For those who do not know, the "montagnard" peoples of SE Asia are non-Han, non-Cambode, non-Lao, non-Vietnamese peoples of Mon-Khmer or Malayo-Polynesian stock and linguistic roots. They are very tribal, animist if not Christian, and mainly hunter-gatherers. Many of them hate the Vietnamese with the passion reserved for oppressors who regard one as less than human.
In the main the Montagnard peoples sided first with the French and then with us in our wars against the Vietnamese communists. The "communist" factor in these wars meant nothiing to them. The "Vietnamese" nature of the enemy meant all. Our alliance with the non-communist Vietnamese was something they did their best to ignore. Army Special Forces (Green Berets) lived for a decade with these brave people. Many of our men became fervent partisans of the Montagnards and members of FULRO, the "Front Uni Pour La Liberation De La Race Oprimee." They still are.
"Inter Cultural Communication" is a much babbled of thing nowadays. Alan Farrell gives a glimpse here of the feeling that is the basis of real communication.
Pat Lang
Download et_verbum_caro_factum_est_1.pdf
Farrell picture
My picture. I am the guy with the basket and the filed teeth. It was a great disguise. No. I am the American in the middle. pl
With VETERANS DAY coming up shortly on November 11th..
I Hope that all of you Readers of this Blog Will show Your Respect to a Great Man..A Combat Veteran..and Take the Time to Download and Read all of these Writings of Alan Farrell..
I Wish all of you knew the Real Sorty Behind this Man..Because Alan has Experienced More of Life..and Death..and Insight..than Most of Us ever Will..
Alan has gone on From Combat in Viet Nam..to Accomplish More with His Life and Education..that Most People Will in Five or Six Life Times..or Many Life Times..
We Owe Him Our Gratitude..and Through Him.. Our Understanding of the True Meaning of Veterans Day..of Honoring all Those Who Served in Our Armed Forces..and Continue to Serve..and Die and do thier DUTY..
We Owe it to Them..ALL of them..Who have Served at ALL times..in ALL Wars..
Beyond World War 2..And On to Our Korean Vets..Who Fought like Hell in Horrible Circumstances..Who Taught the Enemy a Lesson..Who WON that War..but Lost that Political Battle too..
When the Korean Vets Left the Battle Field..The Enemy Knew thier Ass’s Had Been Kicked..and they were Glad the War was Over..
The Same Fighting Force, The Same GI Determination and Skill that had Beaten the Enemy During WW2 had also Beaten the enemy in Korea..and they Know It..
The same thing happened in Viet Nam..
Alan does a Wonderful Job of Giving Us Insight into His Experiences in Nam..It could be any Combat Vets Story..at least those who Survived to tell it..
Alan shows us with His Beautiful Mind and Story Telling Ability..What it was like for an American Service Man to go from Civilization.. and the Comforts we take for Granted ..and the Freedoms we Take for Granted..and Send Him off to War..
To Drop Him Of halfway around the World..In a Alien Enviroment..With an Alien Lifestyle..and Alien Rules..where He has to Place His “Civilized Mind”into the ROLE Of Observer..
Where His Conscious Mind has to Transform into a Military Mind..With Military Rules..and Into a Mind of Primitive Animal Instincts that Soon Learns that in This World, This Enviroment..Its KILL or Be KILLED..Because thats what your enemy is doing the Minutes You step off that Plane..
Alan does a Great Job of Giving us some Insight into all of that experience..from his perspective..with His Beautiful and Intriguing Way of Writing..
His Writings Reveal the Creature Alan had Become because of War..A Beautiful and Talented and Intelligent Mind…(That Became the Observer insidfe His Consciousness)That Combined Death and Dying and Survival..and Military Life..and Forming Bonds only thse guys can Understand..and the HELL of the Jungle.. The Physical and Mental Pain of Living Combat every Day..Doing Your Duty..trying to Survive and Help others Survive in that Alien World..of Finding Ways the Keep Your Humor so You Could Keep Your Sanity..
Alans Writings are Revealing Works of Prose, and Insight and Philosopy..and Beautifully Expressed Observations..That go from
the Human Civilized Mind oberving the Beauty in Nature..While waiting at the same time Ambush..to Placen Explosives..to Kill or Be Killed..all in the Same Day..
Alan Feels Passion for all Our Vets in a Way Few can Understand bu5t shoudl Appreciate..
If you want to know Why…Please take One Day…24 Hours out of Your Stagnant TV World Lifes..to Downnload and Read Alans Storys..They are Real..They give you Insight into the Mind and Life of a Real Combat Soldier..in a Real Combat World..Look inside the Mind of the Soldier Alan has Revealed..Also look for the Beautiful Insights,,and Prose and Philosophy..and Observation when Alan Was being Told to KILL or Be Killed..
I am not a Combat Vet..But I wanted to Understand..Thank You Alan..Thanks to ALL Vets..Living and Dead..
You Have WON ever Battle, and Every WAR you Ever Fought..
And Everone You Faced..Those who Survived..and The Governments who sent them to Fight You..KNOWS IT..
YOU are the Best Fighting Force in the World….
Thank You..God Bless You..Carry On..
The first Vietnam War memoir I read was Jim Morris’ “War Story”. Morris was a Special Forces captain who was one of those men living with the “Yards” – about ’65-66, as I remember. Stumbled on the first edition published in ’79 while grazing the stacks of the University of Arkansas bookstore (Morris lived in Fayetteville when he returned). It started me reading all I could find from the Vietnam veterans. I’m happy to see it back in print.
Now I’m going to read up on Alan Farrell – thanks for the introduction.
The term FULRO appears to have had several meanings over a period of time. Some sources give it as “Front Unifie de Lutte des Races Opprimees” (Lutte means struggle), which is the term used in Gerald C. Hickey’s book (Window on a War. Yet Barry Petersen gives it as “Front Unifie de Liberation des Races Opprimees” in his book (Tiger Men). Yet a letter signed by Y B’Ham Enoul in the”liberated zone” on 9 August 1965 gives it as the “Front de Liberation des Hautes Plateaux Dega du Champa” (Front for the Liberation of the Dega Highlands of Champa). In any event, you would never find a “Front Unis” in French, as ‘Unis” is the plural of ‘uni’. Ergo you would have had it “Front Uni”, which is incorrect anyway. ‘Unifie’ in French signifies that the Front speaks with one voice, whereas ‘Uni’ would mean that there were independent component parts which operated in agreement. While that latter state was certainly more accurate, Y B’Ham always intended to be FULRO’s main decision maker and voice. My reading on ‘lutte’ versus ‘liberation’ is that FULRO’s name changed depending upon the goals of the organization at a particular time. I.e., FULRO-lutte was more descriptive of those periods where FULRO was angling for autonomy within Vietnam, and more became “FULRO-liberation when demanding full independence.
What I found interesting in my post-MIKE Force studies was that the Yards and Vietnamese weren’t hereditary enemies, and had a longer history of trade and some inter-marriage than they did of mutual animosity, which only started up in the 1830s under the reign of Minh Mang. They Tay Son emperor of Vietnam was part Bahnar, and there was a branch of the Nguyen royal family that had a female Jarai ancestor. Pity we didn’t know that history before we got sent over there.