NOTES

Prologue

1. The description of these events is derived from notarized eyewitness testimonies included in BMR; Roy Benavidez Medal of Honor Citation, United States Army Center of Military History, www.cmohs.org/recipients/roy-p-benavidez; Benavidez quoted in Medal, 139; and Eric Blehm, Legend: A Harrowing Story from the Vietnam War of One Green Beret’s Heroic Mission to Rescue a Special Forces Team Caught Behind Enemy Lines (New York: Crown, 2015), especially 111–179.

2. BMR; Blehm, Legend, especially 111–179; Medal, quoted on 139; and Roy P. Benavidez and Oscar Griffin, The Three Wars of Roy Benavidez (San Antonio, TX: Corona, 1986), 1–5.

3. Statement of Personal History, 9/1/70, BMR; “Triple volunteer” quoted in Gordon L. Rottman, US MACV-SOG Reconnaissance Team in Vietnam (Oxford, UK: Osprey, 2011), 13; and Medal, 81–105.

4. Statement of Personal History, 9/1/70, BMR; and Memo, Joint Chiefs of Staff to Deputy Secretary of Defense, Washington, DC, December 3, 1968, #15a, box 93, folder: “Cambodia 5E (3) 11/68–1/69,” NSF-Vietnam.

5. Intelligence Memo, CIA, 5/10/66, #6a, box 92, folder: Cambodia 5E (1)b 5/66–1/68 [1 of 2], NSF-Vietnam.

6. Cable, William Westmoreland MACV 40588, #80a, box 92, folder: Cambodia 5E (1)a 5/66–1/68 [2 of 2], NSF-Vietnam; and Memo, Earl G. Wheeler to General Westmoreland, #80, box 92, folder: Cambodia 5E (1)a 5/66–1/68 [2 of 2], NSF-Vietnam.

7. Memo, Walt Rostow to the President, 12/27/1967, #31, box 92, folder: Cambodia 5E (1)a 5/66–1/68 [1 of 2], NSF-Vietnam.

8. Blehm, Legend; John L. Plaster, Secret Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines with the Elite Warriors of SOG (New York: New American Library, 2005); Rottman, US MACV-SOG; and Lt. Col. Fred S. Lindsey, Secret Green Beret Commandos in Cambodia: A Memorial History of MACV-SOG’s Command and Control Detachment South (CCS) (Bloomington, IN: Author House, 2012).

9. Memo, Earle Wheeler to Deputy Secretary of Defense, 12/3/68, #15a, box 93, folder: Cambodia 5E(3) 11/68–1/69, NSF-Vietnam; and Medal, quoted on 133.

10. Medal, 129–131, quoted on 130.

11. Statement of Personal History, 9/1/70, BMR; Clinical Record, May 12, 1968, box 4Zc194, folder 54, RBP; Roy Benavidez Medal of Honor Citation; Medal, quoted on 139–140; and Blehm, Legend, especially 111–179.

12. Roy Benavidez Medal of Honor Citation; and Medal, 133–145.

13. Statement of Personal History, 9/1/70; Physical Evaluation Board Proceedings, 8/4/76; Roy Benavidez Service Record, 10/24/73, BMR; and Roy Benavidez Medal of Honor Citation.

14. Noel Benavidez, interview by William Sturkey, El Campo, TX, December 5, 2015, transcript in author’s possession; Noel Benavidez, interview by William Sturkey, El Campo, TX, August 2, 2018, transcript in author’s possession; Shannon Crabtree, “Benavidez to Be Honored with Stamp This Friday,” El Campo Leader-News, box 4Zc194, folder 59, RBP; and Roy quoted in Bob Kerr, “In This Case, Salute the Medal and the Man,” Providence Journal-Bulletin, Monday May 13, 1996, B, box 4Zc199, folder 36, RBP.

15. “Texas Press Group Honors Countian as Texan of 1981,” Wharton Journal-Spectator, June 25, 1981, A3; “State Leaders to Honor Benavidez in Austin Tuesday,” El Campo Leader-News, March 28, 1981, box 4Zc194, folder 59, RBP; “Hall of Honor Planned,” Port Arthur News, April 2, 1981, 7A; H.R. No, 371, Box 2.325, RBP; Frank Stransky, “Sgt. B Gets EP Key,” El Campo Leader-News, October 5, 1988, 4-A; and Certificates located in box 2.325, RBP, and box 4Zc195, folder 9.

16. West Point Association of Graduates, History of Class Gifts, www.westpointaog.org/giving/your-impact/class-giving/history-of-class-gifts, accessed October 7, 2023; Christening Program, USS-Benavidez, July 21, 2001, New Orleans, LA, box 4Zc200, folder 31, RBP; Blehm, Legend, 276; and Yvette Garcia, email to author, November 7, 2022.

17. John McCain with Mark Salter, Why Courage Matters: The Way to a Braver Life (New York: Random House, 2004), 2–12; Caspar W. Weinberger, Fighting for Peace: Seven Critical Years in the Pentagon (New York: Warner Books, 1990), 56; and Kelley Shannon, “War Hero Recalled for Acts of Bravery,” McAllen Monitor, December 4, 1998, 1C.

18. Neil Foley, Mexicans in the Making of America (Cambridge, MA: Belknap/Harvard University Press, 2014), 179–199.

19. “Ballad of Roy Benavidez” was written by Leonardo Carrillo, a professor at Corpus Christi University. “Stories,” El Campo Leader-News, July 29, 1981, 2; “Corrido De Roy Benavidez,” box 4Zc194, folder 56, RBP; and José Pablo Villalobos and Juan Carlos Ramírez-Pimienta, “‘Corridos’ and ‘la Pura Verdad’: Myths and Realities of the Mexican Ballad,” South Central Review, vol. 21, no. 3 (Fall 2004), 129–149.

20. Medal, quoted on 46, 170, and 171.

21. “Walking roadmap,” quoted in “‘Walking Roadmap’ Re-ups for 5,” San Antonio Express, January 2, 1974, BMR; and Jose Garcia, “Roy P. Benavidez Quotes,” 2002, document in author’s possession.

22. Ronald Reagan, “Remarks on Presenting the Medal of Honor to Master Sergeant Roy P. Benavidez,” Arlington, VA, February 24, 1981, www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-presenting-the-medal-honor-master-sergeant-roy-p-benavidez, accessed September 17, 2017; and Colin L. Powell with Joseph E. Persico, My American Journey (New York: Random House, 1995), 258.

23. Social Security Administration to Roy Benavidez, February 22, 1983, box 4Zc194, folder 53, RBP.

24. Medical Board Proceedings, Roy P. Benavidez, June 10, 1976, box 4Zc194, folder 53, RBP; and Medal, quoted on 163.

1 

Chapter 1: Rawhide

1. Salvador and Teresa Benavidez wedding photo, October 7, 1934, in author’s possession; 1930 US Census, DeWitt County, Texas, Population Schedule, Precinct 5, Sheet 19B, Dwelling 423, Family 423, Benavidez family, digital image, Ancestry.com; and 1930 US Census, DeWitt County, Texas, Population Schedule, Cuero, Sheet 9B, Dwelling 233, Family 237, Perez family, digital image, Ancestry.com.

2. Medal, 1.

3. US Census, DeWitt County, Texas, Population Schedule, Cuero, Sheet 9B, Dwelling 233, Family 237, Perez family, digital image, Ancestry.com.

4. Medal, 1–3; DeWitt County Historical Commission, The History of DeWitt County, Texas (Dallas, TX: Curtis Media, 1991), 143–145; “Lindenau Marker Dedicated,” Victoria Advocate, October 16, 1979, 6B; and personal observations made on May 20, 2015. For more, see Texas Dance Hall Preservation, Inc., https://texasdancehall.org.

5. Medal, 1–3; 1930 US Census, DeWitt County, Texas, Population Schedule, Precinct 5, Sheet 19B, Dwelling 423, Family 423, Benavidez family, digital image, Ancestry.com; and 1930 US Census, DeWitt County, Texas, Population Schedule, Cuero, Sheet 9B, Dwelling 233, Family 237, Perez family, digital image, Ancestry.com.

6. Texas Historical Records Survey, “Inventory of the County Archives of Texas: DeWitt County, No. 62,” January 1940, Texas State Library and Archives Commission (TSLAC), Austin, TX; A. Ray Stephens, Texas: A Historical Atlas (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2010), 24–25; DeWitt County Historical Commission, History of DeWitt County, Texas, 59; and personal observations.

7. Sam W. Haynes, Unsettled Land: From Revolution to Republic, the Struggle for Texas (New York: Basic Books, 2022), 25–95; T. R. Fehrenbach, Lone Star: A History of Texas and the Texans (Cambridge, MA: Da Capo, 2000, orig., 1968), 132–173; and DeWitt County Historical Commission, History of DeWitt County, quoted on 11.

8. Ana Carolina Castillo Crimm, De León: A Tejano Family History (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2003), 113–118, 145–151; Victor M. Rose, Victor Rose’s History of Victoria (San Antonio, TX: Lone Star Printing, 1961, orig., 1883), 10–15 and 104–106; A. B. J. Hammett, The Empresario Don Martin De Leon (Kerrville, TX: Braswell, 1971); and Stephen L. Hardin, “Plácido Benavides: Fighting Tejano Federalist,” in Jesús F. de la Teja, ed., Tejano Leadership in Mexican and Revolutionary Texas (College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press, 2010), 57–74.

9. Randolph B. Campbell, An Empire for Slavery: The Peculiar Institution in Texas, 1821–1865 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1989), 10–49; Alwyn Barr, Black Texans: A History of African Americans in Texas, 1528–1995 (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996, 2nd ed., orig., 1973), 13–38; and Haynes, Unsettled Land, Austin quoted on 75.

10. Hammett, The Empresario; Crimm, De León, 145–151; and Hardin, “Plácido Benavides,” 57–74. Plácido later submitted claims for reimbursement that help reveal the extent of his financial and material contributions. These can be found in the Republic Claims records available through the Texas State Libraries and Archives Commission Records: www.tsl.texas.gov/apps/arc/repclaims/records.

11. Crimm, De León, 145–151; Hammett, The Empresario, 80–81; Hardin, “Plácido Benavides,” 57–74; and Fehrenbach, Lone Star, 174–189.

12. Crimm, De León, 167–171; Hardin, “Plácido Benavides,” 57–74; and Arnoldo De León, They Called Them Greasers: Anglo Attitudes Toward Mexicans in Texas, 1821–1900 (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1983), 1–13, 49–62, quoted on 3 and 7.

13. David Montejano, Anglos and Mexicans in the Making of Texas, 1836–1986 (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1987); and Hammett, The Empresario, quoted on 27.

14. Montejano, Anglos and Mexicans; Hammett, The Empresario, quoted on 27; and Crimm, De León, 152–184.

15. Crimm, De León, 164–169; Rose, Victor Rose’s History of Victoria, 106–107; Hammett, The Empresario, 78; and William D. Carrigan and Clive Webb, Forgotten Dead: Mob Violence Against Mexicans in the United States, 1848–1928 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013).

16. Richard Griswold del Castillo, The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo: A Legacy of Conflict (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1990), especially 62–107, 100,000 figure on 62; and Donald B. Dodd, ed., Historical Statistics of the States of the United States: Two Centuries of the Census, 1790–1990 (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1993), 87. This count includes Tejanos, but white settlers constituted the vast majority of newcomers.

17. Frederick Law Olmsted, A Journey Through Texas (New York: Dix, Edwards, 1857), quoted on 245.

18. Foley, Mexicans in the Making of America, 13–38; Crimm, De León, 152–213; and Armando C. Alonzo, Tejano Legacy: Rancheros and Settlers in South Texas, 1734–1900 (Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 1998), 145–159.

19. Alonzo, Tejano Legacy, 145–159, 259–270; and Montejano, Anglos and Mexicans, 24–74.

20. Montejano, Anglos and Mexicans, 24–74, quoted on 60.

21. Montejano, Anglos and Mexicans, 24–74; Benjamin Heber Johnson, Revolution in Texas: How a Forgotten Rebellion and Its Bloody Suppression Turned Mexicans into Americans (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003), 7–37; Alonzo, Tejano Legacy, 227–270; and John Weber, From South Texas to the Nation: The Exploitation of Mexican Labor in the Twentieth Century (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2015), 15–40.

22. Fehrenbach, Lone Star, 507–521, quoted on 510; Monica Muñoz Martinez, The Injustice Never Leaves You: Anti-Mexican Violence in Texas (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2018), especially 76–119; and Crimm, De León, Benavides quoted on 179, “widow” on 240.

23. 1850 US Census, Victoria County, Texas, Free Inhabitants, City Unlisted, pg. 242, Dwelling 180, Family 180, Benavidez family, digital image, Ancestry.com; Crimm, De León, 197; and Texas, Memorials and Petitions, 1834–1929, Petition for Land, Nicholas Benavidez, January 30, 1854, digital image, Ancestry.com.

24. Historical Grantor/Grantee Indexes of Texas land found using Courthousedirect.com.

25. Rose, Victor Rose’s History of Victoria, 106; Texas, County Tax Rolls, 1837–1910, Hidalgo County, 1868, Eugenio Benavides, digital image, Familysearch.org; 1870 US Census, Hidalgo County, Inhabitants, Precincts 3 and 4, pg. 17, Dwelling 130, Family 112, Benavidez family, digital image, Ancestry.com; and Montejano, Anglos and Mexicans, 50–74.

26. Alonzo, Tejano Legacy, 95–143, 161–181, percentage on 163.

27. Alonzo, Tejano Legacy, Hidalgo example on 267; Martha Menchaca, The Mexican American Experience in Texas: Citizenship, Segregation, and the Struggle for Equality (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2022), 90; and Montejano, Anglos and Mexicans, 72–73, quoted on 72, Hidalgo example on 52.

28. “From the Rio Grande and Mexico,” Galveston Daily News, September 30, 1869, 2; and Alonzo, Tejano Legacy.

29. Warranty Deed, Nicholas Benavides to Thaddeus Rhodes, September 7, 1876, book DR, vol. B, pg. 256, Hidalgo County Clerk, available at: https://hidalgo.tx.publicsearch.us/.

30. Hoyt Hager, “Mexican-American to Lead,” Corpus Christi Caller, May 19, 1970, 16B; Myra McIlvain, “Texas’ Magic Valley,” Hondo Anvil Herald, March 5, 1981, 13; Thaddeus Rhodes, Appointments of U.S. Postmasters, 1832–1971, Records of the Post Office Department, Record Group No. 28, Series M841, Roll Number 124, National Archives, Washington, DC, digital image, Ancestry.com; and “Relampago Park, Marker to Be Dedicated,” The Monitor (McAllen, TX), May 13, 1981, 25.

31. Murphy Givens, “Mexico Blamed Texas for Banditry on the Border,” Corpus Christi Caller-Times, July 17, 2013, 9A; Alonzo, Tejano Legacy, 131, 137, 177 for tax sale, 222–223, 250–251; Reports Of The Committee Of Investigation Sent In 1873 By The Mexican Government To The Frontier Of Texas (New York: Baker & Godwin, 1875); and 1880 U.S. Census, Non-population Schedules, Texas, 1850–1880, Agricultural Production Schedule, Relampago Rancho, pg. 1, Enumeration District No. 63, Rhodes Family, digital image, Ancestry.com. Land transactions available through Hidalgo County Clerk: https://hidalgo.tx.publicsearch.us/.

32. Texas, Death Certificates, 1903–1982, Wharton County, 1963, Jul.–Sept., no. 54273, Salvador Benavidez, died July 13, 1963, digital image, Ancestry.com; DeWitt County, Texas, marriage certificate no. 825 (1900), Salvador Benavidez and Ysabel Cisneros, DeWitt County Clerk, Cuero, Texas; 1900 US Census, DeWitt County, Texas, Population Schedule, Precinct 1, Sheet 6, Dwelling 108, Family 109, Cisneros family, digital image, Ancestry.com; 1920 US Census, DeWitt County, Texas, Population Schedule, Justice Precinct 3, Sheet 11B, Dwelling 188, Family 194, Benavidez family, digital image, Ancestry.com; and St. Michael Parish, Cuero, TX, Roll #111, Book #5, starting May 3, 1908, Baptismal Record, Salvador Benavidez, October 11, 1912, digital image, Familysearch.com.

33. DeWitt County Historical Commission, History of DeWitt County, 29–30; James E. Sherow, The Chisholm Trail: Joseph McCoy’s Great Gamble (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2018), 13–29; and William Cronon, Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West (New York: Norton, 1991), 207–259.

34. US Bureau of the Census, 1880 Census of the Population: Vol. 3, Report on the Productions of Agriculture, Report on Cattle, Sheep, and Swine (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1883), 21; and Historical Commission, “The Chisolm Trail: A Guide for Heritage Travelers,” pamphlet produced by the Chisholm Trail Heritage Museum, Cuero, TX, 2017.

35. F. S. Stockdale, “The Proposition,” San Antonio Daily Express, August 27, 1871, 2; “Western Texas and Its Railway,” San Antonio Express, July 21, 1874, 2; DeWitt County Historical Commission, History of DeWitt County, 28 and 57; US Bureau of the Census, 1880 Census: Vol. 1, Population, Table II: Population of Each State and Territory by Counties, 79; US Bureau of the Census, 1910 Census of the Population: Vol. 3, Population Reports by States, Nebraska-Wyoming (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1913), 781, and 1910 Census, Vol. 1, Population, 244. Hispanic or Latino residents were classified as white.

36. DeWitt County Historical Commission, History of DeWitt County; and US Bureau of the Census, 1910 Census, Vol. 1, Population, 135.

37. Texas Historical Records Survey, “DeWitt County,” 9–12; US Bureau of the Census, 1910 Census, Vol. 7, Agriculture Reports by States, with Statistics for Counties, Nebraska-Wyoming, Alaska, Hawaii, Porto Rico, 637–638, 660–661, 682–683.

38. US Bureau of the Census, 1910 Census, Vol. 7, Agriculture Reports by States, 637–638 and 660–661; Neil Foley, The White Scourge: Mexicans, Blacks, and Poor Whites in Texas Cotton Culture (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1997), 16–39, quotes taken from 36–38; and Weber, From South Texas to the Nation, 11–40.

39. Medal, 3; Foley, White Scourge, 17–92; David Eugene Conrad, The Forgotten Farmers: The Story of Sharecroppers in the New Deal (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1965), 1–18; and Montejano, Anglos and Mexicans, 169–178.

