These characters have popped up in every campaign in our short history from WW1 to the present. Vietnam was a rich source of characters and stories, especially the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam -the legend that became known simply as 'the Team'. One such character is Maj. Matt d'Arcy.
| Matt d'Arcy spent his formative years in Scotland, the country of his birth. He immigrated to Australia in 1954, completed his HSC and attended RMC, graduating in 1959. He served with 1 RAR and 2RAR, was Adjutant of the Infantry Centre in 1963 and '64 and spent a year as Adjutant 4IRNSW Scottish Regt in 1965. He was posted to the Team in January 1966 as Senior Adviser to the Vietnamese Corps Commander of I Corps, the 55,000-strong Popular Forces (PF) spread across 1000 villages in platoon-sized units. |  |
When he arrived, he found his predecessor and all his staff had been killed in an ambush The authorities had decided that driving an army jeep might give away the Senior Adviser as a target, so they had provided one that was painted bright yellow for camouflage.
"I inherited this yellow jeep full of bullet holes and a bloodstained notebook that told (me very little and from that had to make up my role and the role of the PF," Matt says.
The only entry of value in the notebook was a meeting planned for the following Monday at lOam, so Matt made arrangements to fly to the nominated airstrip. As the plane made its final approach, he saw there were vi1lags burning and major fighting in the area. The airstrip was deserted, the control tower burnt out and the burning shell of a plane lay on its back by the runway.
"As we got near the end of the runway the pilot told me to get ready to jump. He wasn't going to stop - it was too dangerous. He pushed me out after my baggage and swung around to take off. I ran beside the plane ask-ing "how can I tell the good guys from the bad guys? "He said if they smile at you, they're the good guys! and left me on an empty runway with smoke drifting around me and the sound of gunfire in the middle distance."
After being picked up by the good guys), he set about learning the structure and role of his command. The PF was responsible for the defence of villages, protection of any infrastructure like roads and bridges, local polic-ing, gathering intelligence and carrying out counter -intelligence and counter-insurgency tasks.
The troops received very little cash pay. The balance was made up in food, although neither arrived with any regularity. Troops were responsible for their own rations, so when they went off to battle, a support group of old ladies would come along to cook lunch. They also went home for dinner at night, which used to alarm the Americans on those occasions the PF provided flank protection or guides.
Matt quickly discovered what he called his "20 per cent rule". of the forces the local chiefs assured him were available, 20 per cent didn't exist other than on the chief's payroll, 20 per cent were Viet Cong supporters, 20 per cent were deserters from the regular army and 20 per cent were bandits along for whatever they could loot.
"All the PF wore black, which was never successfully communicated to the Americans, who assumed anyone in black with a weapon was VC. We were fired on a number of times by marines, bombed on several occasions and most of my hair was singed off in a napalm attack."
 | Matt got to attend his own funeral. On the way to a conference his aircraft caught fire and crash landed. The conference room was bombed by the VC and he was assumed to be among the victims. He arrived the next day in time to view the coffin nominated for him. |
"I was advised by the American Embassy to be 'even handed', which was a rather vague directive I interpreted to mean I should be on both sides. My main focus was preventing fighting from breaking out between the combatants so that the matter would be resolved and we could get back to fighting the VC."
Matt knew both sides strictly observed a two-hour siesta in the middle of the day. This enabled him to fight for the government forces in the morning, grab a bite to eat and sneak through the barricades to fight for the rebels in the afternoon.
"I used to wear my RNSW Scottish Regt hat and call out 'Vive la France!' as I drove through the Buddhist barricade, so they thought I was in the French Foreign Legion and let me through."
The rebellion was put down by the government and the entire headquarters element of the PF was killed, leaving Matt the sole person in charge. He then concentrated on protecting villages from both VC and govern-ment forces that seized assets and supplies on a regular basis. The logistic structure deliver-ing supplies was rife with corruption and incompetence and required constant monitor-ing. He arranged for PF to be admitted to army medical facilities when injured, rather than taking their chances at home as had previously been the case.
His tour of duty was extended by six months, but the government refused to allow him to stay longer. Faced with returning to a company command after heading a force of 55,000 and in the middle of courting his wife-to-be, he promptly resigned his commission and took a position with a US aid program for I Corps as Field Director.
He took command of logistic supply of aid to the PF and the civic program to win the hearts and minds of the people. This gave him defacto control of the PF, as before, with the addition of tremendous influence with United States military forces.
