1954-1960
After about ten years of colonial civil war, France surrenders and retreats.
The country is split in two: North Vietnam is ruled by a communist regime and South Vietnam is under a bloody right-wing catholic dictatorship.
War changes, but it's always the same: at first, the communists were fighting against the French for freedom, now they are fighting to unify North and South Vietnam under a communist dictatorship.
The civil war in the South is immediate and violent; terrorism, bombs and attacks of all kinds are a daily matter. The weapons of the Vietminh (the North Vietnamese communist party) are mostly massacres and 'aimed' homicides, but also include gun smuggling, slavery, corruption and others.
Even though the Vietminh existed for many years and was the same movement that had just defeated the French, the US introduced it to the world as something new, and so gives it a new name. The Vietcong has been 'born' (which is a pejorative slang for 'Vietnamese communists').
In the meantime, the US starts arming South Vietnam and sending its first and very few 'military advisors'.
The job of the first US personnel on the field is to 'advice' the South Vietnamese forces, but without being personally involved in the fights.
1961
The Vietcong movement is still partisan with a few arms, and very old.
Guerrilla fighters mostly use rickety weapons from WWII and, sometimes, even some very dangerous (for themselves) handmade ones.
Nevertheless, they also start using US made weapons, which they receive from the South Vietnamese Army itself, thanks to rampant corruption.
Once armed as needed, the Vietcong infiltrates villages and the countryside and takes control using violence.
Once in power they force people - including the elderly, women and children - to work for them, turning peaceful villages into communist war bases.
They take away money and food, commit homicide to 'make an example' and force children to handle guns and ammunition to help them, because 'everyone has to help as he can'.
Many civilians will die in the process, but the communists don't care and most of the people just obey out of fear.
The South Vietnamese Army (ARVN, meaning Army of the Republic of Vietnam) starts receiving even more US weapons.
The US passes tanks, helicopters, and military airplanes to the bloody right-wing Diem's regime, while the situation for the civilians is getting worse day by day, and the Vietcong-occupied villages start being a real problem.
As a response to this, the South Vietnamese government forces an enormous number of civilians – who used to live inside rural villages from millennia – to move inside rotten flats made of cement on the outskirts of the largest cities, recently built with the purpose of 'taking the countrymen away from the hands of the Vietcong'
It's a deportation, plain and simple, and as such it will cost many human lives. During those forced marches, thousands die because of hardship, starvation and diseases.
And in some cases, in the aftermath of those deportations Diem uses US airplanes to bomb the 'emptied' villages.
But the real problem is that Diem doesn't really strike the villages occupied by the Vietcong.
Most of all, he gets rid of the ethnic enemy, in order to both avoid an all out war against the Vietminh – who he reverently fears – and make his dictatorship stronger.
The Diem family is Catholic and other than the enemy ethnics, they also hit religious minorities. The Buddhists in particular suffer all kinds of abuse from the regime.
Day by day, the Buddhist protests inside the South's greatest cities become more and more intense until demonstrative suicides start to show up.
The photos of the Tibetan monks setting themselves on fire in front of the horrified eyes of international journalists travel all over the world, and these demonstrative suicides are against the US too because they are backing and arming Diem.
The US tolerates the inhuman behavior of the dictator because his regime is weak.
The military, politicians, police and various ethnics fight against each other to take Diem's place in power and then rule South Vietnam. Every single one of these factions is a real party on its own, but the strongest in the chaos are always the Vietcong, and if Diem falls, the communists will take the power for sure.
So the US thinks they have no choice other than backing Diem, but the civilian Vietnamese will never forget the US backed this bloody, corrupt and racist dictator.
This will create a break-up between the US and the Vietnamese that will last for the duration of the war, and it's still an open wound even today.
1962
Despite the complete lack of results, the US continues to send funds and weapons to the South Vietnamese government, and increases the number of military advisors to large numbers.
But none of these measures succeeds in changing the situation.
There are two main problems:
Almost fifty per cent of the US weapons sent to South Vietnam end up in the ends of the communist because of the rampant corruption in South Vietnam and of the enormous black market (which is almost entirely in the hands of the Vietcong).
