‘The Most Brilliant Commander’: Ngo Quang Truong

By James H. Willbanks | Vietnam  | one comment  |  Print This Post  |  Email This Post

Confusion reigned. Truong did not receive his new orders well, but he tried to follow them the best he could. Nevertheless, the withdrawal from Hue became a disaster that rivaled the one in the Central Highlands in scope. Under shelling by heavy artillery, Truong’s forces fell apart. Because of the conflicting orders, lack of preparation and collapse of morale, the evacuation turned into a fiasco. Poor leadership in many units, the disintegration of unit integrity and concern over family members quickly led to panic and total chaos.

The situation in Da Nang was just as bad. As the city was shelled by artillery from two North Vietnamese divisions, Truong tried to direct an evacuation by sea. But pandemonium ensued, as panicked civilians and soldiers alike tried to escape to the south by any means possible. Da Nang fell to the Communists on March 30. In the process of abandoning a city of 3 million people, four regular divisions disintegrated, including the ARVN’s most elite: the 1st Infantry Division and the Marine Division.

Truong, who had desperately wanted to hold the line at Hue, was put in an untenable position by Thieu’s orders and counterorders. As Da Nang fell, he and his corps staff swam through the surf to the rescuing fleet of South Vietnamese boats. Truong was devastated by the loss of his forces, particularly his beloved ARVN 1st Division. Upon arriving in Saigon, he was reportedly hospitalized for a nervous breakdown. A U.S. Army officer who had worked closely with Truong heard what happened, tracked him down and arranged for his family to leave on an American ship as Saigon fell to the Communists.

The general’s family was split up for some time: His wife and older son made it to Fort Chaffee, Ark.; his daughters and middle son fled with a State Department employee to Seattle; and his youngest son, a 4-year-old who spoke no English, was at Camp Pendleton, Calif., for several weeks before his identity was established.

After reuniting, Truong and his family moved to Falls Church, Va. Once settled there, he wrote several historical studies on the Vietnam War for the U.S. Army Center of Military History. In 1983, the same year that he became a U.S. citizen, he moved to Springfield, Va. He worked as a computer analyst for the Association of American Railroads for 10 years until he retired in 1994.

Despite the outcome of the war in I Corps and the subsequent fall of South Vietnam, Truong’s reputation survived intact. General Norman Schwarzkopf called General Truong “the most brilliant tactical commander I have ever known” in his 1992 autobiography. “Simply by visualizing the terrain and drawing on his experience fighting the enemy for fifteen years,” he wrote, “Truong showed an uncanny ability to predict what they were going to do.”

Schwarzkopf added: “He did not look like my idea of a military genius: only five feet seven…very skinny, with hunched shoulders and a head that seemed too big for his body….His face was pinched and intense…and there was always a cigarette hanging from his lips. Yet he was revered by his officers and troops—and feared by those North Vietnamese commanders who knew of his ability.”

Unlike some South Vietnamese generals who had grown rich as they ascended the ranks, Truong was impeccably honest and, according to a close friend, led a “spartan and ascetic” life. Lieutenant General Cushman recalled that the general didn’t own a suit, and that his wife kept pigs behind his modest quarters in the military compound in Can Tho. As Cushman further described Truong, “He was imaginative and always looked for ways to improve his troops’ living conditions and family life.”

A humble man, Truong was an unselfish individual devoted to his profession. He was fiercely loyal to his subordinates, and was known for taking care of his soldiers, often flying through heavy fire to stand with them in the rain and mud during enemy attacks. He treated everyone the same and did not play favorites. There is a story that he refused to respond to a request to give his nephew a noncombat assignment, only to have the nephew later die in battle.

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Tags: Historical Figures, Vietnam War

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