40. US Bureau of the Census, 1910 Census, Vol. 7, 637–638, 660, and 682; President’s Commission on Migratory Labor, Migratory Labor in American Agriculture (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1951), 144–151; and Foley, White Scourge, 141–162.

41. Foley, White Scourge, 141–162; and Eugene Benavidez, interview by William Sturkey, Richmond, TX, December 18, 2016, transcript in author’s possession.

42. Weber, From South Texas to the Nation, 41–71.

43. Weber, From South Texas to the Nation, 41–71; Foley, White Scourge, 40–63; Foley, Mexicans in the Making of America, 39–63; and Menchaca, Mexican American Experience in Texas, 75–112, covenant on 106.

44. DeWitt County Historical Commission, History of DeWitt County, 52; Charles C. Alexander, The Ku Klux Klan in the Southwest (Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 1965), 36–54 and 107–128, membership figures on 53; and Martinez, Injustice Never Leaves You, 172–226.

45. Texas, Death Certificates, 1903–1982, DeWitt County, 1918, Oct.–Dec., no. 48983, Isabel Cisneros, died November 16, 1918, digital image, Ancestry.com; Texas, Death Certificates, 1903–1982, DeWitt County, 1918, Oct.–Dec., no. 49024, Rafaela Benavidez, died November 21, 1918, digital image, Ancestry.com; Texas, Death Certificates, 1903–1982, DeWitt County, 1918, Oct.–Dec., no. 55349, Eugenio Benavidez, died December 7, 1918, digital image, Ancestry.com; and Alison Medley, “Here’s How Houston Handled the Horrific Spanish Flu Pandemic 100 Years Ago,” Houston Chronicle, March 13, 2020, www.chron.com/local/article/Here-s-how-Houston-handled-the-horrific-Spanish-15126650.php.

46. DeWitt County, Texas, marriage certificate no. 103 (1919), Salvador Benavidez and Angelita Cisneros, DeWitt County Clerk, Cuero, Texas; Texas, Death Certificates, 1903–1982, Wharton County, 1946, July–Sept., no. 39101, Angelita Benavidez, died August 3, 1946, digital image, Ancestry.com; 1920 US Census, DeWitt County, Texas, Population Schedule, Justice Precinct 3, Sheet 11B, Dwelling 188, Family 194, Benavidez family, digital image, Ancestry.com; and Texas, Death Certificates, 1903–1982, DeWitt County, 1921, Jan.–Mar., no. 980, Gumecinda Garcia, died January 22, 1921, digital image, Ancestry.com.

47. Reverse Index to Deeds, DeWitt County, H. W. Wallace to Salvador Benavides, book 76, page 604, courthousedirect.com.

48. Robb Walsh, The Tex-Mex Cookbook (Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed, 2004); Guadalupe San Miguel Jr., Tejano Proud: Tex-Mex Music in the Twentieth Century (College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press, 2002), 3–36; and Wilhelmina Beane, Texas Thirties (San Antonio, TX: Naylor Company, 1963), 4.

49. DeWitt County Historical Commission, History of DeWitt County, 108–110 and 202; Henry Wolff Jr., “Inn’s History Traced,” Victoria Advocate, September 15, 1982, 6; and Mike Forman, “Where the Mustangs Roamed,” Victoria Advocate, July 24, 2001, 17H.

50. Salvador and Teresa Benavidez wedding photo; St. Michael Parish, Cuero, TX, Roll #111, Book #4, starting June 17, 1908, Marriages, pg. 24, Nicholas Benavidez and Alexandria Gonzalez, January 18, 1924, digital image, Familysearch.com; and St. Michael Parish, Cuero, TX, Roll #111, Book #1, Communions, starting June 1919, Teresa Perez, April 17, 1924, digital image, Familysearch.com.

51. Coahuila, Mexico, Civil Registration Births, 1861–1930, pg. 116, Teresa Perez, born July 12, 1911, digital image, Ancestry.com; and Medal, 1–3, quoted on 2 and 1.

52. Medal, quoted on 2; 1920 US Census, DeWitt County, Texas, Population Schedule, Yorktown, Sheet 14B, Dwelling 327, Family 347, Perez family, digital image, Ancestry.com; and 1930 US Census, DeWitt County, Texas, Population Schedule, Cuero, Sheet 9B, Dwelling 233, Family 237, Perez family, digital image, Ancestry.com.

53. Medal, quoted on 2.

54. DeWitt County, Texas, marriage certificate no. 289 (1934), Salvador Benavidez and Teresita Perez, DeWitt County Clerk, Cuero, Texas; Our Lady of Guadalupe, Cuero, TX, Box #5, Roll #105, Book #1, September, 5 1925, pg. 41, Salvador Benavidez and Teresa Perez, October 7, 1934, digital image, Familysearch.com; and US Department of Commerce, State Personal Income: 1929–1982 (Washington, DC: US Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis, 1984), 8.

55. Medal, 1–4.

56. Texas State Department of Health, certificate of birth number 14231 (orig., August 5, 1935, amended January 24, 1968), Roy Benavidez, Bureau of Vital Statistics, DeWitt County, copy in author’s possession; Our Lady of Guadalupe, Cuero, TX, Box #5, Roll #105, Book #1, starting September 5, 1925, Registrum Baptismorum, pg. 158, #3023, Raul Benavidez, November, 1935, digital image, Familysearch.com; and Our Lady of Guadalupe, Cuero, TX, Box #5, Roll #105, Book #1, starting September 5, 1925, Registrum Baptismorum, pg. 219, #3267, Rogelio Benavidez, December, 1937, digital image, Familysearch.com.

57. Medal, 4–5; Pauline R. Kibbe, Latin Americans in Texas (Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 1946), 126; and Helen Bynum, Spitting Blood: The History of Tuberculosis (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012).

58. Medal, 4–5; and DeWitt County, Texas, Probate Record, Minute Book Z, Application of Salvador Benavidez Jr. to Adjudged a Tuberculosis Patient, 320–321, DeWitt County Clerk, Cuero, Texas.

59. Texas State Tuberculosis Sanitorium Booklet, Texas Disability History Collection, University of Texas at Arlington Libraries, Special Collections, https://library.uta.edu/txdisabilityhistory/doc/20066962; “State Tuberculosis Sanatorium,” Grand Prairie Daily News, August 21, 1936, 3; “Texas Tuberculosis Fight Unchallenged,” Austin American-Statesman, June 21, 1931, 20.

60. DeWitt County, Texas, Probate Record, Minute Book 27, Application of Salvador Benavidez Jr. to Adjudged a Tuberculosis Patient, 57–58, DeWitt County Clerk, Cuero, Texas.

61. Medal, quoted on 4.

62. Medal, quoted on 4–5; and Texas, Death Certificates, 1903–1982, DeWitt County, 1938, Oct.–Dec., no. 49750, Salvador Benavides, died November 7, 1938, digital image, Ancestry.com.

1 

Chapter 2: Fields

1. “Cuero Population,” Victoria Advocate, June 5, 1940, 4; Mrs. George J. Schleicher, “Historical Sketch of Cuero,” July 14, 1923, Vertical Files—Cuero, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, Austin, TX; Texas Historical Records Survey, “DeWitt County,” 19; DeWitt County Historical Commission, History of DeWitt County, 88–94; and Sheets 1–12, Cuero, TX, April 1922, Sanborn.

2. Harry C. Putman, “Your Thanksgiving Dinners Come from Here,” Texas Preview, November 1951, Vertical Files—Cuero, Briscoe Center; “Cuero’s Turkey Trot Carnival,” Houston Post, October 6, 1912, 11; “That Cuero Turkey Trot,” Austin Statesman, November 30, 1912, 4; and Isabella Kruse Schaffner, Turkeys in Texas: A History of the Turkey Industry in Texas (San Antonio, TX: Naylor, 1954).

3. “Governors Party to Cuero,” Austin Statesman, November 19, 1913, 4; Putman, “Your Thanksgiving Dinners”; Scott W. Wright, “It’s Turkey Time in Cuero,” Austin American-Statesman, October 14, 1995, A1; “1936 Turkey Trot to Be Centennial Feature,” Cuero Record, Vertical Files—Cuero, Briscoe Center; and “Cuero’s Turkey Trot Declared Best Ever Held,” Austin American, November 12, 1940, Vertical Files—Cuero, Briscoe Center.

4. “Mountain Lion Is Seen Near Cuero,” Victoria Advocate, May 11, 1936, 3; and Joy W. Arnold, “Interesting Facts about Cuero and Territory,” Cuero Record, December 31, 1935, Vertical Files—Cuero, Briscoe Center.

5. Linda Gordon, Pitied but Not Entitled: Single Mothers and the History of Welfare, 1890–1935 (New York: Free Press, 1994).

6. Medal, 4–5; Gordon, Pitied but Not Entitled; and US Census Bureau, 1940 Census of the Population: Vol 3, The Labor Force (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1943), 526.

7. Our Lady of Guadalupe, Cuero, TX, Box #5, Roll #105, Book #1, starting September 5, 1925, Matrimoniorum Registrum, pg. 47, Pablo Chavez and Erenea Aguilar, June 14, 1936, digital image, Familysearch.com; Texas, Death Certificates, 1903–1982, DeWitt County, 1937, April–June, no. 25560, Erania Aguilar, died May 3, 1937, digital image, Ancestry.com; and DeWitt County, Texas, marriage certificate no. 831 (1940) Pablo Chavez and Theresa Perez [sic], DeWitt County Clerk, Cuero, Texas.

8. Medal, 4–7, quoted on 4 and 6.

9. Medal, 6.

10. Medal, 7.

11. Medal.

12. Medal.

13. Medal, 7–8; Sister Elizabeth Riebschlaeger, interview by William Sturkey, San Antonio, TX, August 2, 2018, transcript in author’s possession; and Sheets 1 and 5, Cuero, TX, April 1922, Sanborn.

14. Medal, 6–9; and Three Wars, quoted on 76 and 77.

15. Three Wars, quoted on 76.

16. Medal, 6–9.

17. Medal, 8.

18. Medal, 8–10; and Three Wars, quoted on 76–77.

19. Medal, 8–10; and Three Wars, quoted on 76–77.

20. 1940 US Census, Wharton County, Texas, Population Schedule, Other Places, Sheet 7A, Family 148, Benavidez family, digital image, Ancestry.com.

21. Alonzo, Tejano Legacy, 115–118; and Foley, White Scourge, 145.

22. Our Lady of Guadalupe, Cuero, TX, Box #5, Roll #105, Book #1, starting September 5, 1925, Matrimoniorum Registrum, pg. 60, Pablo Chavez and Teresa Perez, October 29, 1943, digital image, Familysearch.com; Our Lady of Guadalupe, Cuero, TX, Box #5, Roll #105, Book #1, starting September 5, 1925, Registrum Baptismorum, pg. 351, #3794, Maria Guadalupe Chavez, November 6, 1943, digital image, Familysearch.com; and Our Lady of Guadalupe, Cuero, TX, Box #5, Roll #105, Book #1, starting September 5, 1925, Matrimoniorum Registrum, pg. 60, Pablo Chavez and Teresa Perez, October 29, 1943, digital image, Familysearch.com.

23. Eugene Benavidez, interview; and Medal, quoted on 5.

24. 1940 US Census, Wharton County, Texas, Population Schedule, Other Places, Sheet 7A, Family 148, Benavidez family, digital image, Ancestry.com; and Texas, Death Certificates, 1903–1982, Wharton County, 1940, April–June, no. 30651, Salvador Benavidez, died June 19, 1940, digital image, Ancestry.com.

25. Eugene Benavidez, interview.

26. Eugene Benavidez, interview.

27. Wharton County Historical Commission, Wharton County Pictorial History, 1846–1946 (Austin, TX: Eakin, 1993); Paul N. Spellman, Images of America: Wharton (Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 2010), 25–42; and Stephens, Texas, 24–25.

28. Wharton County Historical Commission, Wharton County Pictorial History, 78–86; Frank P. Lund, “The Danevang Colony,” Houston Post, November 6, 1911, 18; and Allan O. Kownslar, The European Texans (College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press, 2004), 69–77. Purchase agreements found in the collections of the Danish Heritage Museum of Danevang, Danevang, TX.

29. Conrad, Forgotten Farmers, 64–82; Foley, White Scourge, $50 million on 178; Keith J. Volanto, Texas, Cotton, and the New Deal (College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press, 2005), especially 125–141, nonowner figures on 7; and US Bureau of the Census, 1940 Census of the Population: Vol. 3, The Labor Force, 360–377.

30. US Bureau of the Census, 1940 Census of the Population: Vol. 3, The Labor Force, 476–495.

31. US Census Bureau, “Cotton Ginning—Crop of 1900,” Census Bulletin No. 98, September 28, 1901, 2.

32. President’s Commission on Migratory Labor, Migratory Labor in American Agriculture, 1–19; and Selden C. Menefee, “Mexican Migratory Workers of South Texas,” Works Progress Administration, Division of Research (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1941).

33. Weber, From South Texas to the Nation, 41–75; Zaragosa Vargas, Proletarians of the North: A History of Mexican Industrial Workers in Detroit and the Midwest, 1917–1933 (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1993), 13–55, quoted on 18; and Candy Hamilton, Footprints in the Sugar: A History of the Great Western Sugar Company (Ontario, OR: Hamilton Bates, 2009), 255–350, labor agent figures on 291.

34. President’s Commission on Migratory Labor, Migratory Labor in American Agriculture, 3; Medal, 14–19; and US Census Bureau, 1940 Census of the United States: Agriculture, Vol. II, Part 2, 528–529.

35. Eugene Benavidez, interview; Medal, quoted on 16; and Menefee, “Mexican Migratory Workers,” 13–26.

36. Bert Nelson, “History of the Fort Collins Factory District, The Great Western Sugar Company, 1903–1955,” box 33, folder 50, GWS Records; Hamilton, Footprints in the Sugar, 255–350; Weber, From South Texas to the Nation, 60–66; Menefee, “Mexican Migratory Workers,” x; William John May Jr., The Great Western Sugarlands: The History of the Great Western Sugar Company and the Economic Development of the Great Plains (New York: Garland, 1989); and US Census Bureau, 1930 Census of the Population: Volume 3, Population, Reports by States (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1932), 291.

37. Mae M. Ngai, Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2004), 17–75; Natalia Molina, How Race Is Made in America: Immigration, Citizenship, and the Historical Power of Racial Scripts (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2013), especially 19–42; and Montejano, Anglos and Mexicans, 182–191.

38. Ngai, Impossible Subjects, 400,000 on 72; and Foley, White Scourge, 250,000 on 175.

39. Foley, White Scourge, quoted on 207; and Deborah Cohen, Braceros: Migrant Citizens and Transnational Subjects in the Postwar United States and Mexico (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2011).

40. Cohen, Braceros, 500,000 on 30; Carl Allsup, The American G.I. Forum: Origins and Evolution (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1982), 112–127; and Henry A. J. Ramos, The American GI Forum: In Pursuit of the Dream, 1948–1983 (Houston, TX: Arte Público, 1998), 65–85.

41. Eugene Benavidez, interview; Menefee, “Mexican Migratory Workers,” 19–26; Steven F. Mehls, The New Empire of the Rockies: A History of Northeast Colorado (Denver, CO: Bureau of Land Management, 1984), quoted on 142; United States Beet Sugar Association, The Beet Sugar Story (Washington, DC: United States Beet Sugar Association, 1959); various images found in box 8, folder 26, GWS Records; Great Western Sugar Exhibit, Loveland Museum, Loveland, CO; and US Census Bureau, 1940 Census: Agriculture, Vol. 1, Part 6, 224.

42. United States Department of Labor, “Wartime Wages, Income, and Wage Regulation in Agriculture,” Bulletin no. 883 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1946), 12; and President’s Commission on Migratory Labor, Migratory Labor in American Agriculture, 119–135.

43. Medal, 16–18, quoted on 17; Menefee, “Mexican Migratory Workers,” 19–26; Rubén Donato, Mexicans and Hispanos in Colorado Schools and Communities, 1920–1960 (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2007), 13–28; President’s Commission on Migratory Labor, Migratory Labor in American Agriculture, 137–151, quoted on 154; and various images found in box 1, folder 16, and box 8, folder 7, GWS Records.

44. Donato, Mexicans and Hispanos, 29–88, quoted on 56.

45. Medal, 16–18.

46. Medal, 16–18; Eugene Benavidez, interview; and Menefee, “Mexican Migratory Workers,” 26–35.

47. Volanto, Texas, Cotton, and the New Deal, quoted on 9; Medal, 16–18, quoted on 17; and Eugene Benavidez, interview.

48. Medal, 16–18; and Eugene Benavidez, interview.

49. President’s Commission on Migratory Labor, Migratory Labor in American Agriculture, 78–83, quoted on 85 and 16.

50. Texas Historical Commission, Texas in World War II (Austin, TX: Texas Historical Commission, 2005); and Joanne Rao Sánchez, “The Latinas of World War II: From Familial Shelter to Expanding Horizons,” in Maggie Rivas-Rodríguez and Emilio Zamora, eds., Beyond the Latino World War II Hero: The Social and Political Legacy of a Generation (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2009), 5 percent on 76.

51. By 1954, 95 percent of Great Western Sugar Company beets were harvested by machines. GW Sugar Company, “GW,” fiftieth anniversary publication, 1955, box 36, folder 1, GWS Records. By 1964, 78 percent of United States cotton was harvested by machines. Foley, White Scourge, 207.

52. Ira Katznelson, Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time (New York: Liveright, 2013), and especially 148–182 and 227–275; and President’s Commission on Migratory Labor, Migratory Labor in American Agriculture, 3–5, quoted on 5.

53. Medal, 16–18; Eugene Benavidez, interview; and US Census Bureau, 1950 Census of the Population: Vol. 1, Number of Inhabitants (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1952), 43–28.

54. Medal, 19–20; and Eugene Benavidez, interview.

55. Medal, 19; and US Census Bureau, 1900 Census of the Population: Vol. 1, Population, Part 1 (Washington, DC: United States Census Office, 1901), 786.

56. Medal, 19–21, quoted on 21; and Eugene Benavidez, interview.

57. Eugene Benavidez, interview; and Montejano, Anglos and Mexicans, 225–228.

58. Medal, quoted on 22 and 14.

59. Medal, quoted on 16.

60. Texas, Death Certificates, 1903–1982, DeWitt County, 1946, July–Sept., no. 40526, Teresa Perez Chavez, died September 25, 1946, digital image, Ancestry.com; Medal, 11–13; and Texas, Death Certificates, 1903–1982, DeWitt County, 1945, April–June, no. 25025, Bellatres Chavez, died June 25, 1945, digital image, Ancestry.com.

