It is March 1967.
I’m in Saigon. I’m sizzling and drained. I’ve a vicious fungus on each fingers. The battle is in every single place together with simply exterior the resort, however the adrenalin rush is so nice that it tends to beat worry. Sometimes.
The reminiscence comes again to me within the wake of the fiftieth anniversary of the April 29, 1973, signing of the Paris peace settlement, which led to the U.S. troop withdrawal and the return of the American POWs. However, the battle didn’t actually finish till 1975.
Anyway, I’m ready two hours for the decision from the town editor of the Boston Herald. There have been no cellphones again then, or computer systems or e-mail. The discover to standby got here by cable. It needed to be necessary. I wrote about it later.
The name is available in. I’m anticipating rave critiques for my tales. Instead, Roger Dejarlis, the town editor, and Bill Stewart, managing editor, inform me I’ve to meet up with Massachusetts Sen Edward W. Brooke (1967-1979) and ship a message from Hal Clancy. Clancy (“Prince Hal”) is the highly effective Boston Herald writer and president of WHDH-TV (then Channel 5) and WHDH radio.
Brooke, after touring war-ravaged Vietnam, had left for Cambodia and Laos in a far-fetched effort to go to Hanoi and meet with Ho Chi Minh and finish the battle or to not less than get his image taken.
“Are you crazy? I can’t do that. Jesus, there’s a war going on. People are getting killed. I can hold the phone out the window and you can hear the artillery.”
“We know it’s tough. But you can do it.”
We commute. I’m furious, however I lastly comply with do it, or not less than strive. It needed to be necessary if Hal Clancy needed it executed. Forget the battle.
“What’s the message?”
“Don’t get mad and don’t laugh. But he wants you to tell Brooke to keep June 16th open.”
“What for?”
“His daughter is graduating from Worcester Assumption, and he wants Brooke to speak at the graduation.”
“Are you crazy? In the middle of a war, he wants me to catch up with Brooke and deliver this stupid (expletive) message?”
“You can do it.”
I considered quitting. But I cherished being a newspaper reporter, and I cherished journalism despite the fact that journalism generally didn’t love me again.
There was an Air Viet Nam aircraft that left Saigon for Bangkok, Thailand, every single day with a cease at Phnom Penh, Cambodia. If Brooke couldn’t get to Hanoi, as I figured he wouldn’t, he simply would possibly board this aircraft at Phnom Penh, or I might meet up with him in Bangkok. If I didn’t ship Clancy’s message, I might return to Saigon or simply kill myself.
First, I needed to get on the aircraft and not using a reservation or a ticket. Saigon airport was a madhouse full of U.S. fighter/bomber jets and helicopters taking off and touchdown amidst the incoming of giant navy plane carrying troops and provides.
Shamelessly I advised Wong, an airline worker who had helped me upon my arrival in Saigon that I had a message from President Lyndon Johnson for Brooke. He stamped me out a ticket and squeezed me on the overcrowded aircraft. I slipped him $25.
So, the aircraft takes off and lands at Phnom Penh. It sits there for an hour or so.
Then there’s a commotion, and any person is boarding up in firstclass. It’s Brooke. My hunch was proper. He didn’t get to Hanoi.
He sees me and he’s shocked. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“I’m here to deliver a message?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Don’t get mad and don’t laugh, but Hal Clancy wants you to keep June 16 open.”
“He what? They called you from Boston to catch up with me and deliver that message? In the middle of a war?”
“Yeah. He desires you to maintain June 16 open so you possibly can converse at Worcester Assumption the place his daughter is graduating.:
“That’s crazy.”
“Yeah, I know, crazy in Vietnam. What’s even crazier is that I did it. I caught up with you in the middle of a war and delivered the stupid message. So, how crazy am I?”
On June 16 Brooke spoke at Worcester Assumption.
Mission achieved.
Peter Lucas is a veteran Massachusetts political reporter and columnist.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”