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Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient John Paul Vann
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Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient John Paul Vann
JOHN PAUL VANN
Awarded by
President Richard M. Nixon
June 16, 1972
Soldier of peace and patriot of two nations, the name of John Paul Vann will be honored as long as free men remember the struggle to preserve the independence of South Vietnam. His military and civilian service in Vietnam spanned a decade, marked throughout by resourcefulness, professional excellence and unsurpassed courage; by supreme dedication and personal sacrifice. A truly noble American, a superb leader, he stands with Lafayette in that gallery of heroes who have made another brave people's cause their own.
Nixon Awards Vann Medal of Freedom
June 18, 1972 WASHINGTON (UPI) --President Nixon awarded the Medal of Freedom , the nation's highest civilian citation, posthumously Friday to John Paul Vann, who served for 10 years as a top American adviser in South Vietnam.
Vann, killed last week in a helicopter crash in Vietnam, was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, with Secretary of State William P. Rogers representing Nixon.
The President invited Vann's family to the White House and presented the award for Vann to his oldest son, John Allen Vann, 24.
The citation read: "Soldier of peace and patriot of two nations, the name of John Paul Vann will be honored as long as free men remember the struggle to preserve the independence of South Vietnam.
"His military and civilian service in Vietnam spanned a decade, marked throughout by resourcefulness, professional excellence and unsurpassed courage, by supreme dedication and personal sacrifice."
Lt. Col. John Paul Vann (second from right) briefs his colleagues in Vietnam. Vann served as an adviser to the South Vietnamese Army in 1962 and 1963. He believed that permanent American military success in Vietnam depended upon the creation of an effective native government.
June 11, 1972
The Man Danger Couldn't Touch Vann Was a Legend With 9 Lives by ARTHUR HIGBEE
SAIGON (UPI) --John Paul Vann was not well known in the United States. But in Vietnam, his was a name to conjure with.
He was the longest-lived, the most articulate, far and away the most aggressive of a much-maligned breed, the American advisers to the South Vietnamese Army and the American officials in charge of the so-called pacification program.
I met him for the first time just two weeks ago. He was about to fly into Kontum, infiltrated that morning by Communist troops and already under heavy artillery fire.
"If you want a ride to Kontum, I'll see you at my chopper in 10 minutes," he threw over his shoulder as he disappeared into a map room in the U.S. compound.
I gathered up my pack, filled my canteens with water, zipped up my flak jacket and clapped on my helmet. I was ready for battle.
So was Vann. No helmet, no flak jacket, no canteen. Just a lime green shirt, slacks and tie.
"Follow Mr. Vann," an American captain on his second tour of Vietnam told me. "He has nine lives."
I followed Mr. Vann. His code name, on voice radio, was "Rogues' Gallery." Rogues' Gallery wanted to know how best to land by helicopter into Kontum. "It's flying in all around, sir," came the reply. "If you come in from the northeast you may miss some of it."
We missed all of it. Shells were exploding all too close when our tiny chopper landed on a roadway near the tactical operations center (TOC) at Kontum. Vann took the time to close the rear door of the jet properly and then loped to the TOC. He loped fast.
I followed at a dead run. We disappeared into the sandbagged tunnel and a shell exploded outside.
"He leads a charmed life," an American major marveled down in the TOC where maps with transparent plastic overlays jockeyed for position with field radios. "He lands, the firing stops, he takes off, the firing resumes."
Vann got a quick fill-in. He barked over the radio. "Tell your counterpart (a South Vietnamese battalion commander) to get off his tail and get his troops humping or tomorrow we're going to be in deep trouble."
American advisers supposedly do not talk like that about their loyal allies. Vann did.
Moments later we were airborne. A 105-mm shell exploded just where we had taken off. Vann said over the intercom,-- "Mr. Higbee, you are on a privileged flight. I am going to do something which I hope you won't report."
I didn't at the time. Now that he is dead it doesn't matter. He had his pilot fly to the point from which the captured 105-mm gun had been fired. It was still wreathed in smoke.
Vann---once a professional military officer and thoroughly at home with firearms-- pointed downward with an M16 rifle and poured automatic fire at the smoke from 500 feet.
This went on for a full two or three minutes of circling. Afterward, Vann told me, "If you wrote about that, people would think I was trying to be a hot shot. The fact is, I don't think I hurt anybody, but I made them damned uncomfortable. It's hell to be under fire."
By this time our chopper had landed back at Pleiku and Vann --- short, slight, with thinning reddish-blond hair, freckles, a hawk-like face and the eyes like Greenland glacier ice, had gone off to confer with some general about keeping Kontum from going belly-up.
Vann had nine lives. He used them all up, without stint, without sentiment. Whether the cause he lived and died for has used up its nine lives-- or had that many to begin with-- remains to be seen.
No matter. Whether you agreed with him or not, this redheaded banty rooster of a man never demanded respect. He simply got it.
"Vann Was a Legend With 9 Lives ", by ARTHUR HIGBEE, SAIGON, (UPI) published in the Pacific Stars and Stripes on Sunday, June 11, 1972 and reprinted with permission from European and Pacific Stars and Stripes, a Department of Defense publication copyright, 2002 European and Pacific Stars and Stripes.
White House Statement on the Death of John Paul Vann
June 9, 1972
It is with a profound sense of sorrow that the President learned today of the tragic death of John Paul Vann.
The President feels John Vann was one of America's finest citizens--and a truly extraordinary public servant. For more than a decade, he worked tirelessly in the forefront of our efforts to achieve an honorable peace in Southeast Asia and to bind up the wounds of its ravaged peoples. After his initial service as a military officer in Vietnam, he returned to that country to continue his devoted work as a civilian. There he has now given "the last full measure of devotion."
The President wants to say that, as honest and outspoken as he was committed, John Paul Vann did nothing in a half-hearted manner. For him, any work that was worth his undertaking was worth his very best--and that always meant a truly exceptional effort.
John Paul Vann will be deeply missed, by the people of Vietnam who came to know and love him, and also by his fellow Americans who have taken such pride in his contributions. His fervent dedication to peace and freedom will be a continuing inspiration to all of us.
On behalf of all Americans, the President and Mrs. Nixon extend to Mr. Vann's family and friends their deepest sympathy.
NOTE: Press Secretary Ronald L. Ziegler read the statement at his regular news briefing at the White House on June 9, 1972.
Mr. Vann, 47, died in a helicopter crash near Kontum in the Central Highlands of South Vietnam. He served in the military from 1942 to 1963, attaining the rank of lieutenant colonel, and was senior adviser for the Army to the 7th Vietnamese Division from 1962 to 1963. He was an adviser for the Agency for International Development in South Vietnam from 1965 and was Senior U.S. Adviser of the Second Regional Command, Civil Operations and Rural Development Support, from May 1971.
Secretary of State William P. Rogers represented the President at the burial services at Arlington National Cemetery.
On June 16, the President met with members of the Vann family at the White House where he awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously to Mr. Vann. John Allen Vann, Mr. Vann's son, received the medal on behalf of his family. On the same day, the White House released the text of the citation accompanying the medal, which read as follows:
Soldier of peace and patriot of two nations, the name of John Paul Vann will be honored as long as free men remember the struggle to preserve the independence of South Vietnam. His military and civilian service in Vietnam spanned a decade, marked throughout by resourcefulness, professional excellence and unsurpassed courage; by supreme dedication and personal sacrifice. A truly noble American, a superb leader, he stands with Lafayette in that gallery of heroes who have made another brave people's cause their own.
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Medal History