61. Medal, quoted on 11.

1 

Chapter 3: A Leap of Faith

1. US Census Bureau, 1950 Census of the Population: Vol. 1, Number of Inhabitants, 43–28; The WPA Guide to Texas (Austin: Texas Monthly Press, 1986, orig., 1940), 647; and Wharton County Historical Commission, Wharton County Pictorial History, 110–132.

2. Eugene Benavidez, interview.

3. Eugene Benavidez, interview; and Medal, 12.

4. Medal, 12–13.

5. Medal, 12–14.

6. Medal.

7. Texas, Death Certificates, 1903–1982, Wharton County, 1963, Jul.–Sept., no. 54273, Salvador Benavidez, died July 13, 1963, digital image, Ancestry.com; and Medal, 12–15.

8. Medal, 14.

9. Medal, 14–15, quoted on 14.

10. Medal, 15.

11. Mario T. García, Mexican Americans: Leadership, Ideology, & Identity, 1930–1960 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1989); and Philis M. Barragán Goetz, Reading, Writing, and Revolution: Escuelitas and the Emergence of a Mexican American Identity in Texas (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2020), 125–169.

12. Benjamin Márquez, LULAC: The Evolution of a Mexican American Political Organization (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1993), 15–38; “Lulacs Now Boast 5,000,” Valley Morning Star, October 3, 1937, 7; García, Mexican Americans, 25–61; and Aaron E. Sánchez, Homeland: Ethnic Mexican Belonging Since 1900 (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2021), 41–67.

13. Márquez, LULAC, 15–38, quoted on 20; and Sánchez, Homeland, 100–109, quoted on 104.

14. Márquez, LULAC, 15–38; and Sánchez, Homeland, 100–109. For more on the labor-based leftist Mexican American organizations of the era, see García, Mexican Americans, 145–227.

15. Márquez, LULAC, 15–38; “Lulacs Now Boast 5,000,” quoted on 7; and Sánchez, Homeland, 43.

16. Sánchez, Homeland, 47–67.

17. Darlene Clark Hine, Black Victory: The Rise and Fall of the White Primary in Texas (Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 2003, orig., 1979); and Kibbe, Latin Americans in Texas, 227–229.

18. Montejano, Anglos and Mexicans, 262–271, 60 percent on 247–249, quoted on 193.

19. Montejano, Anglos and Mexicans.

20. Montejano, Anglos and Mexicans, 15–16.

21. Montejano, Anglos and Mexicans, 21.

22. Montejano, Anglos and Mexicans, 22.

23. Medal, 14, quoted on 21.

24. Medal, quoted on 21.

25. Medal, quoted on 21 and 22.

26. Medal, 12–22, quoted on 19; Albert C. Gregurek Questionnaire, box 4Zc197, folder 4, RBP; and Eugene Benavidez, interview.

27. Medal, 12–22, quoted on 19.

28. Medal, 21–23, quoted on 22.

29. Medal, quoted on 23; and Dub King, “Worley Impresses with Knockout,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram, February 13, 1948, 13.

30. Medal, 21–23; “Wharton County Sheriffs, 1846–1996,” list on display at the Wharton County Historical Museum in Wharton, Texas; and “T. W. ‘Buckshot’ Lane,” obituary, Victoria Advocate, July 12, 1991, 12A.

31. Buck Lane to J. J. Herrera, Wharton, TX, May 14, 1949, digital image, Houston Metropolitan Research Center at Houston Public Library, https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth249334/m1/1/, accessed December 14, 2020; and John J. Herrera Papers Finding Aid, Houston Metropolitan Research Center, Houston Public Library, Houston, TX.

32. Medal, quoted on 22; and Eugene Benavidez, interview.

33. Medal, 23–24; and Eugene Benavidez, interview.

34. Medal, 23–24.

35. Medal, 23–24, quoted on 24; and BMR.

36. Medal, 24–29, quoted on 24; and Vera Schramm Questionnaire, box 4Zc197, folder 4, RBP.

37. Medal, 25.

38. Medal, 25; and “Rev. A. F. Haddock—Obituary,” Victoria Advocate, May 28, 1988, 12.

39. Medal, quoted on 29.

40. Medal, 29–31, quoted on 30 and 61; and 1940 US Census, San Patricio County, Texas, Population Schedule, Justice Precinct 1, Sheet 15b, Dwelling 4, Family 385, Coy family, digital image, Ancestry.com.

41. Medal, 29–30 and 63, quoted on 30 and 63, respectively.

42. Medal, 29–30.

43. Medal; Yvette Garcia, interview by William Sturkey, El Campo, TX, December 4, 2015, transcript in author’s possession; and Denise Prochazka, interview by William Sturkey, El Campo, TX, July 16, 2016, transcript in author’s possession.

44. Allsup, American G.I. Forum, 15–20; Richard Griswold Del Castillo, “The War and Changing Identities: Personal Transformations,” in Richard Griswold Del Castillo, ed., World War II and Mexican American Civil Rights (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2008), 50; and Sánchez, “Latinas of World War II,” 63–89.

45. Ronald Takaki, Double Victory: A Multicultural History of America in World War II (Boston, MA: Little, Brown, 2000), quoted on 83; and Griswold Del Castillo, “War and Changing Identities,” quoted on 51.

46. Takaki, Double Victory, quoted on 89, 87–88, and 83; and Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, “Introduction,” in Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, ed., Mexican Americans & World War II (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2005).

47. Richard Steele, “The Federal Government Discovers Mexican Americans,” in Griswold Del Castillo, World War II, 19–33, quoted on 24; and Foley, Mexicans in the Making of America, 64–95. For testimonies of wartime discrimination toward Mexican Americans, see Appendix G: “Affidavits of Mexican Americans Regarding Discrimination in Texas During World War II,” in Griswold Del Castillo, World War II, 189–206.

48. Macario García, Medal of Honor Citation, Congressional Medal of Honor Society, www.cmohs.org/recipients/marcario-garcia; and Michael A. Olivas, “The ‘Trial of the Century’ That Never Was: Staff Sgt. Macario Garcia, the Congressional Medal of Honor, and the Oasis Café,” Indiana Law Journal, vol. 83, no. 4 (Fall 2008), 1391–1403.

49. Allsup, American G.I. Forum, 30–38; Ramos, American GI Forum, 1–17; and Ernest Morgan, “A Man of Controversy,” Corpus Christi Caller-Times, December 18, 1966, 4B for Martin Luther King comparison.

50. Allsup, American G.I. Forum, 33–38; and Ramos, American GI Forum, 1–17.

51. Allsup, American G.I. Forum, 36–51.

52. Ramos, American G.I. Forum, 1–64, Raul Yzaguirre quoted on vii.

53. Steven Rosales, Soldados Razos at War: Chicano Politics, Identity, and Masculinity in the U.S. Military from World War II to Vietnam (Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press, 2017), 54–71 and 118–136.

54. Medal, 21–31, quoted on 21–22.

55. Glen Ross, “Texas National Guard Traces History to Battle of Alamo,” El Paso Times, March 4, 1951, 33; “Ainsworth Says Security Costs Less Than War Loss,” Corpus Christi Caller-Times, September 6, 1949, 24; and Annual Report of the Adjutant General, August 31, 1950, box 401-899, folder 20, Texas Adjutant General’s Department Texas National Guard Records, Texas State Archives.

56. “Gen. K. L. Berry Freezes Discharges from All the Texas National Guard,” Hood County News-Tablet, July 27, 1950, 4; “Regular Armed Force Service Only Guard Release Excuse,” Corpus Christi Caller-Times, January 19, 1951, 8; and Bruce A. Olson, “Texas National Guard,” Texas State Historical Association Handbook of Texas, www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/texas-national-guard, accessed June 7, 2021.

57. “Members of America’s Defense Team—Ad,” Waxahachie Daily Light, February 1, 1950, 4; “Audie Joins Guard, Sworn in as Captain,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram, July 15, 1950, 1; and copy of Audie Murphy poster on display at Texas Military Forces Museum, Austin, TX.

58. Medal, quoted on 30; and Benavidez Guard File.

1 

Chapter 4: Cold Warrior

1. Medal, 31; Benavidez Guard File; and William C. Barnard, “Many Air Fields Are Reactivated,” Longview Sunday News-Journal, April 11, 1948, 2.

2. Melvyn P. Leffler, A Preponderance of Power: National Security, the Truman Administration, and the Cold War (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1992); and Odd Arne Westad, The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 8–38.

3. Benavidez Guard File; Annual Report of the Adjutant General, August 31, 1950, box 401-899, folder 20, Texas Adjutant General’s Department Texas National Guard Records, Texas State Archives; and Medal, 30–31.

4. Medal, 30–35, quoted on 30; and “Recruiting Training Is Investigated,” Billings Gazette, April 16, 1951, 7.

5. Medal, quoted on 30 and 31.

6. Medal.

7. Medal, 30–33, quoted on 32; BMR; and US Department of Commerce, State Personal Income, 9.

8. Medal, 30–33, quoted on 31.

9. Medal, 31–32.

10. Medal, 32; Benavidez Guard File; and Art Keinarth Questionnaire, box 4Zc197, folder 4, RBP.

11. Medal, 32–33.

12. Three Wars, 87.

13. Medal, 32–33, quoted on 33.

14. Medal, 34; Muhammad Ali and Richard Durham, The Greatest: My Own Story (New York: Random House, 1975), 162; and personal observations made on December 5, 2015.

15. Benavidez Military File; and 1955 Military Pay Chart, Defense Finance and Accounting Service, www.dfas.mil/Portals/98/MilPayTable1955.pdf, accessed November 2, 2021.

16. Bruce Cumings, The Korean War: A History (New York: Modern Library, 2010), killed statistic on 35; and Bruce Cumings, Korea’s Place in the Sun: A Modern History (New York: Norton, 2005), especially 237–298.

17. Fredrik Logevall, Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America’s Vietnam (New York: Random House, 2012), 3–91, two million on 81.

18. Logevall, Embers of War, 67–91.

19. Ho Chi Minh, “Speech at the Tours Congress” and “Speech at the Founding of the Communist Party of Indo-China,” in Jack Woods, ed., Ho Chi Minh: Selected Articles and Speeches, 1920–1967 (New York: International, 1969), 13–14 and 26–28; and Logevall, Embers of War, 67–120.

20. “The Vietnamese Declaration of Independence,” in Robert McMahon, ed., Major Problems in the History of the Vietnam War: Documents and Essays (Lexington, MA: Heath, 1990), 35–36; Ho Chi Minh, “Speech Delivered in the First Days of the Resistance War in South Viet Nam,” in Woods, Ho Chi Minh, 34–35; and Logevall, Embers of War, 67–120.

21. Logevall, Embers of War, 123–701.

22. Medal, 37.

23. Medal, 37–39, quoted on 38.

24. Medal, 38.

25. Medal, 38.

26. Edwin R. Andrews, “Your Soldier Sons,” Honolulu Star-Bulletin, December 24, 1955, 4–5; and Medal, quoted on 35.

27. Medal, xv and 38–39.

28. Medal, 38–40.

29. Record of Assignments, BMR; and Medal, 40–41.

30. Medal, 40; and Tony La Russa quoted in Bill Pennington, Billy Martin: Baseball’s Flawed Genius (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015), xi and 110–113.

31. Medal, 41.

32. Medal, 41.

33. Medal.

34. Record of Assignments, BMR; Medal, 43; and Richard E. Ecker, Korean Battle Chronology: Unit-by-Unit United States Casualty Figures and Medal of Honor Citations (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2005), 186.

35. Record of Assignments, BMR; Medal, 43; and Cumings, Korea’s Place in the Sun, 299–341.

36. Medal, 43 and 44.

37. Medal, 45.

38. Medal, 46–48.

39. Medal, 46.

40. Medal, 61.

41. Record of Assignments, BMR; 180,000 from Walter Trohan, “Yank Troops Abroad Drain on Taxpayers,” Chicago Daily Tribune, March 11, 1958, 1; Hope M. Harrison, Driving the Soviets Up the Wall: Soviet-East German Relations, 1953–1961 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003), 49–138, 500,000 on 102; and Medal, quoted on 55.

42. Medal, 56–59, quoted on 56; Three Wars, 84–86 and 89–96; and BMR.

43. Commanding Officer to Roy Benavidez, APO 742, September 27, 1957, BMR.

44. Medal, 56–62, quoted on 61 and 56, respectively.

45. 1955 El Campo Ech-O, digital images, Ancestry.com.

46. BMR.

47. Medal, 62–63, quoted on 62.

48. Medal.

49. Medal.

50. BMR; 1958 Military Pay Chart, Defense Finance and Accounting Service, www.dfas.mil/Portals/98/MilPayTable1958.pdf, accessed November 2, 2021; and Medal, 62–63, quoted on 63.

51. Medal, 62–64, quoted on 63.

52. Medal, 63–65, quoted on 64; and Roy and Lala Benavidez wedding photos, June 7, 1959, copy in author’s possession.

53. Medal, 63–65, quoted on 64.

54. BMR; and Medal, 63–66, quoted on 64 and Westmoreland on 66.

55. BMR; 1958 Military Pay Chart; and Medal, quoted on 67.

56. Medal, 67–69.

57. Three Wars, 113–115, quoted on 114; Medal, 67–69; and 82nd Airborne Division, Certificate of Completion, May 12, 1961, box 4Zc194, folder 56, RBP.

58. William MacDougall, “Paratroopers Set for Battle,” Los Angeles Times, March 26, 1962, 2; and Leroy Thompson, The All Americans: The 82nd Airborne (New York: David & Charles, 1988).

59. Serhii Plokhy, Nuclear Folly: A History of the Cuban Missile Crisis (New York: Norton, 2021); Harrison, Driving the Soviets; Frederick Kempe, Berlin, 1961: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth (New York: Putnam, 2011); Odd Arne Westad, The Cold War: A World History (New York: Basic, 2017); and Neil Sheehan, A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam (New York: Random House, 1988), figures on 43.

60. BMR; GED Completion Certificate, November 11, 1963, box 4Zc194, folder 52, RBP; and Medal, quoted on 66.

1 

Chapter 5: Land Mine

1. Three Wars, 9–19, quoted on 10.

2. Three Wars, 9–20.

3. Three Wars, quoted on 22–24; “Marines Jam Base to See Hope’s Show,” Los Angeles Times, December 25, 1968, 5; “LBJ Sends His Thanks to Bob Hope,” Miami Herald, December 30, 1965, 1; and Hedda Hopper, “Hope’s Tour May Include Son’s Base,” Los Angeles Times, August 23, 1965, C23.

4. Logevall, Embers of War, 217–546, de Lattre quoted on 283, Eisenhower quoted on 339 and 365; and Dulles quoted in Lloyd Gardner, “Introduction,” and Memo, Department of State, March 27, 1952, “Draft—Indochina Section of NSC Paper,” William Appleman Williams et al., eds., America in Vietnam: A Documentary History (New York: Norton, 1989), 121–127 and 133.

5. Logevall, Embers of War, 547–619, killed statistics on 607 and 619; Memo, Department of State, March 27, 1952, $1.2 billion on 125; and Ho Chi Minh, “Appeal Made After the Successful Conclusion of the Geneva Agreements,” in Woods, Ho Chi Minh, 91–93.

6. Logevall, Embers of War, 615–701, quoted on 669.

7. Logevall, Embers of War, 615–701, $300 million on 669, 250,000 on 677; and “The SEATO Treaty” and “SEATO in Power,” in Williams et al., America in Vietnam, 174–178 and 180–182.

8. Logevall, Embers of War, 615–701, Eisenhower quoted on 675; “Text of Eisenhower-Diem Statement,” New York Times, May 12, 1957, 25; “The Text of President Diem’s Address to Congress,” New York Times, May 10, 1957, 12; and “An Asian Liberator,” New York Times, May 10, 1957, 13.

9. Logevall, Embers of War, 674–701; and Sheehan, Bright Shining Lie, 192–196.

10. Logevall, Embers of War, 674–701, quoted on 679; and William J. Jordan, “Ferment in Asia Worries U.S.,” New York Times, November 12, 1960, 2.

11. “Kennedy Attacks Nixon ‘Weakness,’” New York Times, August 25, 1960, 1; and John F. Kennedy, “Inaugural Address,” Washington, DC, January 20, 1961, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, www.jfklibrary.org/archives/other-resources/john-f-kennedy-speeches/inaugural-address-19610120, accessed July 19, 2021.

12. Logevall, Embers of War, 702–714, 11,000 on 705; and Sheehan, Bright Shining Lie, 35–125.

13. Sheehan, Bright Shining Lie, 173–199, torture techniques on 102–103.

14. David Halberstam, “The Buddhist Crisis in Vietnam,” New York Times, September 11, 1963, 14; “Diem, Nhu Suicides,” Los Angeles Times, November 2, 1963, 1; and Logevall, Embers of War, 16,000 on 705.

15. “Transcript of President Johnson’s Address…,” New York Times, November 28, 1963, 20; and Fredrik Logevall, Choosing War: The Lost Chance for Peace and the Escalation of War in Vietnam (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1999), especially 75–192, quoted on 77.

16. Logevall, Choosing War, 193–299; and “Statement by Secretary McNamara,” August 6, 1964, box 76, folder: Gulf of Tonkin (’64–67) (2), NSF-Vietnam.

17. Paul Hendrickson, The Living and the Dead: Robert McNamara and Five Lives of a Lost War (New York: Knopf, 1996), especially 76–118; William C. Westmoreland, A Soldier Reports (New York: Da Capo, 1989, orig., 1976), 119–143; and Phillip B. Davidson, Vietnam at War: The History, 1946–1975 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 387–423.

18. Neil Sheehan et al., The Pentagon Papers: The Secret History of the Vietnam War (New York: Bantam, 1971), especially 307–458, eighteen to twenty thousand and one hundred thousand on 384; Lyndon B. Johnson, “Peace Without Conquest,” Baltimore, MD, April 7, 1965, Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library, www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/address-johns-hopkins-university-peace-without-conquest, accessed July 19, 2021; and Logevall, Embers of War, 180,000 on 714.

19. AP, “U.S. Battalions Pull Back in Vietnam Battle,” Los Angeles Times, November 17, 1965, 1; and Harold G. Moore and Joseph L. Galloway, We Were Soldiers Once… and Young (New York: Ballantine, 1992).

