Marble Mountain Memoirs

Review Written by Bernie Weisz, Historian, Vietnam War September 28, 2012 Pembroke Pines, Florida, U.S.A. Contact: BernWei1@aol.com Title of Review: An Honest Memoir of One Soldier's Tour of Vietnam...Radically Different And Unique! Does the poisonous defoliant "Agent Orange" cause cancer? Should a Vietnam Veteran have the right to chronicle in his memoir his experiences there, laden with memories of smoking marijuana, dropping LSD and eating opium? Does it give other Vietnam Veterans, already saddled with stigmas such as "baby killers, losers, murdering psychopaths and drug addicts" just another cross to bear? It truly depends on who you talk to and which memoir you read, not to mention the branch served in and the year spent "In Country." With the exception of U.S. SOG and LRRP teams, naval units operating in both the Mekong Delta and South China Sea, participants in the Spring, 1970 Cambodian Incursion and finally those in leadership roles in Nixon's "Vietnamization," there was an inexorable American apathy in South Vietnam. Following the January, 1968 Tet Offensive, America's role in S.E. Asia was meaningless. When President Johnson refused to run for reelection, U.S. troop levels stood at 536,100. With only 5% in the field (approximately 70,000 in active combat areas) most of the remaining troops had mundane assignments in rear supporting roles. After Nixon's election, Vietnamization became U.S. dogma. The idea was to extricate America via "Peace With Honor." To achieve this, the idea was to expand, equip, and train South Vietnam's forces and assign to them an ever-increasing combat role, at the same time steadily reducing the number of U.S. combat troops until a full pullout could be achieved. No American wanted to be the last to die in a war the U.S. had all but given up on. The 1967 "Summer of Love" had turned into the 1968 "Summer of Blood." Between Tet, the March, '68 My Lai Massacre, and the April assassination of Martin Luther King, who called the U.S. the "greatest purveyor of violence the world has ever seen" and the June killing of Bobby Kennedy, the stage was set for the violence broadcast at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago. It would get worse. In 1969 there were still 485,200 military personnel in South Vietnam, with 11,616 killed that year alone. In March President Nixon authorized "Operation Menu," the secret bombing of Cambodia by B-52's, targeting North Vietnamese supply sanctuaries located along the border of Vietnam. Two months later, The New York Times broke the news of these secret bombing resulting in Nixon ordering FBI wiretaps on the telephones of four journalists, along with 13 government officials to determine the source of news leak. Robert Romaniello served in Vietnam from June 6, 1969 to July 13th, 1969 and then from October 29, 1969 thru August 30th, 1970. A month before he arrived, 46 men of the 101st Airborne died and over 400 wounded during a fierce ten-day battle at "Hamburger Hill' in the A Shau Valley near Hue. After the hill was taken, troops were ordered to abandon it by their commander. The North Vietnamese Army immediately returned and took back the hill unopposed. This costly assault and its confused aftermath provoked a political outcry back in the U.S. that American lives were being wasted in Vietnam. One Senator labeled the assault "senseless and irresponsible." The week after the battle, Life magazine displayed portrait photos of all the 242 Americans killed in Vietnam the previous week, including the 46 at "Hamburger Hill." The photos had a stunning impact on Americans nationwide as they viewed the once smiling young faces of the dead. Romaniello witnessed the beginning of the end for America in Vietnam as Washington replaced MACV Commander William Westmoreland with Gen. Creighton Abrams, who promptly ordered troops to avoid such encounters in the future. "Hamburger Hill' was the last major search and destroy mission by U.S. troops during the war, replaced by small unit actions. There are accounts existing where a long period of decline set in affecting both morale and discipline among American draftees serving in Vietnam involuntarily. Drug usage became rampant as a high but unknown percentage of rear echelon troops began experimenting with marijuana, opium, or heroin which were easy to obtain on the streets of nearly all major South Vietnamese cities. U.S. military hospitals later become deluged with drug related cases as drug abuse causalities far outnumber causalities of war. Amongst this turmoil Bob Romaniello silently sweated, toked away and watched as the October, 1969 "Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam" demonstrations took place. Millions of Americans took the day off from work and school to participate in local demonstrations against the war. These were the first major demonstrations against the Nixon administration's handling of the war. In October, 58% of Gallup respondents said U.S. entry into the war was a mistake and on November 15, 1969 crowds estimated up to half a million people participated in an anti-war demonstration in Washington, D.C. and a similar demonstration was held in San Francisco. Almost 35,000 Americans were now dead in a war that would eventually claim 58,269 lives, wound 153,303 and over 1,664 never accounted for. This memoir will guarantee to make waves as Romaniello recounts his tour, rife with drug use and boredom experienced guarding inconsequential Vietnamese Villages and performing meaningless tasks. The author recalls the music of the times, recalling a potpourri of bands that influenced him. The death at Altimont during a Rolling Stones concert, Woodstock, Timothy Leary, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Country Joe and The Fish and the Beatles are all warmly recalled. While Romaniello's use of drugs might offend some, the question is; how many thousands of soldiers had identical experiences and never wrote about them? While some Vietnam Veterans might wonder why Robert Romaniello would dishonor his family, friends and fellow veterans by simply disclosing his experiences, the bottom line is he remains unabashed and perseverant in boldly publishing his recollections, like it or not! One must give this Vietnam Veteran credit for disclosing what he went through regardless of what he did, saw and the opinions he expressed as countless others with similar experiences never did. Romaniello calls it as he saw it as he simply voices his opinions of the times. Woodstock, the trial of the Chicago Seven, the Yippies and Manson murders, the Apollo moon landing and finally his big letdown upon his return home from the war are all elaborated on. Romaniello also takes issue with the indifference and ingratitude he witnessed from his fellow Americans upon return. Finally, Romaniello describes his dousing with Agent Orange and his four decade later courageously successful battle against Stage Four Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma cancer. Whether this memoir makes you outraged, repugnant or brings a warm identifying smile to your face, "Marble Mountain Memoirs" is guaranteed to provoke an emotive response. Anyone that went through the late 1960's and early 1970's is guaranteed to relate to Romaniello's provocative recollections, a Vietnam War book with a unique perspective.