In Hollywood war movies you don't see that – it would be a too much of a bitter pill to swallow – but the truth is that during this initial phase, the most widespread weapon between the Vietcong is soon to become the ultra-modern M-16.
Weapons, ammunitions, practically everything – but airplanes – end up in the hands of the Vietcong.
The South Vietnamese government seems to consider this phenomenon to be 'necessary' to avoid the collapse of their armed forces:
“We either let our soldiers get rich smuggling weapons to the communists, or they will become communists, too”.
The second problem is that the South Vietnamese army doesn't really fight against the Vietcong because 'The US won't let them win anyway'. Their interest goes to other matters.
The Ap Bac battle is the first open-field battle between the Vietcong and the South Vietnamese Army.
The South Vietnamese forces can count on US rifles, machine guns, artillery, tanks, paratroopers and helicopters with unlimited ammo at their disposal.
On the other side, the Vietcong are few, with little training and are barely armed, and during the battle they pick up their own cartridge-cases from the ground because they are too expensive to be left in the field.
Despite the ARVN superiority in weapons, means and numbers, the Vietcong get rid of the situation by causing a lot of casualties, destroying millions of dollars of equipments and successfully fleeing the scene before it's too late.
The Ap Bac defeat is stinging and unreal, even more so because it happens while Kennedy is still receiving optimistic reports about the situation.
Obviously, there's something amiss.
Someone is lying.
The largest part of the US military says that the victory in South Vietnam is imminent and shows optimism. On the other side an active minority says exactly the contrary.
They say that the situation is desperate and that the South Vietnamese regime is hanging by a thread. To those, the whole country is on the brink of anarchy and the US should leave it to its own destiny before it's too late.
This difference of opinions reflects a fracture inside the US military that, with time, will worsen.
On one side, there are the 'war hawks', which methodically use lies to persuade the US to end the 'military advisors phase' and send their first fighting-troops in Vietnam.
In order to get a war to fight (and fight it now), the hawks are ready to do anything, and they do it all.
They even lie to the US president and they feel no shame in doing that.
They think that with US troops on the ground, the war will be fast and easy.
On the other side of the barricade there are the 'rebels', which are the ones that always say the truth, never keep their mouths shut about the abyss the US is at risk of sinking in, and often use their truths as a weapon against the war hawks.
By then, Trautman is openly siding with the rebels and in 1962 he is sent to Vietnam for the first time, as a military advisor for the ARVN.
Between those 'rebels', Samuel Trautman is a real extremist.
He thinks that disguising reports or being 'less pessimists' is equal to lying to the president, and so something not so different to high treason.
Also because lying about the war is something for 'dickheads, and dickeheads of the dangerous kind' , because 'You can lie about the war if you want to, but first or later war will make you pay for it'. When you are at war, no mistake stays unpunished'.
There is no way to come to an agreement with the principles of the colonel.
In '63 - while he is still in Vietnam - the hate against him spreads between the war hawks in a flash, like gasoline on fire.
In the meantime, in the US, Kennedy has no idea where the truth is, because he is surrounded by advisors who give him opposing advice.
The relationship between the two 'parties' inside the armed forces is destined to get worse, until it will becomes a plain and simple feud.
1963
The US, sick and tired of the violence against the civilians and seeing the Vietcong armed with US weapons, finally stops backing Diem's rule.
The same day the US ambassador ratifies the decision to Diem's government, riots starts everywhere.
The military coup d'etat has begun.
Diem, trying to escape by then, is killed by an overzealous police officer.
The event leaves a deep mark on Kennedy, because he had met Diem in the past and he had expressly ordered the South Vietnamese to make sure no harm came to him.
Diem's place is then taken by an army general.
The new South Vietnamese government immediately stops deportations and senseless massacres against its own civilians, but by then hate has taken root.
In the meantime, the Vietcong movement has enlarged its ranks also bacause of Diem's cruelties. The consensus for communists has reached worrying levels and his forces are now owning some complete territories, even if they are little and few.
But Kennedy has caught on.
It is obvious that the military has lied to him and he is starting to evaluate reducing the US effort: less funds, less weapons, less advisors and no US troops will be sent in.
November 22, 1963: in Dallas, an unknown shooter puts a bullet into the United States President's head.