20. Moore and Galloway, We Were Soldiers, 234 on xxiv; Sheehan, Bright Shining Lie, 573–580; Davidson, Vietnam at War, 360–363, 1,200 on 362; American Military History, Vol. II: The United States Army in a Global Era, 1917–2008 (Washington, DC: US Army Center of Military History, 2010), 311–314; and William Anderson, “U.S. Victory Seen in Viet Fight,” Chicago Tribune, November 20, 1965, S6.

21. BMR; Medal, 70–71.

22. Eric Michael Burke, “A Brief Tactical Survey and Military Bibliography of the American War(s) in Vietnam,” unpublished manuscript in author’s possession.

23. W. P. Davidson and J. J. Zasloff, “A Profile of Viet Cong Cadres,” June 1966, RM-4983-ISA/ARPA, box 237, folder: A Profile of Vietcong Cadres, NSF-Vietnam; J. M. Carrier and C. A. H. Thomson, “Viet Cong Motivation and Morale,” May 1966, RM-4830-ISA/ARPA, box 237, folder: Viet Cong Motivation and Morale, 5/66, NSF-Vietnam; and American Military History, Vol. II, 294–297.

24. W. P. Davidson and J. J. Zasloff, “A Profile of Viet Cong Cadres,” June 1966, RM-4983-ISA/ARPA, box 237, folder: A Profile of Vietcong Cadres, NSF-Vietnam; J. M. Carrier and C. A. H. Thomson, “Viet Cong Motivation and Morale,” May 1966, RM-4830-ISA/ARPA, box 237, folder: Viet Cong Motivation and Morale, 5/66, NSF-Vietnam; American Military History, Vol. II, 294–297; and Le Ly Hayslip with Jay Wurts, When Heaven and Earth Changed Places: A Vietnamese Woman’s Journey from War to Peace (New York: Plume, 1990).

25. Medal, quoted on 76; and Three Wars, quoted on 27.

26. Medal, quoted on 75 and 71, respectively. For more, see Gregory A. Daddis, No Sure Victory: Measuring U.S. Army Effectiveness and Progress in the Vietnam War (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011).

27. Three Wars, quoted on 26; and Medal, 73–80, quoted on 81.

28. Medal, 73–80; and Three Wars, 29–43, quoted on 26 and 15, respectively.

29. Medal, 73–80, quoted on 74; and Three Wars, 32–35.

30. Medal, 73–74; and Three Wars, 29–32.

31. Medal, 82–85, quoted on 83; and Three Wars, 39–43, quoted on 39, 41, and 42.

32. Medal, 77; and Three Wars, 46–49.

33. Medal, 75; and Three Wars, 60–62, quoted on 61.

34. Medal, quoted on 77, quoted on 80; Three Wars, quoted on 39; Sheehan, Bright Shining Lie, 49–125, quoted on 90; and Andrew Wiest, Vietnam’s Forgotten Army: Heroism and Betrayal in the ARVN (New York: New York University Press, 2008), especially 11–64, two hundred thousand on 7.

35. Medal, 77–79; and Three Wars, 50–60.

36. Medal, 77–79; and Three Wars, 50–60.

37. Medal, 79–80, quoted on 79; Three Wars, 61–65, quoted on 62 and 64; and Nick Turse, Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam (New York: Picador, 2013), especially 144–191.

38. AP, “33 Refugees Die in Massacre,” Spokane Chronicle, January 19, 1966, 20; Medal, 79–80; and Three Wars, 61–65.

39. Three Wars, 61–65, quoted on 63, 64, and 65.

40. BMR; Medal, 85; and Three Wars, 33–36.

41. Medal, 84–85.

42. BMR; Medal, 87–91, quoted on 87; and Three Wars, 69–72.

43. BMR; Medal, 87–91, quoted on 87; and Three Wars, 69–72.

44. “Vietnam’s Reds Win Success in Years of War,” Philadelphia Tribune, March 24, 1966, 14; Medal, 87–89; and Three Wars, 74–75, quoted on 74.

45. Medal, 87–89; and Three Wars, 74–75.

46. Medal, 87–89, quoted on 88 and 89; and Three Wars, 74–75.

47. Medal, 90–91, quoted on 90 and 91.

48. Medal, 87–94; and Three Wars, 79–83, quoted on 82.

49. Medal, 93–98, quoted on 94; and Three Wars, 79–83.

50. Medal, 93–98, quoted on 94; and Three Wars, 79–83.

51. Medal, 93–98, quoted on 95; and Three Wars, 79–83.

52. Medal, 93–98; and Three Wars, 79–83.

53. Medal, 93–98; and Three Wars, 79–83 and 97–100.

1 

Chapter 6: Sojourn

1. BMR; and Medal, quoted on 99.

2. John G. Norris, “Army Shortly Will Open 3 New Training Centers,” Washington Post, April 9, 1966, A11; “New Army Training Centers to Turn Out 30,000 a Month,” Atlanta Journal and Atlanta Constitution, April 10, 1966, 2; “Carriers Find Short Cut to Viet Jungles,” Daily Independent (Kannapolis, NC), October 16, 1966, 3A; Don Gray, “Fort Bragg Gets Ready for Recruits,” Charlotte Observer, May 8, 1966, 1C for fifty thousand; and Don King, “Guardsmen Brave Heat, Dust, Noise—And Red Bugs,” Rocky Mount Telegram, June 26, 1966, quoted on 1B.

3. Davidson, Vietnam at War, troop figures on 395 and bombing tonnage on 394; Oleg Hoeffding, “Bombing North Vietnam,” December 1966, RM-5213-ISA, box 237, folder 7, NSF-Vietnam; and “Mr. Johnson’s Terms for Withdrawal from Vietnam,” The Guardian, September 6, 1966, 9.

4. Márquez, LULAC, 39–85; Allsup, American G.I. Forum, 98–141; Foley, Mexicans in the Making of America, 148–179; and Medal, quoted on 101.

5. “Hispanics in the Army,” US Army, www.army.mil/hispanics/history.html#:~:text=More%20than%2080%2C000%20Hispanic%2DAmericans,the%20Siege%20of%20Khe%20Sanh, accessed February 27, 2023; Steven Rosales, Soldados Razos at War: Chicano Politics, Identity, and Masculinity in the U.S. Military from World War II to Vietnam (Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press, 2017), 90–136; and Lorena Oropeza, ¡Raza Sí! ¡Guerra No!: Chicano Protest and Patriotism During the Viet Nam War Era (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2005), 58–66, Garcia quoted on 62, entertainer on 63.

6. Oropeza, ¡Raza Sí!, 1–10 and 80–201; Allsup, American G.I. Forum, 152; and David Montejano, Quixote’s Soldiers: A Local History of the Chicano Movement, 1966–1981 (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2010), especially 117–143.

7. Lea Ybarra, ed., Vietnam Veteranos: Chicanos Recall the War (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2004), quoted on 211. Also see George Mariscal, ed., Aztlán and Viet Nam: Chicano and Chicana Experiences of the War (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1999); Charley Trujillo, ed., Soldados: Chicanos in Viêt Nam (San Jose, CA: Chusma House, 1990); and Gil Dominguez, ed., They Answered the Call: Latinos in the Vietnam War (Baltimore, MD: PublishAmerica, 2004).

8. Medal, quoted on 99.

9. Medal, quoted on 100; and Three Wars, 97–98.

10. Morton Mintz, “Curb Sought on Darvon Painkiller,” Washington Post, April 26, 1976, A1; and Robert C. Wolfe, Marcus Reidenberg, and Raul H. Vispo, “Propoxyphene (Darvon®) Addiction and Withdrawal Syndrome,” Annals of Internal Medicine, vol. 70, no. 4 (April 1969), 773–776.

11. Medal, quoted on 100; and Three Wars, 1,500 and quoted on 99.

12. Medal, 100–101; and Three Wars, 98–99.

13. Medal, 100–101, doctor quoted on 100; and Three Wars, 98–99.

14. Medal, 100–101; and Three Wars, 98–99.

15. Medal, quoted on 101; and Three Wars, 99–100.

16. Medal, 100–103; and Three Wars, 99–100 and 116–120.

17. Medal, 100–103, quoted on 101; and Three Wars, 99–100 and 116–120.

18. Medal, 100–103, quoted on 101; and Three Wars, 99–100 and 116–120.

19. Medal, 100–103, quoted on 102; and Three Wars, 99–100 and 116–120, quoted on 119.

20. Medal, 100–103, quoted on 103; and Three Wars, 99–100 and 116–120, quoted on 119.

21. Medal, 100–103; and Three Wars, 99–100 and 116–120, quoted on 120.

22. Byron Sheppard to Roy Benavidez and Earle Burns, Fort Bragg, NC, November 5, 1966, and W. H. Pierce to Roy Benavidez, Fort Bragg, NC, November 5, 1966, BMR.

23. Charles M. Simpson III, Inside the Green Berets: The First Thirty Years (Novato, CA: Presidio, 1983), 19–75; and Everett Parker, “Green Berets Demonstrate Preparedness,” Orlando Evening Star, December 10, 1966, 15.

24. Hanson W. Baldwin, “Green Beret Men—How They Work,” San Antonio Express/News, August 7, 1966, 4; sales figures taken from Jack Smith, “Green Berets Offer Vietnam ‘Hero Image,’” Los Angeles Times, March 11, 1966, Part II, 1; “Obituary: Barry Sadler,” Palm Beach Post, November 7, 1989, 4B; and Christian G. Appy, American Reckoning: The Vietnam War and Our National Identity (New York: Viking, 2015), 119–130, Saturday Evening Post quoted on 120.

25. Medal, quoted on 103.

26. Medal, 103–105; and Three Wars, 120–122.

27. “John F. Kennedy Center for Special Warfare,” News & Observer, May 28, 1965, 10; and Plaster, Secret Commandos, 7.

28. Plaster, Secret Commandos, 5–23.

29. BMR; Medal, 107–109, quoted on 107; Three Wars, 123–127; Shelby L. Stanton, Green Berets at War: U.S. Army Special Forces in Southeast Asia, 1956–1975 (London: Arms and Armour, 1985), 167–170.

30. Medal, 107–109, quoted on 108; Three Wars, 123–127; Ted Gress, “U.S. Is Training New Breed of Warrior,” Lebanon Daily News, June 1, 1966, 21; Plaster, Secret Commandos, quoted on 7; and Donald Duncan, The New Legions (New York: Random House, 1967), 117–199.

31. Medal, quoted on 108; Three Wars, 123–127; and Blehm, Legend, 57–59.

32. BMR; and Cpt. Lawrence O. Dover to Roy Benavidez, Fort Bragg, NC, November 1, 1967, box 4Zc194, folder 52, RBP.

33. Hal Hendrix, “Green Beret Men Called Work Horses of Command,” Miami Herald, March 9, 1966, 1-BW; and Westad, Global Cold War, 143–152.

34. Hendrix, “Green Beret Men”; and Georgie Anne Geyer, “Green Beret Rumors Buzz,” Boston Globe, December 22, 1966, 14.

35. Medal, 110–113, quoted on 112.

36. Memo, Secretary of Defense to the President, November 1, 1967, #2a, “A Fifteen Month Program for Military Operations in Southeast Asia,” box 75, folder: Primarily McNamara Recommendations re Strategic Actions [1 of 2], NSF-Vietnam.

37. Memo, Joint Chiefs of Staff to the Secretary of Defense, October 17, 1967, #3b, “Increased Pressures on North Vietnam,” box 75, folder: Primarily McNamara Recommendations re Strategic Actions [1 of 2], NSF-Vietnam; and John Prados, The Blood Road: The Ho Chi Minh Trail and the Vietnam War (New York: Wiley, 1999).

38. Prados, Blood Road, 296–297.

39. David P. Chandler, The Tragedy of Cambodian History: Politics, War, and Revolution Since 1945 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1991), 14–45.

40. Chandler, Tragedy of Cambodian History, 46–121; William J. Rust, Eisenhower & Cambodia: Diplomacy, Covert Action, and the Origins of the Second Indochina War (Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2016); and Norodom Sihanouk, My War with the CIA: The Memoirs of Prince Norodom Sihanouk (New York: Pantheon, 1972), 92–93.

41. Chandler, Tragedy of Cambodian History, 99–107; and Sihanouk, My War with the CIA, 107–113, quoted on 113 and 131.

42. Chandler, Tragedy of Cambodian History, 140; Memo, James C. Thomson Jr. to the President, December 28, 1964, #145, “United States Relations with Cambodia,” box 236, folder: Memos 8/64–6/65, vol. III, NSF-Cambodia; and Henry Raymont, “Cambodia Recalls Envoy,” New York Times, December 13, 1963, 1.

43. Peter Grose, “Cambodia Given Apology on Raids,” New York Times, March 22, 1964, 1; Richard Eder, “U.S. Voices Regret on Cambodian Raid,” New York Times, September 24, 1966, 1; Peter Grose, “Cambodia Charge Conceded by U.S.,” New York Times, October 29, 1964, 1; and Seymour Topping, “Cambodia Breaks Tie with the U.S.,” New York Times, May 4, 1965, 1.

44. Topping, “Cambodia Breaks Tie”; Memo, White House Situation Room to the President, April 26, 1965, #140, box 236, folder: Memos 8/64–6/65, vol. III, NSF-Cambodia; Memo, White House Situation Room to the President, May 3, 1965, #135 and CIA Intelligence Memo, April 29, 1965, #138, both located in box 236, folder: Memos 8/64–6/65, vol. III, NSF-Cambodia; and Kenton J. Clymer, “The Perils of Neutrality: The Break in U.S.-Cambodian Relations, 1965,” Diplomatic History, vol. 23, no. 4 (Fall 1999), 609–631.

45. CIA Intelligence Cable, December 19, 1966, #8, “Discussion by Cambodian Government Representatives of Report on Negotiations with National Front for Liberation of South Vietnam,” box 237, folder: Cables vol. IV, 10/65–9/67, NSF-Cambodia.

46. CIA Intelligence Memo, June 13, 1966, #43, “Cambodia and the Vietnamese Communists: A New Phase?,” box 237, folder: Memos vol. IV, 10/65–9/67, NSF-Cambodia.

47. CIA Intelligence Memo, December 30, 1967, #7, “Transport of Arms and Other Commodities into South Vietnam Through Ratanakiri Province,” box 92, folder: Cambodia 5/66–1/68 [1 of 2], NSF-Vietnam.

48. CIA Intelligence Memo, July 26, 1967, #5, “Cambodia and the Vietnamese Communists,” box 92, folder: Cambodia 5E(1)b 5/66–1/68, NSF-Vietnam; CIA Intelligence Memo, September 5, 1967, #4, “Cambodia and the Vietnamese Communists,” box 92, folder: Cambodia 5E(1)b 5/66–1/68, NSF-Vietnam; Memo, Secretary of State to American Embassy in Canberra, November 29, 1967, #86, box 92, folder: Cambodia 5/66–1/68 [2 of 2], NSF-Vietnam; and Chandler, Tragedy of Cambodian History, 122.

49. Memo, American Embassy Saigon to Secretary of State, October 1967, #108, “Cambodia,” box 92, folder: Cambodia 5/66–1/68 [2 of 2], NSF-Vietnam.

50. Memo, American Consulate in Hong Kong to Secretary of State, December 30, 1967, #8, and Memo, White House Situation Room to the President, December 31, 1967, #2, both located in box 92, folder: Cambodia 5/66–1/68 [1 of 2], NSF-Vietnam; and “Angry Sihanouk Shuts Cambodia to U.S. Newsmen ‘Permanently,’” Washington Post, November 25, 1967, A8.

51. “ICC Says It Found No Rockets in Cambodia,” Washington Post, September 16, 1967, A10; Arthur J. Dommen, “Cambodia Issue Seen as Largely Unsettled,” Los Angeles Times, January 14, 1968, E16; Chalmes M. Roberts, “Policing of Cambodian Border Beset by Variety of Problems,” Washington Post, January 6, 1968, A11; and Bernard Nossiter, “U.S. Set Back by ICC Ruling on Cambodia,” Los Angeles Times, February 7, 1968, 16.

52. Memo, American Consulate in Hong Kong to Secretary of State, December 30, 1967, #8, box 92, folder: Cambodia 5/66–1/68 [1 of 2], NSF-Vietnam.

53. Memo, American Consulate in Hong Kong to Secretary of State, December 30, 1967, #8, box 92, folder: Cambodia 5/66–1/68 [1 of 2], NSF-Vietnam; Sihanouk Speech, undated, #32c, box 237, folder: Misc. Cables & Memos, 1/67–12/68 [2 of 2], NSF-Cambodia; and CIA Intelligence Memo, December 23, 1967, #44, “Comments of Soviet Member of United Nations,” box 92, folder: Cambodia 5/66–1/68 [1 of 2], NSF-Vietnam.

54. Text of Cable from General Westmoreland, December 5, 1967, #80a, box 92, folder: Cambodia 5/66–1/68 [1 of 2], NSF-Vietnam; and Westmoreland, Soldier Reports, 180–184, quoted on 184.

55. Memo, Earle G. Wheeler to the Secretary of Defense, December 16, 1967, #62a, “Operations in the Triborder Area,” box 92, folder: Cambodia 5/66–1/68 [2 of 2], NSF-Vietnam.

56. Memo, Earle G. Wheeler to the Secretary of Defense.

57. Memo, Secretary of State to Ambassador Canberra, November 29, 1967, #86, box 92, folder: Cambodia 5/66–1/68 [2 of 2], NSF-Vietnam; CIA Intelligence Memo, July 26, 1967, #5, “Cambodia and the Vietnamese Communists,” box 92, folder: Cambodia 5E(1)b 5/66–1/68, NSF-Vietnam; Medal, 112–113; and Sihanouk Speech, December 27, 1967, #32a, box 237, folder: Misc. Cables & Memos 1/67–12/68, NSF-Cambodia.

58. Three Wars, quoted on 128; Robert M. Gillespie, Black Ops, Vietnam: The Operational History of MACVSOG (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2011), forty-four thousand on 142; Davidson, Vietnam at War, 473–528, eighty-four thousand and forty-five thousand on 475; and Statement by General Westmoreland, April 7, 1968, #24, box 96, folder: Talks with Hanoi, 6G (3) 4/1–10/68 [1 of 3], NSF-Vietnam.

59. Davidson, Vietnam at War, 529–574; Don Oberdorfer, Tet!: The Turning Point in the Vietnam War (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001, orig., 1971), 157–196; and Nguyen Co Thach quoted in Barbara Crossette, “Recalling Tet,” New York Times, January 31, 1988, 1.

