National Historic Site, YouTube)
Operation Hardihood, May 24–June 4, 1966 (Robert J. O'Neill, The Royal Australian Regiment Association)
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Reporting Vietnam: American Journalism 1959–1969
62 accounts, from the first deaths of American advisers in 1959 through the controversial battle of “Hamburger Hill” in 1969. Included in full is Daniel Lang’s Casualties of War • 857 pages • 32 pages of photographs
List price: $40.00
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Reporting Vietnam: American Journalism 1969–1975
Fifty years ago, on August 2, 1964, the U.S. destroyer Maddox was on an intelligence-gathering mission off the coast of North Vietnam when it engaged in a firefight with three torpedo boats in the Gulf of Tonkin. During the ensuing battle, all three North Vietnamese boats were damaged and four sailors were killed; there were no U.S. casualties. Two days later the Maddox and another destroyer reported a second, four-hour engagement with North Vietnamese vessels. Quoting a cable sent later that day from the Maddox, a secret chronology prepared at the end of August for President Johnson concluded that a review of the second incident made the “many reported contacts and torpedoes fired ‘appear doubtful.’ ‘Freak weather effects’ on radar, and ‘over-eager’ sonarmen may have accounted for many reports.” Commander James B. Stockdale later wrote, “There was absolutely no gunfire except our own, no PT boat wakes, not a candle light let alone a burning ship.”PFC Jimmy Laverne Williams (Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund)
Video: “Jimmy Williams: A Story in Stone” (2 mins.; Andersonville National Historic Site, YouTube)
Operation Hardihood, May 24–June 4, 1966 (Robert J. O'Neill, The Royal Australian Regiment Association)

Reporting Vietnam: American Journalism 1959–1969
62 accounts, from the first deaths of American advisers in 1959 through the controversial battle of “Hamburger Hill” in 1969. Included in full is Daniel Lang’s Casualties of War • 857 pages • 32 pages of photographs
List price: $40.00
Save 20%, free shipping
Web Store price: $31.50
Also Available
Reporting Vietnam: American Journalism 1969–1975
Immediately after the second incident, Johnson responded by ordering the first U.S. airstrikes against North Vietnam and by submitting the Tonkin Gulf Resolution to Congress, which on August 7 authorized the president to “take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression” in Southeast Asia. (Johnson later joked that the resolution was so broadly worded it was “like grandma's nightshirt. It covered everything.”) Most historians regard this weeklong series of events as the crucial turning point in American involvement in the Vietnam conflict.
Two years later, in May 1966, nineteen-year-old Jimmy Williams was a member of one of two U.S. battalions assigned to “Operation Hardihood,” a sweep of the countryside in South Vietnam’s Phuoc Tuy province, where the Australians had a key military base. While troops were preparing for the operation, his company encountered enemy forces. Australian Captain Robert J. O'Neill recalls in his account:
They knew that they were being followed by a Viet Cong rifleman carrying a radio, but they did not know that in their path was a Viet Cong company who were being guided by the man with the radio. The Americans were caught in deadly cross fire of a box ambush to which were quickly added 60mm. mortar bombs. By the time that they had extricated themselves they had lost eight killed and twenty three wounded—a heavy blow for an infantry company to sustain.
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PFC Jimmy Laverne Williams; photo from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund’s Wall of Faces |
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PFC Jimmy Williams's uniformed body was lowered in a grave in the piney woods of South Georgia Monday while a grieving mother pondered the fates which denied him a final resting place in his hometown. . . . If you don't see the full selection below, click here (PDF) or click here (Google Docs) to read it—free!This selection is used by permission.
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6 comments:
Classic american illiteracy disrespect and bigotry. Every white man involved in this should be jailed. And the Government in its incompetency should disinter and move the body to Arlington with full military honors.
I agree with Anonymous. There is no reason to name the depravity that causes savage injustices such as this. One way to atone for the actions of our fellow "citizens" would be to bury this young man In Arlington with the dignity and honor he deserves.
Neil Boyer
I fully agree with you. That boy gave his life for this country. Protecting the likes of the politicians totally using the people and the government for their owns personal gains. Bigots and worthless. That young mans body should be laid to rest in the National Cemetery in Washington,DC.
Jacqueline Van Voorhis
Just to clean up a loose end:
WILLIAMS, JIMMY L
PFC ARMY
DATE OF BIRTH: 02/12/1947
DATE OF DEATH: 05/17/1966
BURIED AT: SECTION E SITE 163
ANDERSONVILLE NATIONAL CEMETERY
While working as a NASA contractor in Huntsville in the 1980's I visited the civil war cemetery in the beautiful old section of Huntsville on Memorial Day. There was a crowd, the cemetery was spruced up, and TV cameras were recording the speeches of the notables. But one corner of the cemetery was unkempt, full of weeds, the markers askew. I asked the (black) TV camera man what was the reason for this, and he said simply that the unkempt part of the cemetery was for the black war veterans.
I am a native Alabamian and my heart is full of sorrow. I wish I could hug PFC Jimmy's mother and Asher forgiveness. This story makes me full of shame.
Karen Reiter
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