Vietnam

Retired Lt. Col. William R. Corson -- author, teacher, spy, combat Marine and special assistant to presidents from Eisenhower through Johnson -- died at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda yesterday morning of pulmonary disease aggravated by lung cancer. He was 74. Colonel Corson, who joined the Marines as a 17-year-old high school dropout during World War II, was the first commanding officer of the military's "Combined Action Program" in Vietnam. The project teamed Marines with South Vietnamese soldiers in an effort to recover countryside lost to the Communists.

As a Vietnam veteran, I am familiar with automatic assault weapons and the damage they can do ("Fight against gun violence must go on despite setback in the Senate" April 23). These weapons are designed for warfare and police emergencies. I am writing today to express how deeply concerned I am about the recent actions, or should I say inactions, by our legislators. I am not being paid by any political action committee. I have been unable to understand how it is that, according to the latest polls, 83 percent or more of Americans want protective action on gun reform, but our Congress has not shown they agree.

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. -- The right hand trembles, so he has to drink his Pepsi with both hands. Controlling his vision has become maddening. And when he stands, his legs quiver as if he were going to fall to the floor.In another time, Carlos Norman Hathcock II was the ultimate terminator. As a sniper for the U.S. Marine Corps in Vietnam -- when the hands were rock steady, the eyes keen, the legs durable -- he was officially credited with killing 93 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong. No sniper killed more people in the 216-year history of the Marines.

Keller Curtis of Fallston and his father, Richard Tibbetts of Bel Air, participated in the first "Wall Washing" of the year April 13 at the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C., to pay respect to those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. The event was sponsored through New Day USA, a Maryland-based mortgage lender that is the exclusive lender for the VFW. They help veterans with their housing needs.

For sale: painstakingly restored Vietnam War-era Marine helicopter. Records missing, but mounts, gun replicas and rocket pods included. The blades spin, but the 1965 UH-1E Huey gunship is not flyable. To view, visit Cevon McLean's backyard in Lothian. "Everyone said, 'Why'd you buy that?'" McLean said. "Well, because I could. " Last month, McLean posted the "pinnacle" of his collection on Craigslist for $175,000. So far, a man has offered to trade him a Learjet for McLean's piece of military history.

W.R. Grace & Co. has opened a new manufacturing facility in Vietnam as part of its strategy to expand in emerging markets. The new facility was opened by the company's construction products division in the city of Hai Duong, near Hanoi. Grace celebrated the grand opening of the plant Wednesday. The 30,000-square-foot facility will manufacture cement additives and concrete admixtures. It will also house a sales and technical service office and a quality-control lab. Columbia-based Grace has also recently opened manufacturing plants in Chongqing, China, and Dammam, Saudi Arabia.

THIRTY YEARS after the fall of Saigon and a decade after ties resumed between the United States and Vietnam, the prime minister of America's former enemy met yesterday with President Bush. Earlier this week, Phan Van Khai paid other important calls - on a Boeing aircraft plant and Microsoft's Bill Gates in Seattle. Tomorrow, he's expected to be on Wall Street to ring the ceremonial bell opening trading on the New York Stock Exchange. And then he's off to Harvard and MIT. The message, of course, is that the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is eager for more investment and technology from the United States, its largest trading partner.

Theirs was fought in a dry, brown place. Mine was fought in a wet, green one.FTC Theirs began with a rapid buildup. Mine grew incrementally, over a period of years.They were volunteers. I was not.Yet many comparisons are being drawn between their war, in the Persian Gulf, and mine, in Vietnam. Some seem far-fetched, some on the money. But two in particular run so against the grain of my experience that I have long suspected they are in large part myth.In September of 1969, only days removed from my two years as an Army draftee, half of that time in Vietnam, I returned to the campus where I had not quite acquired a bachelor's degree.

Vietnam. -- Twenty-five years ago, America tried to build the ''McNamara Wall'' across the middle of this country. The idea was to block the Ho Chi Minh Trail just south of the DMZ by setting up a string of forts.The nightly television news made their names famous: Khe Sanh, Con Thien, Camp Carroll, the Rockpile.There isn't much of them left now -- a few dilapidated bunkers and some scattered shell casings. But you can visit the sites, as I did this week with a former Marine captain, one of the many American soldiers who had manned these forts in the late 1960s.

A 240-foot replica of Washington's Vietnam War Memorial will be on display June 14-16 at Meadowridge Memorial Park in Elkridge.The replica, constructed by the Habitat company from Tempe, Ariz., has a simulated black granite surface containing the more than 58,000 names of soldiers from the original wall.Activities, including a reading of names of local servicemen, memorial ceremonies, honor guards, as well as time for name-etching, arescheduled during the three-day event.The "Vietnam Wall Experience" is sponsored by a variety of volunteers, active duty and retired military personnel, veterans organizations, civic and citizens groups,and park employees.