60. Davidson, Vietnam at War, 529–574; Walter Cronkite, “Report from Vietnam,” CBS Evening News, February 27, 1968, transcript: www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/active_learning/explorations/vietnam/cronkite.cfm, accessed November 24, 2021; Editorial, “After the Tet Offensive,” New York Times, February 8, 1968, 42; and Louis Harris, “War Support Spurts After Tet Attacks,” Washington Post, February 12, 1968, A1.

61. Tom Wells, The War Within: America’s Battle over Vietnam (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1994), 223–286; “Anti-U.S. Protests Bring Street Fights,” Washington Post, February 19, 1968, A9; and “LBJ Is Burned in Effigy at War Protest in Manila,” Washington Post, January 24, 1968, A15.

62. Medal, quoted on 116.

63. Medal, 112–120; and Three Wars, quoted on 128.

1 

Chapter 7: Fearless

1. Medal, 116–119, quoted on 117–118.

2. Medal, quoted on 109–111 and 118; and Lindsey, Secret Green Beret Commandos, 138.

3. Medal, 118–120, quoted on 118; Three Wars, 131–135; and Blehm, Legend, 103–105.

4. Medal, 118–120, quoted on 120; Three Wars, 131–135; and Blehm, Legend, 103–105.

5. BMR; Blehm, Legend, 93–110; Rottman, US MACV-SOG, 10 percent on 61; Plaster, Secret Commandos, 28–30; and Gillespie, Black Ops, 91–130.

6. Gillespie, Black Ops, 122; and Lindsey, Secret Green Beret Commandos, 54–55.

7. CIA Report, August 1967, #104a, “Communist Use of Cambodia in Support of the War in Vietnam,” box 92, folder: Cambodia May 66–Jan. 68 [2 of 2], NSF-Vietnam; and Memo, CIA, March 7, 1968, #1a, “Recent Uses of Cambodian Territory,” box 92, folder: 5E(2)a Jan. ’68–Oct. ’68 [1 of 2], NSF-Vietnam.

8. Gillespie, Black Ops, recon statistics on 123 and 151, respectively.

9. Rottman, US MACV-SOG, 11–54; Stanton, Green Berets at War, 205–213; and Plaster, Secret Commandos, 50–71.

10. Personal observations made on October 3, 2017.

11. Lindsey, Secret Green Beret Commandos, 109–117.

12. Rottman, US MACV-SOG, 26–43; and Plaster, Secret Commandos, 61–62.

13. Gillespie, Black Ops, 44; Plaster, Secret Commandos, 37; and Jeffrey J. Clarke, Advice and Support: The Final Years, 1965–1973 (Washington, DC: US Army Center of Military History, 1988), 32–39, 69–74, and 195–207.

14. Gillespie, Black Ops, 44; Plaster, Secret Commandos, 37; Clarke, Advice and Support; George Shepard, interview by William Sturkey, Chapel Hill, NC, November 5, 2018, transcript in author’s possession.

15. Clarke, Advice and Support, 32–39, 69–74, and 195–207.

16. Medal, 121–131; Three Wars, 131–135; and Plaster, Secret Commandos, quoted on 51.

17. Medal, 121–124, quoted on 121; Three Wars, 136–140; and Lindsey, Secret Green Beret Commandos, 91.

18. Medal, 121–124; Three Wars, 136–140; Lindsey, Secret Green Beret Commandos, 91; and COMUSMACV to RUHKA/CINCPAC, April 1968, #5a, “Operations near Cambodian Border,” box 237, folder: Miscellaneous Cables & Memos 1/67–12/68 [1 of 2], NSF-Cambodia.

19. Medal, 122–123, quoted on 123; and Three Wars, 136–140.

20. Memo, Earle Wheeler to Deputy Secretary of Defense, 12/3/68, #15a, box 93, folder: Cambodia 5E(3) 11/68–1/69, NSF-Vietnam; and Lindsey, Secret Green Beret Commandos, 90–94.

21. Rottman, US MACV-SOG, 51–61; Gillespie, Black Ops, 91–130; Lindsey, Secret Green Beret Commandos, 52–83; and Richard R. Burgess and Rosario M. Rausa, US Navy A-1 Skyraider Units of the Vietnam War (New York: Osprey, 2009).

22. COMUSMACV to RUHKA/CINCPAC, April 1968, #5a, “Operations near Cambodian Border,” box 237, folder: Miscellaneous Cables & Memos 1/67–12/68 [1 of 2], NSF-Cambodia; and Memo, Deputy Secretary of Defense, December 3, 1968, #15a, box 93, folder: Cambodia 5E(3) 11/68–1/69, NSF-Vietnam.

23. Plaster, Secret Commandos, quoted on 50.

24. Plaster, Secret Commandos.

25. Plaster, Secret Commandos, 50–71; and Memo, Earle Wheeler to Deputy Secretary of Defense, 12/3/68, #15a, box 93, folder: Cambodia 5E(3) 11/68–1/69, NSF-Vietnam.

26. Medal, 122–124, quoted on 123–124.

27. Medal.

28. Medal, 124–125; and Three Wars, quoted on 141 and 142.

29. Three Wars, quoted on 154.

30. Medal, 121–131; Three Wars, 124–125; Lindsey, Secret Green Beret Commandos, 118–120. Background information taken from various documents found on Ancestry.com.

31. Medal, 121–131, quoted on 130; and Rottman, US MACV-SOG, 26.

32. Medal, quoted on 124–128; and Three Wars, 141–149.

33. Medal, 128–131, quoted on 129; and Three Wars, 149–153.

34. Medal, 128–131, quoted on 129; and Three Wars, 149–153.

35. Medal, 128–131, quoted on 129; and Three Wars, 149–153.

36. Medal, 130–131; and Three Wars, 152–153.

37. Medal, 130–131; and Three Wars, 152–153.

38. The battle action from May 2, 1968, that follows is derived from Roy Benavidez Medal of Honor Citation; Brian O’Connor Eyewitness Statement, July 24, 1980, box 4Zc194, folder 2, RBP; Roger Waggie, Statement Concerning Events of May 2, 1968, April 29, 1976, BMR; Leroy Wright, Distinguished Service Cross Citation, and Lloyd F. Mousseau, Distinguished Service Cross Citation, both available through Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, www.vvmf.org; Ralph Drake, Recommendation for Award, May 12, 1975, BMR; Jerry Cottingham Statement, February 4, 1975, BMR; Jesse Naul to James W. Mason, Dallas, TX, March 31, 1975, BMR; Ronald Radke to James W. Mason, February 23, 1975, BMR; James C. Fussell to James W. Mason, October 27, 1975, BMR; Michael Grant to James W. Mason, Ft. Carson, CO, October 8, 1975, BMR; William Darling, Witness Statement, February 28, 1977, BMR; Chandler Carter, Witness Statement, April 7, 1977, BMR; Fact Sheet, Request for Upgrade of the Distinguished Service Cross to the Congressional Medal of Honor for MSG Roy Benavidez, BMR; Medal, 133–145; Three Wars, 177–223; Blehm, Legend, 110–222; and Lindsey, Secret Green Beret Commandos, 140–147.

1 

Chapter 8: Home

1. Pete Billac, The Last Medal of Honor: The True Story of Green Beret Sergeant Roy P. Benavidez and His Six-Hour Battle in Hell (New York: Swan, 1990), 82; and Medal, 147.

2. Telegram, Maj. Gen. Kenneth G. Wickham to Hilaria Benavidez, May 5, 1968, BMR; Memo, CG USARV LBN RVN to RUEOAFA/CAS DIV DA, May 5, 1968, BMR; and Medal, 147.

3. Medal, 145.

4. Jerry Cottingham, Statement, February 4, 1975, BMR; Roger Waggie, Statement Concerning Events of May 2, 1968, April 29, 1976, BMR; Medal, 145; and Blehm, Legend, 220.

5. Three Wars, 224–231; Medal, 144–148; Roger Waggie, Statement Concerning Events of May 2, 1968, April 29, 1976, BMR; William R. Darling, Statement, February 28, 1977, BMR; and Blehm, Legend, 224–225.

6. Lindsey, Secret Green Beret Commandos, 140–147; and Three Wars, 224–231, quoted on 225.

7. Blehm, Legend, 221–224; and Medal, quoted on 145.

8. Three Wars, quoted on 225–226; and Medal, 147.

9. Three Wars, quoted on 226–227; and Medal, 147.

10. Michael Grant, Statement, October 7, 1975, BMR; and William R. Darling, Statement, February 28, 1977, BMR.

11. Medal, 147; Three Wars, 226; and Brian O’Connor, Eyewitness Statement, July 24, 1980, box 4Zc194, folder 2, RBP.

12. Record of Assignments, BMR; Three Wars, quoted on 227 and 228; and Medal, 148.

13. Record of Assignments, BMR; Three Wars, quoted on 227 and 228; and Medal, 148.

14. Jerry Cottingham, Statement, February 4, 1975, BMR; CIA Intelligence Memo, August 2, 1968, #21, box 93, folder: Cambodia 5E(3) 11/68–1/69, NSF-Vietnam; Lindsey, Secret Green Beret Commandos, 147–229.

15. Memo, Author unknown, “The Cambodian Border Problem,” September 24, 1968, #17a, box 237, folder: Misc. Cables & Memos 1/67–12/68 [1 of 2], NSF-Cambodia; CIA Intelligence Cable, October 31, 1968, #14, box 237, folder: Misc. Cables & Memos 1/67–12/68 [1 of 2], NSF-Cambodia.

16. James H. Willbanks, Vietnam War Almanac: An In-Depth Guide to the Most Controversial Conflict in American History (New York: Skyhorse, 2013), 260–263; and Erik B. Villard, Combat Operations: Staying the Course October 1967 to September 1968: The U.S. Army in Vietnam (Washington, DC: US Army Center of Military History, 2017), 529–595, sixty thousand on 530, deceased figures on 589.

17. Villard, Combat Operations, 673–680, deceased statistics on 673.

18. Frank Newport and Joseph Carroll, “Iraq Versus Vietnam: A Comparison of Public Opinion,” Gallup, August 24, 2005, https://news.gallup.com/poll/18097/iraq-versus-vietnam-comparison-public-opinion.aspx, accessed May 24, 2022; Memo, Art McCafferty to Walt Rostow, May 22, 1968, #5, “Achievements of the Tet Offensive,” box 152, folder: Captured Documents, NSF-Vietnam; and Secretary of State to American Embassy Wellington, April 1968, box 96, folder: Talks with Hanoi, 6G(3) 4/1–10/68 [3 of 3], NSF-Vietnam.

19. Telegram, Department of State to American Embassy in Paris, May 7, 1968, #6GG, box 96, folder: Talks with Hanoi 6G (6) 5/68–9/68, NSF-Vietnam; and CIA Report, “The Vietnam Situation,” June 6, 1968, #20a, box 76, folder: Strategic Reconsiderations After Tet (4/68–12/68), NSF-Vietnam.

20. Physical Evaluation Board Proceedings, July 7, 1976, BMR.

21. Three Wars, 227–229; and Medal, 148–149.

22. Ralph R. Drake, “Commander’s Recommendation for Promotion,” June 3, 1968, BMR; and 1968 Military Pay Chart, Defense Finance and Accounting Service, https://www.dfas.mil/Portals/98/MilPayTable1968.pdf, accessed April 22, 2022.

23. Three Wars, 227–229, quoted on 229; and Medal, 148–149.

24. Department of the Army, “Award of the Purple Heart,” May 3, 1968, box 4Zc194, folder: 62, RBP; Three Wars, 227–229; Medal, 148–149; Award of the Distinguished Service Cross, Benavidez, Roy, July 24, 1968, BMR; Lloyd F. Mousseau, Distinguished Service Cross Citation, Leroy Wright, Distinguished Service Cross Citation, Larry McKibben, Distinguished Service Cross Citation, all available through the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, www.vvmf.org/Wall-of-Faces.

25. Army Regulation 600-8-22, “Military Awards,” 3-10 Distinguished Service Cross, 58, Department of the Army, https://armypubs.army.mil/epubs/DR_pubs/DR_a/pdf/web/ARN18147_R600_8_22_admin2_FINAL.pdf, accessed April 23, 2022; and Home of Heroes: Medal of Honor & Military History, https://homeofheroes.com/distinguished-service-cross/vietnam-war, accessed November 3, 2022.

26. Gillespie, Black Ops, 120; and Lindsey, Secret Green Beret Commandos, 21–27.

27. Award of the Distinguished Service Cross, Benavidez, Roy, July 24, 1968, BMR; Leroy Wright, Distinguished Service Cross Citation and Lloyd F. Mousseau, Distinguished Service Cross Citation, both available at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, www.vvmf.org; and Three Wars, quoted on 231.

28. Three Wars, 228–231, quoted on 229; and Medal, 148–149.

29. “‘Westy’s’ Driver Awarded Second Highest Medal,” Baytown Sun, September 11, 1968, 3; Medal, 148–149, quoted on 149; and Three Wars, 228–231.

30. “‘Westy’s’ Driver.” Image reprinted in Medal, insert between 110–111.

31. Roger Waggie to Roy Benavidez, South Vietnam, September 16, 1968, box 4Zc194, folder 35, RBP; and Blehm, Legend, 225–227.

32. Record of Assignments, BMR.

33. Health Record, box 4Zc194, folder 61, RBP; Blehm, Legend, 228–229; and Larry McKibben, Distinguished Service Cross Citation, Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, www.vvmf.org/Wall-of-Faces/36931/LARRY-S-MCKIBBEN.

34. Record of Assignments, BMR; Medal, 152; Three Wars, 235; and Clinical Record, March 20, 1969, box 4Zc194, folder 54, RBP.

35. Medal, 152; Three Wars, 235; and Record of Assignments, BMR.

36. Three Wars, 235–236; and Record of Assignments, BMR.

37. “Hearings before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations,” House of Representatives, 20th Cong., 2nd sess., Part 2 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1968), 216–218; “There Goes Our Cavalry,” New York Daily News, May 26, 1968, 106; Fort Riley Historical Society, Custer House Museum—Fort Riley, Kansas,” www.fortrileyhistoricalsociety.org/custer-house.html; and various updates published in the Manhattan Mercury and Salina Journal between 1969 and 1972.

38. Bill Stone, “Veterans Paid Peaceful Tribute,” Wichita Eagle, November 12, 1969, 1–2A.

39. Medal, 152; and Three Wars, 235–236.

40. Robert R. Linvill, Statement on Application for WO-1, July 30, 1970, BMR; Brig. Gen. J. A. Seitz to Adjutant General of the Army, Junction City, KS, July 20, 1971, BMR; Col. J. F. Wilhm, Letter of Recommendation, Fort Riley, KS, August 20, 1971, BMR; and Col. Richard Cavazos, Letter of Recommendation, Fort Riley, KS, January 13, 1972, BMR.

41. Willbanks, Vietnam War Almanac, 276–287.

42. William Beecher, “Raids in Cambodia by U.S. Unprotested,” New York Times, May 9, 1969, 1; and Willbanks, Vietnam War Almanac, statistics on 290.

43. Lewis Gulick, “U.S. Seeks Ties with Cambodia,” Washington Post, April 13, 1969, 1; Gene Roberts, “Wider Use of Cambodia by the Enemy Reported,” New York Times, September 29, 1968, 1; Joseph Lelyveld, “India Hints a Shift on Cambodia Issue,” New York Times, January 7, 1968, 1; A. D. Horne, “U.S., Cambodia Resume Relations,” Washington Post, July 3, 1969, A1; Chandler, Tragedy of Cambodian History, 178–183.

44. Chandler, Tragedy of Cambodian History, 159–191; and Ben Kiernan, How Pol Pot Came to Power: Colonialism, Nationalism, and Communism in Cambodia, 1930–1975, Second Edition (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2004, orig., 1985), 249–288.

45. “Go, Cambodia Tells Reds,” Chicago Tribune, March 14, 1970, S1; Henry Kamm, “Cambodia Ending Neutralist Stance,” New York Times, May 7, 1970, 1; Terrence Smith, “U.S. and Cambodia Sign Military Assistance Pact,” New York Times, August 21, 1970, 1; and Kiernan, How Pol Pot Came to Power, 297–393.

46. Wells, The War Within, 403–470, 1,350 on 425; and Robert D. McFadden, “College Strife Spreads,” New York Times, May 8, 1970, 1.

47. Kiernan, How Pol Pot Came to Power, 297–393, Hanoi Radio quoted on 299; Chandler, Tragedy of Cambodian History, 192–235; Sydney H. Schanberg, “Cambodia: Communist Pressure Steadily Growing,” New York Times, June 21, 1970, 145; and James P. Sterba, “Cambodia Incursion by U.S. Appears to United Foe,” New York Times, June 29, 1970, 1.

48. Record of Assignments, BMR; Medal, 152–153, quoted on 152; and Three Wars, 235–237.

49. Record of Assignments, BMR; Medal, 152–153; and Three Wars, 235–237.

50. Patrick Cassidy to President, DA Enlisted Promotion Selection Board E-8, San Antonio, TX, August 27, 1974, BMR.

51. James H. Hollingsworth to DA Enlisted Promotion Selection Board E-8, San Francisco, November 15, 1973, BMR; James T. L. Dandridge to DA Enlisted Promotion Selection Board E-8, Fort Sam Houston, TX, November 13, 1973, BMR; and Fred R. White to DA Enlisted Promotion Selection Board E-8, Fort Sam Houston, TX, December 11, 1973, BMR.

52. BMR.

53. James H. Willbanks, Abandoning Vietnam: How America Left and South Vietnam Lost Its War (Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2004).

54. Medal, 153.

55. Enlistment Paperwork and article located in BMR.

1 

Chapter 9: Honor

1. Roy Benavidez to Henry González, Fort Sam Houston, TX, February 25, 1974, box 4Zc194, folder 18, RBP. Marine Jay Vargas had received the Medal of Honor on May 14, 1970, for actions conducted in Vietnam on April 30–May 2, 1968, www.cmohs.org/recipients/jay-r-vargas.

2. “Military Awards for Valor-Top 3,” Department of Defense, https://valor.defense.gov/Description-of-Awards; United States Army, “Recommendation Process” and “Statistics & FAQs,” www.army.mil/medalofhonor/index.html, accessed March 17, 2023; and National Medal of Honor Museum, https://mohmuseum.org/the-medal/#:~:text=Through%20education%2C%20leadership%2C%20and%20inspiring,Forces%20since%20the%20Civil%20War, accessed March 17, 2023.

3. Congressional Medal of Honor Society, Statistics & FAQs, www.cmohs.org/medal/faqs, accessed May 23, 2021; and United States Army, “Recommendation Process” and “Statistics & FAQs.”