Kennedy instantly dies in front of a horrified crowd.
The vice president Lyndon Johnson takes his place for the remaining time of his mandate.
Two months later, Johnson will send the first battalion of US marines in Vietnam.
Despite the fact that the conflict is older than two decades, for the US people 'the Vietnam War has broke '.
1964 -1965, the war 'breaks out'
The US military superiority is unquestionable, and yet something is not working because the fights turn out bloodier than expected.
In the Ia Drang battle alone – the first frontal battle between the US and the North Vietnamese - two hundred US soldiers died in four days, and more problems start showing up.
North Vietnam is using some territories of two neutral countries (Laos and Cambodia) as a 'highway' to send men, weapons an ammunition from the North to the South. It's the so-called 'Ho Chi Minh Trail' .
Laos and Cambodia – both with shaky regimes just like Vietnam had – tolerate their invasions to avoid a direct confrontation with the NVA/VC, which they would lose for sure.
While occupying Laos and Cambodia territories, the NVA resorts to the usual violence against the civilians.
Whatever their methods, thanks to the Ho Chi Minh Trail, North Vietnam starts sending whole divisions of regular soldiers to the South who are destined to flank the Vietcong.
Stronger, better trained and better armed than the Vietcong, the North Vietnamese are real soldiers, not just terrorists.
A bit at time, the famous AK starts being the rifle in the hands of the Vietcong and the khaki North Vietnamese uniforms start showing up in the jungle more than ever.
The Ho Chi Minh Trail is an obvious violation of the peace accords signed by North Vietnam just a few years before, but the international press doesn't see any scandal in that.
The communists' habit of violating any accord (and just the day after they have signed it) is going to become a constant of the war.
You don't have to read this as an act of cowardice, but as a cold-blood, well-thought out strategy.
North Vietnam signs an accord and the Vietcong makes just the contrary, taking full advantage of the following surprise effect.
And when faced with the accusation of violating their own accords, North Vietnam always replies that it has no control on guerrilla fighters in South Vietnam.
Obviously, it's a farce.
Giap is using diplomacy to create a diversion on the battlefield.
He has no interest in any kind of peace with a Vietnam split in two, and until violating the accords will causes a surprise-effect on the battlefield, he will continue doing that.
Nowadays, as an example of this attitude, we most remember the Tet offensive, when the Vietcong launched an enormous offensive during a just-signed religious truce.
But the Tet offensive wasn't the first time the communists did something like that; it was just the biggest at that point, and in the following years they would do it again, many times.
Despite the fact that the North Vietnamese government is saying one thing and doing the contrary, the international press seems to have no interest in being critical of it.
On the contrary, the press' behavior with regards of the US army is quite the opposite.
It becomes more and more openly contrary to any US military action, and this has its consequence on the Ho Chi Minh Trail too.
Finding a US soldier in Laos would sound like discovering one fighting in Switzerland, and for the journalists it's a juicy occasion.
On the contrary, the communists continue using the Ho Chi Minh Trail almost publicly, but undisturbed.
As a result of this, the Vietcong start building up real strongholds in both Laos and Cambodia, which they use to lunch both terrorist and military attacks against the South (the so-called 'sanctuaries').
The advantage the communists get from the Ho Chi Minh Trail is so significant that it changes the course of the whole war: the more the trail works and expands itself, the stronger the Vietcong in the South become.
So the US are forced to react, and for the first time in the conflict they start launching undercover, illegal missions over the border.
The SOG is born.
On the other side, the bombing and fights caused by SOG generates another war in both Laos and Cambodia, because the Vietminh can't afford to lose these territories, and it reacts with strength.
The Pathet Lao and Krom are born, which are the pro-Russian Laotian and Cambodian communists parties, respectively, whose soldiers are going to become the 'personal' Vietcong of both Laos and Cambodia.
In the meantime, the Sovietic Union (USSR), fearing that the US could change the course of the war, starts sending weapons and ammunitions to the Vietcong.
The conflict is assuming different terms and the adversaries start being larger and more daring.
Trautman, during the two years he spent in Vietnam as a military advisor, dared to give to the public too many disturbing truths, thus making himself too many enemies between the bigwigs.