The Tet offensive of early l%8 was no surprise to Matt. Being the man in charge of 'cash and goodies' gave him considerable clout with the Vietnamese and many sources of information. In the six months before the Buddhist holiday, he built a picture from all the pieces of information he regularly received and realised something major was in the works.
"I got a bit overconfident and decided the attack would logically come on the last day of Tet because of historical precedent. As every-thing in my area was prepared, I decided to go to Saigon for a couple of days to sort out some of the paperwork associated with getting mar-ried and arrive back in plenty of time for the offensive."
Unfortunately, the VC did not consult Matt's schedule and launched the attack at the beginning of the religious holiday while he was away. He and his fiancée Talent were in a southern section of Saigon guarded by the Chinese Battalion, made up of Chinese busi-nessmen from the area. "It was even worse than my PF in that members of this unit actually paid the com-mander to avoid attending. As a result, 90 per cent of these people never attended a parade, let alone operational duty, despite the fact that they were guarding a key sector of the city."
"We were having dinner when gunfire started up in the distance but I assured every-one Saigon was defended by 500,000 American troops plus 1.2 million Vietnamese troops and there was no way the North Vietnamese could break through quickly."
"Just before dessert was served, we were interrupted by a neighbour who suggested I take a peek out the window. I looked and saw the North Vietnamese Army 2Om away doing fife-and-movement up the street." "I decided to make a hasty retreat out the kitchen window into our jeep, gallantly leav-ing Talent to fight a rearguard action as I escaped." They reasoned that as a roundeye, Matt was in more danger than she was. Talent was taken prisoner but escaped when the enemy column was attacked by American helicopter gunships. The couple then rendezvoused at a pre-arranged point.
It took them two days to escape to the area controlled by the friendlies. Matt flew north to try to take possession of the 10,000tn of food and supplies he had pre-positioned for the expected siege, only to find the city had fallen without a shot fired and the North Vietnamese planned to use the supplies to feed their own army.
American forces slowly re-took the city and the retreating army decided to torch the stores. They were saved by what Man calls "granny power". Because he got on so well with the older women and children of the community, these family matriarchs forbade the soldiers to destroy his supplies, enabling him to feed the population of 300,000 in the following days.
In late 1968, allegations of major corruption in the aid program were raised in the United States. A team of senators accompanied by media were sent to Vietnam to investigate. The local American official asked a reluctant Matt to speak to the press. "They asked me if food and materiel was get-ting through and I said no. Official government aid was handed to the Vietnamese government for distribution but vanished through official corruption. Unknown to me, they asked US Ambassador Robert Kommer the same question and he assured them the opposite was true - the aid reached the people and corruption was non-existent."
The resulting furore resulted in Kommer being recalled to the States. Man had further disagreements with him and his successor William Colby about the way the aid program was structured, all of which hit television screens during the US presidential elections. "President Johnston was less than impressed with some of my comments, because I had also said unless we changed our method of conducting the war and eliminating corruption we would eventually lose. These were words that were certainly not welcome in the Pentagon or the White House."
It was decided Man was no longer an asset to the aid program and he was asked to leave. Talent was pregnant at the time and no longer able to run as fast or shoot as straight, so they negotiated a friendly exit and withdrew. Part of the negotiations was an agreement that Matt not speak to the media about his experiences.
"A number of officials were concerned I might get on the American speaking circuit and embarrass the government at the height of the anti-war movement, so I agreed to return to Australia in silence."
When asked to share his impressions of his experience in Vietnam, Man sits back and looks thoughtful for a time, then grins broadly. "I had a wonderful time. I couldn't have wanted a better war as a young soldier. Here I was at 25, in command of 55,000 troops and I could literally do what I liked - I had a completely free hand. When we went out on a joint operation with the Americans, we had access to amazing fife support. As a professional soldier you couldn't match it."
"On a personal basis, I liked Asians and Asian culture. I studied before I went and continued to learn while I was there. I knew more of Vietnamese history than any of my soldiers and could sit and discuss Buddhist theology with the monks. That gives you a tremendous advantage, to the stage where they treat you as an honorary countryman and your advice is sought and followed."
"My troops transported me, fed me, protected me, hid me and kept me out of trouble and I'm still alive because of them. I was totally depen-dent on them. There was never another adviser with me and I should never have been out there according to our rules."
"It was a tremendous adventure - and that's what you go into soldiering for." ~