4. Lindsey, Secret Green Beret Commandos, 21–27; and Gillespie, Black Ops, 120–121.

5. Medal, 152.

6. Medal, 152–155; Three Wars, 235–240; and Blehm, Legend, 233–235.

7. Medal, 152–155; Three Wars, 235–240, quoted on 239; and Blehm, Legend, 233–235.

8. Medal, 152–155; Three Wars, 235–240; and Blehm, Legend, 233–235.

9. Ralph Drake to Commander Fifth US Army, Fort McClellan, AL, April 9, 1974, box 4Zc194, folder 15, RBP.

10. Army Regulation 15-185, Army Board for Correction of Military Records, Department of the Army, March 31, 2006.

11. Medal, 152–155, quoted on 153; Three Wars, 235–240; and Blehm, Legend, 233–235.

12. US Public Law 93-469, 93rd Cong., 2d sess. (October 24, 1974), 1422.

13. James Markham, “South Vietnam, a Year After Truce, Is Still Racked by Indecisive War,” New York Times, January 27, 1974, 1; John A. Finney, “House Bars Rise in Vietnam Aid,” New York Times, April 5, 1974, 77; and Philip A. McCombs, “Vietnam Fighting Heaviest Since Truce,” Washington Post, August 20, 1974, A1.

14. Kevin M. Kruse and Julian E. Zelizer, Fault Lines: A History of the United States Since 1974 (New York: Norton, 2019), especially 7–25.

15. Robert S. Bell to Commander, US Army Forces Command, Alexandria, VA, August 28, 1974, box 4Zc194, folder 4, RBP.

16. Three Wars, 241–249; and affidavits from Jerry Cottingham, Raymond Stipsky, Jesse Naul, Ronald Radke, James Fussell, Michael Grant, and John Crist in BMR. Jerry Ewing statement in box 4Zc194, folder 16, RBP.

17. Patrick Cassidy to Henry González, San Antonio, TX, July 4, 1975; and Patrick Cassidy to Harold G. Moore, San Antonio, TX, May 17, 1976, both located in box 4Zc194, folder 12, RBP.

18. Texas, Death Certificates, 1903–1982, Wharton County, 1975, Apr.–Jun., no. 39335, Nicholas Benavides, died May 1, 1975, digital image, Ancestry.com; and Medal, 153.

19. Sister Anna Theresa Hussey to Commander, San Antonio, TX, August 15, 1976, BMR.

20. Extracts of Special Orders No. 116, June 16, 1975; Patrick Cassidy to President, DA Enlisted Promotion Selection Board (E8), San Antonio, TX, August 27, 1974; 1974 Military Pay Chart, Defense Finance and Accounting Service, www.dfas.mil/Portals/98/MilPayTable1974.pdf, accessed June 11, 2022; and various course completion certificates, all located in BMR.

21. Patrick Cassidy to President, DA Enlisted Promotion Selection Board (E8), San Antonio, TX, August 27, 1974; and Disposition Form, “Ability to Perform Duty in Primary MOS…,” October 20, 1975, BMR.

22. Cpt. Curtis P. Miller to Roy Benavidez, Fort Sam Houston, Texas, March 11, 1976, BMR; and Disposition Form, “Reclassification Hearings,” March 23, 1976, BMR.

23. Disposition Form, “MSG Roy Benavidez,” May 7, 1976, BMR.

24. Francis J. Calverase to Roy Benavidez, Alexandria, VA, July 8, 1976, BMR; and William C. Moore to Joseph Martin, June 22, 1977, box 4Zc194, folder 2, RBP.

25. Physical Evaluation Board Proceedings, August 4, 1976, BMR.

26. Physical Evaluation Board Proceedings, August 4, 1976, BMR.

27. Physical Evaluation Board Proceedings, August 4, 1976, BMR.

28. Physical Evaluation Board Proceedings, August 4, 1976, BMR.

29. Physical Evaluation Board Proceedings, August 4, 1976, BMR.

30. Physical Evaluation Board Proceedings, August 4, 1976, BMR.

31. Medical Board Proceedings, June 10, 1976, BMR.

32. Physical Evaluation Board Proceedings, August 4, 1976, BMR.

33. James Windsor to Roy Benavidez, Retirement Orders D41-3, Alexandria, VA, August 27, 1976, BMR; and “Oft-Decorated Solider Retires,” Victoria Advocate, September 11, 1976, 1.

34. Three Wars, 250–251, quoted on 251.

35. Three Wars, 254.

36. Three Wars, 254.

37. Joseph D. Martin to Roy Benavidez, Philadelphia, PA, June 16, 1976, box 4Zc194, folder 22, RBP.

38. Carlos C. Ogden to Joseph D. Martin, June 22, 1976; Joseph D. Martin to Roy Benavidez, Philadelphia, PA, undated; Joseph D. Martin to Roy Benavidez, Philadelphia, PA, June 28, 1976; and various letters all located in box 4Zc194, folder 22, RBP.

39. Joseph D. Martin to John Young, Philadelphia, PA, October 15, 1977; and various letters all located in box 4Zc194, folder 22, RBP.

40. William C. Moore to Joseph D. Martin, June 22, 1977; and Dudley Bunn to Joseph D. Martin, June 1, 1977, both located in box 4Zc194, folder 22, RBP.

41. Chris Barbee, interview by William Sturkey, El Campo, TX, December 5, 2015, transcript in author’s possession; and Chris Barbee, Interview Questions.

42. “Oft-Decorated Solider Retires”; and Barbee interviews.

43. Barbee interviews.

44. Barbee interviews; and Fred Barbee to George Mahon, March 15, 1977, box 4Zc194, folder 37, RBP.

45. Memo, “For the Record,” August 27, 1979, box 4Zc194, folder 48, RBP.

46. Steve Sucher, interview by William Sturkey, Gonzales, TX, December 4, 2015, transcript in author’s possession.

47. Barbee, interview; Noel Benavidez, interviews; Garcia, interview; Prochazka, interview; Yvette Garcia and Denise Prochazka, interview by William Sturkey, El Campo, TX, August 1, 2018, transcript in author’s possession; and Joe Munoz, interview by William Sturkey, San Marcos, TX, July 18, 2016, transcript in author’s possession.

48. Barbee, interview; Noel Benavidez, interviews; Garcia, interview; Prochazka, interview; Garcia and Prochazka, interview; and Joe Munoz, interview.

49. Barbee, interview; Noel Benavidez, interviews; Garcia, interview; Prochazka, interview; Garcia and Prochazka, interview; and Joe Munoz, interview.

50. Sucher, interview.

51. Sucher, interview.

52. Sucher, interview.

53. Sucher, interview.

54. Fred Barbee, “Roy Benavidez… Sometimes Patience Wears Thin,” El Campo Leader-News, February 22, 1978, 5-A.

55. Three Wars, 255–260, quoted on 257 and 259; and Sucher, interview.

56. Max Krochmal, Blue Texas: The Making of a Multiracial Democratic Coalition in the Civil Rights Era (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2016), especially 153–170.

57. “Fact Sheet” and Robert S. Young to Roy Benavidez, September 22, 1978, located in box 4Zc194, folder 5, RBP.

58. Melvin Price to J. J. Pickle, Washington, DC, January 11, 1979; and J. J. Pickle to Roy Benavidez, Washington, DC, January 17, 1979, both located in box 4Zc194, folder 28, RBP.

59. Joe Wyatt Jr. to Roy Benavidez, Washington, DC, April 23, 1979, box 4Zc194, folder 36, RBP.

60. George Bush to Sam Wilson, Houston, TX, June 29, 1979, box 4Zc194, folder 9, RBP.

61. Ruben Bonilla Jr. to El Campo Leader-News, Corpus Christi, TX, June 4, 1979, box 4Zc194, folder 3, RBP; and Ruben Bonilla Jr. to the President, location unknown, April 1, 1980, box 4Zc194, folder 49, RBP.

62. Medal, 126–127 and 145, quoted on 127; Joe Wyatt Jr. to Roy Benavidez, Washington, DC, June 15, 1979, box 4Zc194, folder 36, RBP; and Rodolfo Montalvo to Henry Joe Wyatt, Nuremberg, Germany, June 5, 1979, box 4Zc194, folder 36, RBP.

63. Joe Wyatt Jr. to Robert L. Nelson, Washington, DC, September 12, 1979; William Clark to Joe Wyatt Jr., Washington, DC, October 24, 1979; Memo, Vernon R. Hull, “Reconsideration of Medal of Honor,” February 21, 1980; and ABCMR Memorandum of Consideration, “Roy Benavidez, March 5, 1980,” all located in BMR.

64. Steve Sucher, “Sgt. Benavidez’ Medal Reviewed for 6th Time,” El Campo Leader-News, January 19, 1980, 1.

65. Three Wars, 261–262.

66. Three Wars, quoted 261.

67. Three Wars, quoted on 262.

68. Three Wars, quoted on 262; and Blehm, Legend, 244–248.

69. Three Wars, quoted on 262; and Blehm, Legend, 244–248.

70. Sucher, interview; Mary Barrineau, “Texan to Receive Medal,” Dallas Times Herald, reprinted in Honolulu Star-Bulletin, February 22, 1981, A-18; and Hearing on H.R. 8386, 96th Cong., 2nd sess., November 21, 1980 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1980).

71. A. T. Webber Jr. to John Tower, Houston, TX, September 11, 1978, box 4Zc194, folder 34, RBP.

72. A. T. Webber Jr. to John Tower, Houston, TX; and “Feature Story Aids MOH Effort,” El Campo Leader-News, February 25, 1981, 1.

73. Howitzer, 1951, United States Military Academy Yearbook, West Point, NY, 188 and 250; Matt Schudel, Edward C. Meyer obituary, Washington Post, October 18, 2020, C10.

74. Vernon Hull to Roy Benavidez, Alexandria, VA, March 12, 1980; and Vernon Hull to Chief of Staff, Army, Alexandria, VA, March 31, 1980, both located in box 4Zc194, folder 20, RBP.

75. United States Army Chief of Staff to Joint Chiefs of Staff, May 6, 1980, box 4Zc194, folder 24, RBP; Chris Barbee, “Benavidez Earns Nation’s Highest Honor,” El Campo Leader-News, February 25, 1981, 1; and Sucher, interview.

76. United States Army Chief of Staff to Joint Chiefs of Staff, May 6, 1980, box 4Zc194, folder 24, RBP; Chris Barbee, “Benavidez Earns Nation’s Highest Honor,” El Campo Leader-News, February 25, 1981, 1; and Sucher, interview.

77. Schudel, Edward C. Meyer obituary.

78. Barbee, “Roy Benavidez.”

79. Brian O’Connor, Congressional Medal of Honor Eyewitness Statement, July 24, 1980, box 4Zc194, folder 2, RBP.

80. Felix Sanchez, “Carter Approves, but El Campo Man Still Awaits Medal,” Corpus Christi Caller-Times, November 27, 1980, 3B; Hearing on H.R. 8386, 96th Cong., 2nd sess., November 21, 1980 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1980); and Summary: H.R. 8386, 96th Cong., 2nd sess. (1979–1980), www.congress.gov/bill/96th-congress/house-bill/8386, accessed July 1, 2022.

81. Three Wars, 265–266; and “Texas Veteran May Receive Medal as Christmas Present,” Wichita Falls Times, November 30, 1980, 12A.

1 

Chapter 10: A Hero

1. Prochazka, interview.

2. Medal, quoted on 161.

3. Three Wars, 265–278, quoted on 273; Barbee, interview; Steve Sucher, “Nation’s Eyes Focusing on ‘Sgt. B,’” El Campo Leader-News, February 21, 1981, 1.

4. Three Wars, 274–276.

5. Three Wars, 274–276.

6. Three Wars, 274–276.

7. “Short Stories,” El Campo Leader-News, January 31, 1981, 1; “Students Proud of Alum…,” El Paso Times, December 21, 1980, 17-B; “DeMolays Honor Benavidez,” El Campo Leader-News, February 14, 1981, 1; “Short Stories,” El Campo Leader-News, January 31, 1981, 1; and Allen E. Schoppe to Roy Benavidez, Sugar Land, Texas, January 26, 1981, Box 4Zc194, folder 59, RBP.

8. Sam Donaldson and David Ensor, “Benavidez/Cong. Medal of Honor,” #70221, ABC World News Tonight, February 22, 1981.

9. Memo, Stuart Eizenstat and Ellen Goldstein to the President, “Enrolled Bill H.R. 8386 Relief of Roy P. Benavidez,” December 17, 1980, Collection: Office of the Executive Clerk, Series: Tom Jones’s Enrolled Bills Files, 1977–1980, folder: H. R. 8366—Relief of Roy P. Benavidez, 12/18/80, container 125, Jimmy Carter Presidential Library, Atlanta, GA; Weinberger, Fighting for Peace, 52.

10. Weinberger, Fighting for Peace, 52–56, quoted on 56.

11. Robert M. Collins, Transforming America: Politics and Culture During the Reagan Years (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007), 7–27; and Appy, American Reckoning, 283–248.

12. Art Hoppe, “We’ll All Be Paved,” Daily Times-Advocate (Escondido, CA), October 20, 1965, 2A.

13. Carl Greenberg, “Reagan Lauds Vietnam Policy,” Los Angeles Times, June 26, 1971, A3; and “U.S. Is Criticized in Vietnam’s Fall,” New York Times, August 19, 1975, 13.

14. “Vietnam Was ‘Noble Cause,’ Reagan Says,” Atlanta Constitution, August 19, 1980, 1.

15. “Reagan Calls Vietnam War a ‘Noble Cause,’” Los Angeles Times, August 18, 1980, A2; Editorial, “Reagan: His VFW Speech Renews His Old Image of Recklessness,” Detroit Free Press, August 20, 1980, 8A; and Douglas Dowie, “Reaction Surprises Reagan as He Lauds Viet War ‘Nobility,’” Muncie Evening Press, August 19, 1980, 14.

16. Patrick Hagopian, The Vietnam War in American Memory: Veterans, Memorials, and the Politics of Healing (Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 2009), Reagan “purge” on 38; Jimmy Carter, “Address at Commencement Exercises at the University of Notre Dame,” South Bend, IN, May 22, 1977; and Republican Party Platform of 1980, www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/republican-party-platform-1980, accessed November 1, 2022.

17. David Hoffman, “How Reagan Views Foreign Policy,” Miami Herald, May 27, 1980, 10A; Howell Raines, “Reagan Is Welcomed on Notre Dame Trip,” New York Times, May 18, 1981, A1; Steve Neal, “Reagan Rips Russ Leaders,” Chicago Tribune, January 30, 1981, 1; and Bernard Gwertzman, “President Sharply Assails Kremlin,” New York Times, January 30, 1981, A1.

18. “The Signposts Are Missing,” Los Angeles Times, July 16, 1980, Part II, 6; Collins, Transforming America, 193–234; and H. W. Brands, Reagan: The Life (New York: Doubleday, 2015), especially 249–273.

19. Three Wars, quoted on 263; and Prochazka, interview.

20. Steve Sucher, “Nation’s Eyes”; Entitlements Informal Briefing, February 23, 1981, box 4Zc195, folder 13 RBP; and Medal of Honor Pension Application, February 24, 1981, box 4Zc194, folder 39, RBP.

21. Medal, 156–160; Three Wars, 261–271, quoted on 264; and Chandler D. Carter, Witness Statement, April 7, 1977, and Drake statements in BMR; and Three Wars, quoted on 264.

22. Three Wars, 261–271; and O’Connor quoted in “After a Long Delay, the Medal of Honor,” Hartford Courant, February 24, 1981, A2.

23. Medal, 156–160, quoted on 158.

24. Three Wars, 261–271.

25. Appts. File and Diary Notes, Box I: 588, Folder 2, Caspar W. Weinberger Papers, LOC; Medal, 158; and Three Wars, 263–264.

26. Reagan MOH Photos.

27. Three Wars, 261–271, quoted on 267.

28. Reagan MOH Photos; Reagan’s Daily Diary, February 24, 1981, Reagan Library, www.reaganlibrary.gov/digital-library/daily-diary; and Three Wars, quoted on 268.

29. Reagan’s Daily Diary, February 24, 1981; Three Wars, quoted on 268; Medal of Honor, quoted on 161 and 158; and Department of the Army to Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Martin, Washington, DC, box 4Zc197, folder 15, RBP.

30. Reagan’s Daily Diary, February 24, 1981; and MOH Film.

31. “The Weather,” Washington Post, February 25, 1981, C2; Reagan MOH Photos; MOH Film; Lou Cannon, “President Awards Medal, Says Troops Weren’t Permitted to Win in Vietnam,” Washington Post, February 25, A2; Robert C. Toth, “Officers Urged to Be Faithful to Military in Their Fashion,” Philadelphia Inquirer, February 28, 1981, 1A; and Powell, American Journey, 258.

32. Reagan MOH Photos; and MOH Film.

33. Reagan MOH Photos; and MOH Film.

34. Reagan MOH Photos; and MOH Film.

35. Reagan MOH Photos; and MOH Film.

36. Reagan MOH Photos; MOH Film; and Reagan, “Remarks on Presenting.”

37. Reagan MOH Photos; MOH Film; and Reagan, “Remarks on Presenting.”

38. Reagan MOH Photos; MOH Film; Reagan, “Remarks on Presenting”; Three Wars, quoted on 270; and Medal, 158–161.

39. Reagan MOH Photos; MOH Film; Reagan, “Remarks on Presenting”; Three Wars, quoted on 270; and Medal, 158–161.

40. Douglas Brinkley, ed., The Reagan Diaries, Volume I: January 1981–October 1985 (New York: Harper Collins, 2009), 21.

41. Powell, American Journey, 258.

42. “President Reagan Lauds Vietnam Vets,” Nashua Telegraph, February 25, 1981, 3; “Reagan Extends Overdue ‘Gratitude’ to Vietnam Veterans,” Frederick News and Frederick Post, February 26, 1981, D-8; “Reagan: Viet Vets Overlooked ‘Too Long,’” Pacific Stars and Stripes, February 27, 1981, 1; Arthur Wiese, “Benavidez Remembered ‘Buddies’ at Ceremony,” Houston Post, February 25, 1981, box 4Zc194, folder 39, RBP; and Three Wars, quoted on 267.

43. Reagan MOH Photos; MOH Film; and Reagan’s Daily Diary, February 24, 1981.

44. Three Wars, quoted on 270; MOH Film; “Sergeant to Be Honored for Vietnam Valor,” Los Angeles Times, February 24, 1981, A5; and Reagan’s Daily Diary.

