Ten years ago, I had vague plans of producing a film based on Nolan's book about Operation Buffalo, which centered around the ambush of a Marine company in 1967. As I was returning to Cambodia for a project with State Dept./USAID and Warner Bros.—a story in itself—I made plans to visit the battlefields in neighboring Vietnam.
And so I contacted Keith William Nolan and asked for an option to develop a project based around his 1991 book Operation Buffalo: USMC Fight for the DMZ. I mentioned I was a former Marine who had served during the Vietnam era.
He let me have the option free.
That is simply not done in these parts.
By email, I thanked him for his generosity. In time, I toured the landscape of Operation Buffalo, a dangerous patch of ground still peppered with Viet Cong mines and booby traps as well as unexploded American and North Vietnamese artillery shells. I walked the narrow, red dirt lanes on which B Company was ambushed in an action that grew into the bloodiest day for the Marines in Vietnam.I drew a crowd of Vietnamese, hardly any who had lived there back in the day. (Most had been relocated in 1966, the year prior to the fight.) At one point, I was invited into a hut and asked to tell a few elders what I knew of the event. With kids and dogs yelling outside, I spoke in bursts of English which my interpreter translated into Vietnamese, explaining how a battalion of North Vietnamese lured an understrength Marine company into an trap that wiped out two platoons and shot to pieces a second company that came to help. Some enemy units dressed in captured Marine uniforms to move in close and backed their assault with flamethrowers and heavy artillery—based in nearby North Vietnam.
We drank tea and smoked cigarettes as the sky grew darker outside. Reciting Nolan's book from memory as best I could, I told how the Marines returned the next day to retrieve the bodies of their dead and that turned into another fight. More reinforcements poured in on both sides, culminating in a massive North Vietnamese attack preceded by an artillery barrage. The Marines cut down the charging troops, sealed off breaches in their lines and held. The enemy withdraw back to safety in North Vietnam. Marine patrols from the hill base at Con Thien set out once more to sweep the area and the pattern of Operation Buffalo would be repeated in minor and major keys for the next several years.
Outside the kids gathered around as I reemerged from the hut. There was a huge freaking spider the size of a catcher's mitt hanging in a web attached to a nearby pole. I refused to look at the monster for fear the kids would knock the hulking arachnid down with a stick and chase it toward me to see what the tall foreigner would do.
I came home and the option expired and my movie idea eventually migrated into a rather large folder of unfinished products. Nolan wrote ten books on the Vietnam War, but never made a pile of money. His publisher wanted him to write about "popular wars" because Vietnam didn't sell. But Nolan felt he had an obligation to veterans who were treated quite shabbily. He felt someone had to tell their story.
He stayed true to that calling.
A non-smoker, 44-year-old Keith William Nolan died of lung cancer. He left behind a little girl.
6 comments:
"I'm sorry Nolan, but the vietna, war just isn 't marketable enough."
I'd like to know what a"popular war" is. Rayher oxymoronic.
Interesting story, never knew you were inthe marines. Our english teacher was in the Vietnam war.
So are the Marines really as tough as they say they are?
USMC duty doesn't seem so bad now.
But I think at the time I felt different.
I suppose the publisher meant World War II which might be the last war that didn't leave a bad taste in someone's mouth.
Everyone so wanted to forget Vietnam in a hurry. I'm glad Nolan wrote his books.
Thank you John. Yes, I was always looking out for Keith's next book. Own them all. I was touched by Keith's superlative dedication to the individual soldier's story. To us who were not there. Keith, spoke to the young soldiers courage and self-sacrifice which filled my heart with pride, admiration and wonder.
Considering how the troops were so often measured solely against My Lai, it was, indeed, refreshing to read Nolan. He didn't sugar coat matters, including the cowards and skulkers with the brave. God rest his soul.
One of the best - if not thee BEST - author of combat and battles of the Vietnam War. Very readable, even with all the different military units and the terminology of the military. Through thorough research he would give the dead his name, how old, and where he was from at the very least and through the interviews of the combat vets I felt I was right there and in awe of the bravery of these young Marines and soldiers.
His books are blunt and honest, do not cut corners and gets these veterans to speak honestly. As a retired 30 year Marine 1975 - 2005 I read and re-read his books that are in my library. I could not believe when I read that he had died so young and of cancer. Highly recommend ALL of his books.
Same here.
I was surprised to hear another Vietnam historian slag Nolan for his research. No details, just snark. Amazing. I thought Nolan treated the veterans with respect and dignity and let them tell their stories.
The books hold up well.
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