As a measure against him, he is judged 'too much distinguished' to stay on the field and is sent back to Fort Bragg, with the task of creating a new kind of special forces specifically shaped to fight the new kind of war the US is facing on the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
So the colonel is forced to leave both his US and Vietnamese friends while they needed him the most, and for that reason he hated his higher ranks even more.
The first of his enemies was his direct commander, General Loyd, one of the worst war hawks out there.
Anyway, once back in Fort Bragg, Trautman gives his best in his new role, as he always did.
It's 1966 and the brass heads are still daring to declare themselves optimists in public, but the truth is that there still aren't' any results all, and the only real measure taken by Johnson - without any intelligent change of strategy - is sending more soldiers and equipment.
And this, obviously, doesn't produce any result at all.
1967
The war grows worse, becoming even more expensive and bloody, and the US starts showing traces of its influence on his own soil.
Pacifist protests become more frequent and intense: people are demonstrating against their own
government, and this, in US history, has never happened before.
Soldiers returning home from the front-line – and there are many by then – tell their families a view of the war that is too different from the official one - and people know very well who is lying. However, for a US citizen facing the outright lies of his homeland, it is a plain trauma.
Most of the guilty party belongs to the military and their lies. The South Vietnamese regime still isn't a democracy worth defending, the Vietcong are not few and badly armed, and the war won't be short and easy.
The war will be long, hard and - most of all – it can be lost, and because of the lies of the war hawks, the US people find that simple truth on their own, and with horror.
Trautman is in Fort Bragg for two years, and the final draft of his personal brand new special forces training is nearly ready.
Until then, the SOG used to recruit personnel from other Special Forces branches, but Trautman – for the first time – is creating two teams specifically developed for SOG, and thus trying to make it a brand new Special Forces branch.
He conceived and got approval for an innovative training program partly based on the hardness he lived on his own when he fought in Korea, and partly on the brand new scenarios offered by the Vietnam War, like the fight against the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
Even with regard of his training program, Trautman had to deal with the political opinions of the war hawks.
To them, the colonel 'pain in the ass' Trautman, was so pessimist about the war that he found his way to have a successful career independently from the real outcome of war.
Because, however the war could turn in the future, it would have been difficult to evaluate the impact of a training program, and many thought this was Trautman's real reason for it.
They interpreted the colonel like this because they used to think this way in the first place, and they couldn't even imagine that a high ranking officer – like Trautman – was interested in anything other than his own career.
The war hawks hadn't understood anything about the colonel or the Vietnam War.
The Baker teams were preparing to fight on the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
This meant fighting behind enemy lines, with almost no technology and mostly on their own.
Such an idea of fighting wasn't really popular during the sixties (but to the contrary) and this was the reason – in the colonel's opinion – a conventional training would have just killed his men. Trautman wanted soldiers capable of sneaking behind enemy lines in small teams, that could then hit the enemy and vanish into thin air.
He wanted soldiers who could destroy the enemy chain of command on the eve of the battle.
These kinds of ideas were extraneous to the military of that period and difficult to understand by people who didn't knew anything about the unusual kind of war that was going on in Vietnam.
During the sixties, the US armed forces had just fallen in love with technology, firepower, helicopters and electronics. Some thought that, one day, the new means (like radars, airplanes and eventually atomic bombs) would have done everything, leaving no more roles to the infantry.
Creating a unit specialized in surviving and fighting on their own - and eventually without any equipment at their disposal - was contrary to everything the military of this age believed in.
In fact, Trautman's reasoning was simple: if the Vietcong could fight with nothing and yet put South Vietnam - armed with the best US weapons - in a difficult situation, he wanted men capable of doing the same.
In the beginning, those ideas were difficult to receive even for the Baker teams guys.
More than training, it became a real brainwash to them.
At first, they all had to learn Vietnamese in order to fight beside the Montagnards.
Then, the colonel wanted at least one tank driver and a helicopter pilot for each team.
His teams should have been capable of doing anything and acknowledge every aspect of every discipline, in order to plan their missions on their own.
Until then, no one had ever conceived such a unit before.
The two Trautman Baker teams were, in some way, a dream come true for him.
He was going to create something that had never existed before.