45. “Commissioners Recognize Roy Benavidez,” El Campo Leader-News, February 25, 1981, 2-A; Chris Barbee, “Medal of Honor Recipient Returns Home,” El Campo Leader-News, February 28, 1981, 1; and “Benavidez Welcomed,” Victoria Advocate, February 26, 1981, 1.

46. El Campo Leader-News, February 25, 1981, 1A–3A.

47. “Commissioners Recognize Roy Benavidez”; Barbee, “Medal of Honor Recipient”; “Benavidez Welcomed”; and personal observations in El Campo High School gymnasium made on August 7, 2017.

48. “Commissioners Recognize Roy Benavidez”; Barbee, “Medal of Honor Recipient”; and “Benavidez Welcomed.”

49. “Commissioners Recognize Roy Benavidez”; Barbee, “Medal of Honor Recipient”; and “Benavidez Welcomed.”

50. Proclamation, Office of the Mayor of Galveston, TX, “Roy Benavidez Day,” March 22, 1981, box 4Zc195, folder 9, RBP; “State Leaders to Honor Benavidez in Austin Tuesday,” El Campo Leader-News, March 28, 1981, 1; and “Legislature Honors Army Hero,” Austin American-Statesman, April 1, 1981.

51. “Cesar, This Is the Plan,” El Campo Leader-News, April 15, 1981, 9; Lyndell Williams to Roy Benavidez, Austin, TX, May 27, 1981, box 4Zc194, folder 65; and “WCJC Awards Benavidez Degree,” El Campo Leader-News, March 14, 1981, 2.

52. Numerous invitations found in box 4Zc194, various folders; Robert Williams, “Benavidez Speaks at Virginia Tech,” The Cadet, June 10, 1981, 10; and “Short Stories,” El Campo Leader-News, May 23, 1981, 2.

53. Sara Marsh, “War Hero Urges Students to Set Sights High,” Munster Times, November 19, 1993, B1; and Garcia, “Benavidez Quotes.”

54. Munoz, interview.

55. Munoz, interview.

56. Garcia, “Benavidez Quotes”; Noel Benavidez, interviews; and Chris Barbee Interview Questions, December 5, 2015, document in author’s possession.

57. Memo, Secretary of Defense to the President, “Master Sergeant (Retired) Roy P. Benavidez,” April 14, 1981, and Memo, Ronald Reagan to Caspar Weinberger, “Recruiting Duties for Roy Benavidez,” April 23, 1981, both located in WHORM Subject file ND007, Rec ID 019016SS, Reagan Library; and Munoz, interview.

58. Three Wars, quoted on 284.

59. “New Wheels for ‘Sgt. B,’” El Campo Leader-News, April 8, 1981, 2A; “A Gift from Texas,” El Campo Leader-News, May 13, 1981, 2A; and “A Hero Says ‘Thanks,’” Honolulu Advertiser, December 2, 1981, A15.

60. Foley, Mexicans in the Making of America, 179–199, elected officials data on 189; and Geoffrey Godsell, “Hispanics in the US,” Christian Science Monitor, April 28, 1980, 3.

61. Phil Gailey, “Courting Hispanic Voters Now a Reagan Priority,” New York Times, May 19, 1983, B12; and Roger Langley, “Reagan Appoints More Hispanics,” The Californian, September 23, 1981, 8. For more on the history of the Latino vote, see Benjamin Francis-Fallon, The Rise of the Latino Vote: A History (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2019); and Geraldo Cadava, The Hispanic Republican: The Shaping of an American Political Identity, from Nixon to Trump (New York: Ecco, 2020), 204–233.

62. “Leaders Eat Feast by Texan,” Corpus Christi Times, June 10, 1981, 2C; Ronald Reagan, “Remarks at White House Hispanic Heritage Week Ceremony,” Washington, DC, September 15, 1982; Ronald Reagan, “Remarks at Cinco de Mayo Ceremonies,” San Antonio, TX, May 5, 1983; Ronald Reagan, “Remarks at the American G.I. Forum 35th Annual Convention,” El Paso, TX, August 13, 1983; Ronald Reagan, “Remarks at White House Luncheon,” Washington, DC, April 17, 1984, all located in box 183, folder: 10/31/84 Hispanic Stamp Presentation, Speechwriting: Research Office, Reagan Library.

63. Victory ’82 Fundraising Dinner Program, June 15, 1982, box 4Zc194, folder 67, RBP; and “Reagan Stumps for Clements,” Victoria Advocate, June 16, 1982, 1.

64. Don Brown, “Candidates Debate Issues at Rally,” Victoria Advocate, October 21, 1982, 1; and Mrs. John W. Griffin, “Wyatt Used Benavidez,” Victoria Advocate, October 27, 1982.

65. Wiese, “Benavidez Remembered ‘Buddies’”; and Three Wars, quoted on 267.

66. Howitzer, 1982, United States Military Academy Yearbook, West Point, NY, 88–90; “Paving the Way,” Victoria Advocate, January 12, 2004, 3A; and Ann Rundle, “New Jersey Man Helps Benavidez Memorial,” Victoria Advocate, June 16, 2003, 3A.

67. Travis Post #76, “Newsletter,” November 1981, box 4Zc194, folder 66, RBP; and Pamphlet, “America We Love You,” Travis Post #76, box 4Zc200, folder 40, RBP.

68. Burnet letters located in box 4Zc197, folder 18, RBP.

69. Hagopian, Vietnam War in American Memory, 79–165.

70. Hagopian, Vietnam War in American Memory, 140–165; “Benavidez to Represent Texas,” ECLN, November 10, 1982, 1D; and Dee Goodin, “Medal of Honor Winner Notes Absence of Elected Officials,” Johnson City Press-Chronicle, November 24, 1982, 1.

71. Noel Benavidez, interviews; Garcia, interview; Prochazka, interview; and Roger P. Benavidez, obituary, Victoria Advocate, March 16, 2015, A4.

72. Noel Benavidez, interviews; Garcia, interview; Prochazka, interview; and Roger P. Benavidez, obituary, Victoria Advocate, March 16, 2015, A4.

73. Noel Benavidez, interviews; Garcia, interview; Prochazka, interview; and Roger P. Benavidez, obituary, Victoria Advocate, March 16, 2015, A4.

74. Noel Benavidez, interviews; Garcia, interview; Prochazka, interview; and Roger P. Benavidez, obituary, Victoria Advocate, March 16, 2015, A4.

75. Noel Benavidez, interviews; Garcia, interview; Prochazka, interview; Roger P. Benavidez, obituary, Victoria Advocate, March 16, 2015, A4; and Munoz, interview.

1 

Chapter 11: Security

1. Department of Health and Human Services Social Security Administration to Roy Benavidez, Washington, DC, February 22, 1983, box 4Zc194, folder 53, RBP.

2. Department of Health and Human Services Social Security Administration to Roy Benavidez, Washington, DC, February 22, 1983, box 4Zc194, folder 53, RBP; and US House of Representatives, Hearing Before the Select Committee on Aging, 98th Cong., 1st sess. (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1983), 42.

3. Roy P. and Hilaria C. Benavidez, Social Security Award Certificate, Social Security Administration, July 25, 1977, box 4Zc194, folder 62, RBP. MOH recipients’ pay increased from $100 to $200 by Veterans’ Disability Compensation and Survivors’ Benefits Act of 1978, Public Law 95-479, 95th Cong., 2nd sess. (October 18, 1978).

4. US Public Law 96-265, 96th Cong., 2nd sess. (June 9, 1980), 441–481; and Susan Gluck Mezey, No Longer Disabled: The Federal Courts and the Politics of Social Security Disability (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1988), 71– 87.

5. Ronald Reagan, “A Time for Choosing,” Los Angeles, CA, October 27, 1964, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, www.reaganlibrary.gov/reagans/ronald-reagan/time-choosing-speech-october-27-1964, accessed November 5, 2022; and Kruse and Zelizer, Fault Lines, 88–112.

6. Collins, Transforming America, 29–91; and Ronald Reagan, An American Life (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990), 316.

7. Hearing Before the Select Committee on Aging, “purge” on 10, quoted from Roanoke Times & World-News, June 12, 1983; Mezey, No Longer Disabled, 82; Annual Statistical Report on the Social Security Disability Insurance Program, 2016, Social Security Office of Retirement and Disability Policy, www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/statcomps/di_asr/2016/sect01b.html#table3, accessed August 11, 2022.

8. Medal, 163; and Three Wars, 279–282, quoted on 281 and 278.

9. Medal, 164; Social Security Administration, Amended Notice of Hearing, May 11, 1983, box 4Zc194, folder 68, RBP; and Three Wars, quoted on 281 and 282.

10. Medal, quoted on 164; Social Security Administration, Amended Notice of Hearing, May 11, 1983, box 4Zc194, folder 68, RBP; and Three Wars, quoted on 281 and 282.

11. Spencer Rich, “Vietnam-Era Hero Falls Victim to Cuts In Social Security,” Washington Post, May 27, 1983, A1; and Tom Brokaw and Jamie Gangel, “Medal of Honor Winner’s Problems,” #530675, NBC Nightly News, May 27, 1983.

12. William Lowther, “A Medal for Roy Benavidez,” Reader’s Digest, April 1983, 121–125; and Conchita Thompson to Roy Benavidez, Los Angeles, CA, April 12, 1983, box 4Zc199, folder 28, RBP; and Medal, quoted on 164.

13. “Veteran Fighting Denial of Benefits,” New York Times, May 28, 1983, 25.

14. Medal, 165.

15. Letters reprinted in Hearing Before the Select Committee on Aging, 27–40; Kenneth Fryer to Roy Benavidez, Louisville, KY, June 1, 1983, box 4Zc199, folder 1, RBP; Doug Leonard to Roy Benavidez, (town illegible) New Hampshire, May 30, 1983, box 4Zc199, folder 13, RBP; and James W. Ross to Roy Benavidez, Slippery Rock, PA, July 1, 1983, box 4Zc197, folder 15, RBP.

16. James M. Johnson to Roy Benavidez, Scotch Plains, NJ, June 22, 1983, box 4Zc199, folder 14, RBP.

17. Hearing Before the Select Committee on Aging, quoted on 18.

18. Jacklyn Kearns to President Ronald Reagan, Cresskill, NJ, May 27, 1983, and Irene Mansfield to President Ronald Reagan, location unknown, May 31, 1983, both located in Hearing Before the Select Committee on Aging, 36–37; and Three Wars, 286. Dozens more such letters located in box 3, Willkie, Wendell Files at the Reagan Library, but remain confidential as of this writing due to the personal information they divulge.

19. “So Much for Heroes,” Los Angeles Times, June 3, 1983, E4; and “Congress Must Call a Halt to Purge of the Disabled,” Philadelphia Inquirer, June 7, 1983, A14.

20. Reagan, “Remarks at Cinco de Mayo Ceremonies”; and “Veteran Fighting Denial of Benefits.”

21. “Reagan Tells of Concern for Vietnam Hero,” Los Angeles Times, May 27, 1983, A2; “Disabled War Hero Wants Pay, but Reagan Offers ‘Charity,’” Atlanta Constitution, May 31, 1983, 3A; and Three Wars, 284–285.

22. Jennifer Mittelstadt, The Rise of the Military Welfare State (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2015), 94–119.

23. Mittelstadt, Rise of the Military Welfare State, quoted on 9, figure on 153.

24. VA History, US Department of Veterans Affairs, www.va.gov/HISTORY/VA_History/Overview.asp, accessed March 1, 2023.

25. Disabled American Veterans, October 1981, 4–11; and Myra MacPherson, “Pulling the Rug from Under Vietnam Vets Again,” Washington Post, March 15, 1981, D1 and D4.

26. “Chief Defends Vets’ Rights,” VFW, May 1982, 28–30; and Memo, Paralyzed Veterans for America, “Cuts in the Veterans Administrative Budget,” March 20, 1981, box 10, folder: VA, Carleson, Robert B. Files, Reagan Library.

27. “The Overblown VA,” Arizona Republic, March 12, 1981, A6; and “Touching the Untouchable,” Wall Street Journal, February 23, 1982, 34.

28. “Legion Blasts V.A. Proposed Budget Cut,” Okmulgee Daily Times, October 25, 1981, 3; MacPherson, “Pulling the Rug,” NVLC director quoted on D4; Bernard Weinraub, “Veterans Call Cutbacks ‘Another Betrayal,’” New York Times, May 4, 1981, B11; and Pat Morrison and Eric Malnic, “Hospital Evicts 40 VA Protestors Without Strife,” Los Angeles Times, June 10, 1981, 1.

29. US Public Law 97-35, 97th Cong., 1st sess. (August 13, 1981), 353–933, especially 353–605; US Public Law 96-398, 96th Cong., 2nd sess. (October 7, 1980), 1564–1613; Christian G. Appy, Working-Class War: American Soldiers & Vietnam (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1993); and Gerald N. Grob, “Public Policy and Mental Illness: Jimmy Carter’s Presidential Commission on Mental Health,” Millbank Quarterly 83, no. 3 (September 2005), 425–456.

30. “Veterans Groups Hail Choice for VA Chief,” Washington Post, July 10, 1981, A6; Ellen Hume, “Man Who Accused Jane Fonda of Treason Picked to Head VA,” Los Angeles Times, May 1, 1981, B7; and “Ex-California Official Is Chosen to Head VA,” Boston Globe, May 1, 1981, 10.

31. “VA Chief to Seek to Recover Medical Funds Given Veterans for Non-Service Connected Bills,” Atlanta Daily World, November 5, 1981, 1.

32. “V.A. May Abandon Free Care for Veterans over 65,” New York Times, January 11, 1982, B14; 12 million in Betty Cuniberti, “Battle in Veterans Administration,” Los Angeles Times, August 5, 1982, J1; and Mike Feinsilber, “VA to Reconsider Plans for $2.7B in Construction,” Boston Globe, February 22, 1982, 1.

33. American Legion Press Release, box 67, folder 2, Meese, Edwin III Files, Reagan Library; “DAV Hotline!,” DAV, April 1982, 4–5; and Cooper T. Holt to Robert P. Nimmo, Washington, DC, March 5, 1982, box 67, folder 2, Meese, Edwin III Files, Reagan Library.

34. Turse, Kill Anything That Moves, 94; “Veterans’ Diseases Associated with Agent Orange,” US Department of Veterans Affairs, www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange/conditions, accessed August 17, 2022; “teenage acne” quoted in Cuniberti, “Battle”; and Mike Feinsilber, “Agent Orange Pay Would Total Billions,” The Tennessean, November 19, 1981, 6.

35. Mike Royko, “2 Views of Federal Spending,” syndicated column, Chicago Sun-Times, May 28, 1982, 2; Veterans Administration to H. P. Goldfield, Washington, DC, June 11, 1982, box 67, folder 5, Meese, Edwin III Files, Reagan Library; WJLA-TV Investigative Reports, box 67, folder 3, Meese, Edwin III Files, Reagan Library; and Jack Anderson, “VA Chief Target of U.S. Probes over Spending,” Washington Post, June 10, 1982, F12.

36. Mike Royko, “2 Views of Federal Spending,” syndicated column, Chicago Sun-Times, May 28, 1982, 2; Veterans Administration to H. P. Goldfield, Washington, DC, June 11, 1982, box 67, folder 5, Meese, Edwin III Files, Reagan Library; WJLA-TV Investigative Reports, box 67, folder 3, Meese, Edwin III Files, Reagan Library; and Jack Anderson, “VA Chief Target of U.S. Probes over Spending,” Washington Post, June 10, 1982, F12.

37. “NACV Calls for Nimmo’s Resignation or Removal,” Stars and Stripes, June 24, 1982, 8; “VFW Urges Reprimand of Nimmo,” Boston Globe, August 19, 1982, 4; “Nimmo—An Embarrassment,” Stars and Stripes, June 17, 1982, 8; “House Members Seek VA Chief’s Ouster,” Los Angeles Times, July 1, 1982, A2; and Cuniberti, “Battle.”

38. Memo, MRC to EJF, “Follow-Up on Nimmo Memorandum,” June 10, 1982, box 67, folder 6, Meese, Edwin III Files, Reagan Library.

39. “Robert Nimmo Quits as VA Head,” Chicago Tribune, October 5, 1982, 3; and “Disability Pay Wasted, VA Chief Says,” Chicago Tribune, November 22, 1982, 3.

40. Ronald Reagan, “Remarks of the President at Veterans Day Observance,” Washington, DC, November 11, 1982, www.reaganlibrary.gov/public/2020-12/40-833-5716612-005-022-2020.pdf.

41. Robert Pear, “Reagan Aide Hails Shift on Disability,” New York Times, June 8, 1983, A17; and “Disability-Review Program Eased Again by Reagan to Retain More Beneficiaries,” Wall Street Journal, June 8, 1983, 6.

42. Dan Rather and Lem Tucker, “Social Security Disability Payments,” #291380, CBS Evening News, June 7, 1983.

43. C. Fraser Smith, “What Drives Public Policy?,” Baltimore Sun, June 12, 1983, K1; Robert Pear, “U.S. Plans to Ease Disability Criteria in Social Security,” New York Times, June 7, 1983, A1; and “Disabled Need Justice,” News & Observer, June 11, 1983, 4A.

44. C. Fraser Smith, “What Drives Public Policy?,” Baltimore Sun, June 12, 1983, K1.

45. “Not Fair Enough for the Disabled,” New York Times, June 14, 1983, A22; Robert Pear, “Reagan Aide Hails Shift on Disability,” New York Times, June 8, 1983, A17; and “Congress Must Call a Halt to Purge of the Disabled,” Philadelphia Inquirer, June 7, 1983, 14A.

46. Hearing Before the Select Committee on Aging, 8–19.

47. Hearing Before the Select Committee on Aging.

48. Hearing Before the Select Committee on Aging, 20–40.

49. Hearing Before the Select Committee on Aging, 41–59.

50. Hearing Before the Select Committee on Aging.

51. “Quotation of the Day,” New York Times, June 21, 1983, B1.

52. Judge Waldo E. Ximenes, Decision in the Case of Roy Benavidez, July 8, 1983, in author’s possession.

53. Tom Brokaw, “Benavidez/Social Security,” #5311600, NBC Nightly News, July 12, 1983; and “War Hero Wins Fight for Benefits,” Atlanta Constitution, July 13, 1983, 1A.

54. Spencer Rich, “War Hero Told He Won’t Lose Disability Aid,” Washington Post, July 13, 1983, A2; Hearing Before the Select Committee on Aging, 539–541 and 662–664; and Mezey, No Longer Disabled, 121–145.