Megan's sun-bronzed stomach and bikini bottom versus Dante's “The Inferno.” Guess which one Don Draper is locked in on at the opening of Sunday night's “Mad Men” on AMC. If you guessed the midsection of the divine Mrs. Draper, you would be wrong, because Season 6 of this even more divine drama opens with the return of the guy I think of as Existential Don. That's the dangerous and lost Don Draper - the guy who haunts late-night bars...

Remember last week on "The Amazing Race," when John had a few extended moments of crazy and got eliminated? That's still funny. But now it is time for the teams to leave Bali and head to Vietnam. "Word on the street," tweets Phil, "is that Hotel California by the Eagles is the #1 karaoke song in Vietnam. "   What happens at the travel agency stays at the travel agency Father and Son Dave and Connor are planning to leave the Race. Dave's surgeon at home has recommended surgery within seven days, so they plan to fly to Hanoi and be eliminated.

HANOI, Vietnam -- It has been 50 years since President John F. Kennedy ordered U.S. "advisers" to South Vietnam to help battle the communist North and 37 years since the end of that divisive war and the country's unification under Communism. Today, Vietnam is fighting a war with itself. A local TV program reminds a visitor of Chinese propaganda "operas" circa 1970. Performers, some wearing military garb with a backdrop of missiles and an American B-52 bomber going down in flames, commemorate the 1972 Christmas bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong ordered by President Richard Nixon.

Dr. Charles E. Rath Jr. and Charles Shyab both earned the Bronze Star for their valor in battle, but neither soldier collected his medal. At a recent ceremony at Fort Meade, the two veterans, who served in battles more than two decades apart, stood together and received the Bronze Star, awarded for valor and meritorious service. Officials also awarded each a congressional citation and an American flag that has flown over the Capitol against a background of plaudits from a U.S. senator, Army officers and a roomful of young soldiers.

Bernard J. Conroy, a retired career Army officer who served during World War II and Vietnam and later became a nursing home volunteer, died Nov. 5 of cancer at Stella Maris Hospice in Timonium. He was 85. Bernard Jackson "Jack" Conroy was born and raised in New Orleans, where he graduated in 1943 from Fortier High School. The next year, he enlisted in the Navy and served in the Pacific Theater from 1944 to 1946 aboard a Landing Craft Support vessel. Mr. Conroy participated in the invasion of Okinawa, did mine sweeping between Formosa and the China Coast, and served on the Yangtze River patrol.

Two Army veterans, who tended to comrades injured in battle in wars that were more than two decades apart, received long overdue military honors Friday before an audience of family, friends and some 200 members of the Armed Forces at Fort Meade. Dr. Charles E. Rath Jr., an Army captain and surgeon 67 years ago during World War II, and Charles Shyab, a medic during the Vietnam War 45 years ago, both received the Bronze Star from Col. Jeremy Martin, commandant of the Defense Information School at the Army post in Anne Arundel County.

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton dropped a 19-year trade embargo against Vietnam yesterday in a major step toward reconciliation with the United States' old Cold War nemesis.The action, sought by U.S. companies eager for trade and investment ties with the poor but resource-rich Southeast Asian nation, moved the United States closer to normal relations with Vietnam. Already, banks, law firms, cigarette companies and other businesses have obtained licenses to open offices in Vietnam. Now, each nation will set up a liaison office in the other.

Resumption of full diplomatic relations with Vietnam, which President Clinton is expected to announce this afternoon, will fulfill the road map of reconciliation that the Bush administration drew with that country's regime in 1991.The carefully orchestrated normalization began with the opening of a U.S. office in Hanoi that year, to seek information on servicemen missing in action from the Vietnam war. President Bush eased the embargo to permit humanitarian sales. Before leaving office, he allowed U.S. companies to open offices in Vietnam and do feasibility studies.

One in a series of profiles of Maryland delegates to the Republican National Convention Ask Brenda Butscher to compare this year's Republican convention to the first one she attended, in 1972, and her answer is unexpected. "One thing is I haven't met with an ice pick since I've been here," the 72-year-old Garrett County woman says with a smile. Butscher, who has attended nine national political conventions — more than anyone else in Maryland's delegation — found herself caught up in the Vietnam War protests that accompanied the 1972 nomination of Richard M. Nixon in Miami Beach.

For sale: painstakingly restored Vietnam War-era Marine helicopter. Records missing, but mounts, gun replicas and rocket pods included. The blades spin, but the 1965 UH-1E Huey gunship is not flyable. To view, visit Cevon McLean's backyard in Lothian. "Everyone said, 'Why'd you buy that?'" McLean said. "Well, because I could. " Last month, McLean posted the "pinnacle" of his collection on Craigslist for $175,000. So far, a man has offered to trade him a Learjet for McLean's piece of military history.