Bob Cavendish
Buda, Texas

Your August issue was most appreciated by many of your readers. I, for one, am very proud of the fine job you and your staff have done on the Ia Drang piece. What a great cover design! Your interviews were outstanding and true to the word. I am most honored to have been included, and also honored by the way everyone was quoted and by your use of the "coin" as a graphic. My buddies love your magazine and read it regularly, as do I.

Bill Beck

Thanks for a fine spread on the Ia Drang boys….

Joe Galloway

Tony Poe Controversy
I am a regular purchaser of Vietnam Magazine, and appreciate its content and the efforts the authors put into its diverse articles. However, the article by Peter Kross about Tony Poe ("Personality," August) is a disappointment. For one thing, Kross confuses the "Ravens" as being a general term for the various spooks who operated in and out of Long Tieng. The Ravens were USAF FACs operating in "mufti," assigned the job of improving air support to General Vang Pao and other friendly Laotian commanders. Vang Pao was an NCO in the French relief column that was nearing Dien Bien Phu from the south when the French surrendered there.

Kross repeats an allegation that has been passed around for years—that the Apocalypse Now character, Colonel Kurtz, "was modeled on the persona of Tony Poe." I would like to know a source for that claim. Do the screenwriters acknowledge it? How did they even hear about Tony Poe, who operated in a rather confined area?
Finally, Kross overlooked the tributes Tony Poe received from the Hmong. He was a tough fighter, but they knew he was on their side, and they revered him.

Kross did one thing well, and I would be remiss in not giving him due credit. He summarized neatly the roles the Hmong played in the American war in Southeast Asia, though he might have pointed out more than he did that it was their war too.

Gerry Frazier
Springfield, Va.

Having known and worked with Tony Poe, I have a different perspective about him. In 1965 I commanded the Helicopter Combat Rescue Detachment out of NKP, Thailand. Around the first of July, I got orders to take two H-43s and crews to Udorn for a "classified, destination unknown" assignment. On arriving there, we were briefed on going into Laos to evaluate the Lima Site system setup for Air America to extend our rescue coverage into North Vietnam. At this briefing, there was a rugged-looking, unshaven individual in khakis, no insignia, wearing a beat-up Marine drill hat. He was introduced as Tony, who worked for the "Company," and would be our guide into Laos for the survey.

Tony wasn't very impressive at the start—on the way to Lima Site 98 in overcast weather, looking for a place that was not on our maps, he got us lost. We had to be guided in by Air America pilots. But our opinion changed over the next few days as we were introduced to General Vang Pao, USAID, Thai Border Patrol and some Air America guys, one of whom called Tony "Lawrence of Laos"!

Tony was far more than a guide and adviser; he knew and filled us in fully on what they now call the "geopolitics of Laos." His knowledge of what areas to avoid was far better than the USAF and USN briefs we got. Tony was definitely a mercenary, and a boozer. It only took me once to never try to drink, one on one, with him again! Yes, I saw the ears they mentioned hanging by his hooch, but he only paid 500 kip ($1 U.S. in '65) for two ears, so they didn't cheat! And I did hear that he stopped that when he found a boy without ears.

But we needed more guys like Poe. Do you think a psycho type like [the fictional] Kurtz would marry a local girl and work with Father Bruchard and Pop Buell helping the Hmong refugees in Thailand after our government had washed its hands of them? From what I have heard later from my Air America friends, I do believe he rebelled against orders at the end—but understandably, in frustration against our political policies toward those who fought and helped us "not fight a war" in Laos—much as T.E. Lawrence did in Saudi Arabia.

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