55. “County Museum Association Unveils New Photo Display,” ECLN, July 28, 1982, 2A; and Three Wars, 272–275.

56. Constitution of the Community Action Committee of El Campo, Texas, July 17, 1980, box 4Zc197, folder 10, RBP; and “CAC Surveys Progress Made in Community,” ECLN, January 23, 1982, 2A.

57. Barbee, interview.

58. “El Campo Salutes Hometown Hero,” Victoria Advocate, May 15, 1983, 1 and 14; and personal observations on May 20, 2015.

59. Kathryn Moore, “Letter to the Editor,” Victoria Advocate, June 7, 1983, 4A.

60. Mary Barrineau, “A Hero Without Hometown Honors,” Westward Magazine, August 7, 1983.

61. “Coverage Outrageous,” El Campo Leader-News, June 1, 1983, box 4Zc194, folder 1, RBP.

62. Letters to the editor in Victoria Advocate, June 11, 14, and 17.

63. Letters to the editor in Victoria Advocate, June 11, 14, and 17.

64. San Antonio Express citation; Hearing Before the Select Committee on Aging, 64; and Judge Ximenes, Decision.

65. Barrineau, “Hero.”

66. Barrineau, “Hero”; and Ken Hammond, “Hero,” Texas Magazine, January 31, 1982, 9.

67. Barrineau, “Hero”; and Ken Hammond, “Hero,” Texas Magazine, January 31, 1982, 9.

1 

Chapter 12: Glory Days

1. Real People, “Episode 5,” November 9, 1983, Amazon video; Conchita Thompson to Roy Benavidez, Los Angeles, CA, April 12, 1983, box 4Zc199, folder 28, RBP; and “TV Cameras Visit El Campo,” El Campo Leader-News, April 23, 1983, 1 and 2.

2. Real People.

3. Real People.

4. Real People.

5. Real People; and TV Ratings Guide, www.thetvratingsguide.com/2020/03/1983-84-ratings-history.html, accessed September 7, 2022.

6. Jose Garcia, interview by William Sturkey, Taft, TX, August 4, 2018, transcript in author’s possession; and Benny Aleman, interview by William Sturkey, Austin, TX, July, 19, 2016, transcript in author’s possession.

7. Jack Chielli, “A Real Hero Reflects on Vietnam Experience,” Vineland Times-Journal, March 29, 1984, 1; “164 Texans Remembered in Ceremony,” Victoria Advocate, July 21, 1984, 2D; Greg Hitt, “Medal of Honor Winner Tells Vets He Knows the Problems They Face,” Kansas City Times, June 15, 1984, B12; “Ground Broken for Reserve Center,” Corpus Christi Times, November 14, 1984, 2A; and Dean Juipe, “Roy Benavidez,” El Campo Leader-News, October 30, 1985.

8. 1984 calendar in box 4Zc197, folder 6, RBP.

9. Garcia, interview.

10. Garcia, interview.

11. Garcia, interview.

12. Garcia, interview.

13. Barbee, interview.

14. Real People.

15. Appy, American Reckoning, 221–250, quoted on 237; and Hagopian, Vietnam War in American Memory, 49–78, quoted on 74.

16. Joseph Darda, How White Men Won the Culture Wars: A History of Veteran America (Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2021), 121–151.

17. John Kelso, “Busy Hero,” Longview News-Journal, June 30, 1989, 1 and 10.

18. Roy Benavidez to the President, El Campo, TX, October 14, 1982; and Fred F. Fielding to Roy Benavidez, Washington, DC, December 20, 1982, both located in WHORM Subject file PR014-09, Rec ID 116004CU, Reagan Library.

19. Roy Benavidez to Bill Dean, El Campo, TX, February 26, 1983; and Ellen Levin to Roy Benavidez, New York City, March 15, 1983, both located in box 4Zc199, folder 16, RBP.

20. Garcia, interview; and Garcia, “Benavidez Quotes.”

21. Garcia, interview; Garcia, “Benavidez Quotes”; Aleman, interview; and MSG Roy Benavidez speech 1991, YouTube, www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oUtJxE4sjs&ab_channel=dtss1000, accessed November 10, 2022.

22. Garcia, “Benavidez Quotes”; and Juipe, “Roy Benavidez.”

23. Bob Hamilton, “As I See It…,” newspaper clip, box 4Zc196, folder 13, RBP; Barrineau, “Hero”; Hammond, “Hero”; and Billac, Last Medal of Honor, 195.

24. MSG Roy Benavidez speech 1991.

25. Garcia, “Benavidez Quotes.”

26. Hammond, “Hero”; and Medal, quoted on 31.

27. Jack Ingram, “Hero Lauded,” El Campo Leader-News, March 20, 1985, 4A.

28. Memo, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense, “After Action Report,” undated, box 183, folder: 10/31/84 Hispanic Stamp Presentation, Speechwriting: Research Office, Reagan Library; and William Garland, “Officials Pack Reception to Laud Dr. Garcia,” Corpus Christi Times, March 27, 1984, 3A.

29. Joyce Gemperlein, “A Hero’s Burial for an Unknown—Vietnam Soldier,” Philadelphia Inquirer, May 29, 1984, A1; and UPI, “Reagan Honors Viet Unknown,” Indianapolis News, May 29, 1984, 12.

30. Ronald Reagan, “Hispanic Stamp Presentation,” Washington, DC, October 31, 1984, transcript, box 183, folder: 10/31/84 Hispanic Stamp Presentation, Speechwriting: Research Office, Reagan Library; 20c Hispanic Americans single, Smithsonian National Postal Museum, https://postalmuseum.si.edu/object/npm_1999.2004.371, accessed September 11, 2022; and Harrison Rainie, “Ron Tougher on Gerry,” New York Daily News, November 1, 1984, C5 and C21.

31. Dominic Sama, “Commemorative Issuance Muddled by Politics,” Philadelphia Inquirer, November 18, 1984, S13; Jimmy Packard, “Hispanic Stamp Released,” Richmond Times-Dispatch, November 11, 1984, N7; Fran Murphey, “Politics Permeates Even Stamp World,” Akron Beacon Journal, November 5, 1984, B2; George W. Brown, “2 New Stamps in Presidential Election,” Asbury Park Press, October 21, 1984, I10; and Samuel A. Tower, “Saluting Hispanics,” Washington Post, November 18, 1984, E11.

32. Francis-Fallon, Rise of the Latino Vote, 344–379, quoted on 370–371.

33. Congressional Medal of Honor Society National Headquarters Bulletin, January 18, 1985, box 4Zc197, folder 23; Barbee, interview; and Chris Barbee, “Capital Warm Despite Cold,” El Campo Leader-News, January 30, 1985, 1D.

34. AP, “Politicians, Not Soldiers, Lost Vietnam War, Medal Winner Says,” (Longview, WA) Daily News, April 25, 1985, 13A.

35. Press Release, Corona Publishing Company, November 9, 1986, box 4Zc199, folder 31, RBP; and Betsy Blaney, “Oscar Griffin,” obituary, Boston Globe, December 3, 2011, B10.

36. Three Wars, 14–17, quoted on 15.

37. Photographer unknown, Roy and Westmoreland, June 13, 1986, box 3T4.3, RBP; UPI, “Vietnam Veterans,” Times-Press (Streator, IL), June 14, 1986, 16; and Westmoreland, Soldier Reports, 286.

38. Kirkus Reviews, October 15, 1986, www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/a/roy-p-oscar-griffin-benavidez/the-three-wars-of-roy-benavidez, accessed September 13, 2022; and David Sedeno, “Viet Vet Still Fighting,” Victoria Advocate, December 7, 1986, 1D; and Mike Cox, “Soldier’s Personal, Military Battles Defy Comparison,” Austin American-Statesman, November 11, 1986, Onward, 9.

39. Roy Benavidez, “Hispanic Veterans Due Support,” Corpus Christi Caller-Times, November 22, 1986, 17A; “Benavidez Looks at Death,” Daily Star, November 13, 1986, 1 and 18F; and “An Embattled Chicano,” Miami News Vista, January 3, 1987, 20.

40. Larry and Diane Smith to Roy Benavidez, August 3, 1987, and Ruben Salazar to Luis Valdez, Eagle Pass, TX, August 18, 1987, both located in box 4Zc195, folder 5, RBP; Hugo Clemente to Roy Benavidez, El Paso, TX, April 24, 1987, box 4Zc199, folder 41, RBP; and George Bush to Roy Benavidez, Washington, DC, January 4, 1987, box 4Zc197, folder 10, RBP.

41. Jose Garcia to Julius Gates, Houston, TX, March 18, 1988, box 4Zc197, folder 10, RBP; and Paul McCarthy to Roy Benavidez, New York City, April 14, 1989, box 4Zc199, folder 16, RBP.

42. John Broder, “When Drums Begin to Roll…,” Los Angeles Times, January 20, 1989, 26; and John Kelso, “Medal of Honor,” Austin American-Statesman, June 26, 1989, B1 and B4.

43. Ruben R. Salazar to Luis Valdez, Eagle Pass, TX, August 18, 1987, box 4Zc195, folder 5, RBP; and Rolf G. Schmitz to Joseph B. Wilkinson Jr., Los Angeles, CA, September 4, 1985, box 4Zc198, folder 12, RBP.

44. Memo, LULAC to Hall of Fame Honoree, March 31, 1987, “Hispanic Hall of Fame,” box 4Zc199, folder 41, RBP; Ronald White to Roy Benavidez, West Point, NY, July 5, 1987, box 4Zc199, folder 16; Panama Itinerary, June 27, 1988, box 4Zc196, folder 26, RBP; and Memorial Day Program, May 30, 1987, Silvis, IL, box 4Zc196, folder 21, RBP.

45. Billac, Last Medal of Honor, book blurb.

46. Barbee, interview; Broder, “When Drums Begin to Roll”; Chris Barbee, “President’s Inauguration Yields Lasting Memories,” El Campo Leader-News, January 26, 1989, box 4Zc194, folder 59, RBP; and Paula Schwed and David Marziale, “Washington Puts on Its Best for Bush,” Daily Journal, January 21, 1989, 1 and 2.

47. Garcia, interview.

48. Prochazka, interview; Garcia, interview; Benavidez interviews; and Munoz, interview.

49. Prochazka, interview; Garcia, interview; Benavidez interviews; and Munoz, interview.

50. Prochazka, interview; Garcia, interview; Benavidez interviews; Munoz, interview; and “Mrs. Benavidez,” obituary, Victoria Advocate, October 21, 1990, 12A.

51. Prochazka, interview; Garcia, interview; Benavidez interviews; and Munoz, interview.

52. Prochazka, interview; Garcia, interview; Benavidez interviews; and Munoz, interview.

53. Prochazka, interview; Garcia, interview; Benavidez interviews; and Munoz, interview.

54. Prochazka, interview; Garcia, interview; Benavidez interviews; and Munoz, interview.

55. Prochazka, interview; Garcia, interview; Benavidez interviews; and Munoz, interview.

56. Prochazka, interview; Garcia, interview; Benavidez interviews; and Munoz, interview.

57. Prochazka, interview; Garcia, interview; Benavidez interviews; and Munoz, interview.

58. Prochazka, interview; Garcia, interview; Benavidez interviews; and Munoz, interview.

59. Prochazka, interview; Garcia, interview; Benavidez interviews; and Munoz, interview.

60. Prochazka, interview; Garcia, interview; Benavidez interviews; and Munoz, interview.

61. Garcia, interview.

62. Prochazka, interview; Garcia, interview; and Noel Benavidez, interview.

63. Munoz, interview; Aleman, interview; and Dean Juipe, “Roy Benavidez: All Out Every Day for America,” newspaper clipping, box 4Zc194, folder 59, RBP.

64. Noel Benavidez, interview; “Five Top NCOs Named,” San Antonio Express, May 11, 1976, 6; and “Benito Guerrero,” obituary, San Antonio Express-News, June 19, 2010, www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/sanantonio/name/benito-guerrero-obituary?id=7149306, accessed March 10, 2023.

1 

Chapter 13: To Be an American

1. John Kelso, “Medal of Honor,” Austin American-Statesman, June 26, 1989, B1 and B4.

2. Garcia, interview.

3. Jared Reagh to Roy Benavidez, Delaware, OH, undated, box 4Zc196, folder 24.

4. Heather Townsend to Roy Benavidez, Deer Park, TX, November 25, 1987, box 4Zc195, folder 14, RBP.

5. Letters in box 4Zc196, folder 20, RBP.

6. C. C. Josey to Roy Benavidez, White City, OR, August 8, 1988, box 4Zc194, folder 64, RBP.

7. John Groves to Roy Benavidez, APO, SF, September 10, 1988, box 4Zc199, folder 3, RBP.

8. Billac, Last Medal of Honor, 97.

9. Various clippings found in box 4Zc196, folder 17, RBP; “Benavidez Is Guest Speaker for the Kiwanis Club,” Fort Bend Star, December 29, 1993, 3; “Hero to Participate,” Victoria Advocate, July 26, 1990, 17; “Patrick AFB,” Florida Today, September 23, 1991, 2B; and Gerry Bueker to Chris Barbee, Aurora, CO, May 18, 1992, box 4Zc194, folder 57, RBP.

10. Elizabeth Conner, “Veteran Symbolizes Fourth,” Victoria Advocate, July 4, 1989, 1A; and Joe Olvera, “Veteran’s Day Honors the Men Who Fought for the United States,” El Paso Times, November 11, 1990, 3G.

11. Roy Jones II, “Decorated Soldier Urges Hispanics to Graduate,” Abilene Reporter-News, September 26, 1992, 1A and 10A; and David Reyes, “Honors for a Few Good Soldiers…,” Los Angeles Times, November 8, 1998, B1 and B6.

12. Chris Barbee, “HISD Names Elementary for Roy Benavidez,” El Campo Leader-News, August 28, 1991; and Roy P. Benavidez Elementary School Dedication Ceremony Program, May 19, 1992, box 194, folder 59, RBP. For more, see the school website at www.houstonisd.org/benavidez.

13. “Banquet Deemed a ‘Total Sellout,’” El Campo Leader-News, undated, box 4Zc194, folder 17, RBP.

14. Biography of a Patriot, Proposal, 1992, box 4Zc195, folder 14, RBP.

15. AP, “Raye Awarded Medal of Freedom,” Victoria Advocate, November 17, 1993, 3C.

16. AP, “Honored Veteran Meets Rescuer’s Kin,” Charlotte Observer, July 30, 1994, 6C; 1994 Mrs. America Pageant Program, box 4Zc195, folder 7, RBP; and “‘Medal of Honor’ Story for Everyone,” San Antonio Express-News, April 23, 1995, 1.

17. “Medal Winner to Be in McAllen…,” The Monitor (McAllen, TX), August 15, 1990, 14A; Dale Roverson, “Benavidez Seeking Support for Plan to Aid U.S. Troops,” Victoria Advocate, January 10, 1991, 8B.

18. Billac, Last Medal of Honor.

19. Lois Scott, “Vietnam Hero Tells His Story,” Victoria Advocate, September 23, 1990, 5; Frank Stransky, “Book Tells the Story of Medal of Honor Soldier,” El Paso Herald-Post, July 16, 1990, B6; Joel Kirkpatrick, “War Hero Benavidez Still Can’t Define Courage,” Galveston Daily News, March 31, 1990, 12A; and Dale Robertson, “Book Relates Battle in Hell,” El Campo Leader-News, May 30, 1991, 6A.

20. Shannon Crabtree, “New Book Recounting Benavidez’s Story Out Feb. 1,” El Campo Leader-News, January 25, 1995, 3A; H. Ross Perot, “Foreword,” in Medal, vii–viii.

21. Medal.

22. Medal, 3.

23. Medal, quoted on 168, 170, and 171.

24. Roy’s letters to publishers are located in box 4Zc197, folder 7, RBP.

25. Mitch Shanklin to Roy Benvaidez, Auburn, KY, February 12, 1995, box 4Zc199, folder 1; Michael Catalano to Roy Benavidez, Chicago, IL, March 5, 1995, box 4Zc198, folder 16; Norman Hoggatt to Roy Benavidez, Carson City, NV, box 4Zc199, folder 12; Donna Ikeda to Roy Benavidez, Toronto, Canada, May 6, 1996, box 4Zc197, folder 9; Timothy Berg to Roy Benavidez, Stuttgart, Germany, July 24, 1995, box 4Zc198, folder 13; Brandon Brewer to Roy Benavidez, Peoria, AZ, July 18, 1995, box 4Zc199, folder 24; Justin Gorczynski to Roy Benavidez, San Antonio, TX, March 6, 1995, box 4Zc195, folder 2; Jennifer Rick to Roy Benavidez, Idaho Falls, ID, October 22, 1996, box 4Zc198, folder 15; Elijah Ingraham to Roy Benavidez, Ormond Beach, FL, September 24, 1995, box 4Zc198, folder 11; and D. Buckmaster to Roy Benavidez, Citrus Heights, CA, box 4Zc199, folder 27, all located in RBP.

26. Myra Fincher to Roy Benavidez, WPAFB, OH, August 21, 1995, box 4Zc196, folder 24; Maria Cruz to Roy Benavidez, Philadelphia, PA, September 8, 1995, box 4Zc197, folder 15; Brian Orban, “In the Eyes of a Hero,” Northern Light, November 1, 1996, 6; and additional invitations found in box 197, folder 17, all located in RBP.

27. Garcia and Prochazka, interview.

28. Garcia and Prochazka, interview.

29. Garcia and Prochazka, interview.

30. Garcia and Prochazka, interview.

31. Noel Benavidez, 2018 interview.

32. Noel Benavidez, 2018 interview.

33. Noel Benavidez, 2018 interview.

34. Noel Benavidez, 2018 interview; and Garcia and Prochazka, interview.

35. Noel Benavidez, 2018 interview; and Garcia and Prochazka, interview.

36. Noel Benavidez, 2018 interview; and Garcia and Prochazka, interview.

37. Bob Link, “Hero Brings Message,” Bismarck Tribune, April 13, 1997, 1A; “Around Anchorage,” Anchorage Daily News, September 18, 1997, D2; and Colleen Dee Berry, “Horror of ’Nam Came Home,” Courier-News, November 12, 1997, A1 and A14.

38. Garcia and Prochazka, interview.

39. Garcia and Prochazka, interview; and Noel Benavidez, 2018 interview.

40. Garcia and Prochazka, interview; and Noel Benavidez, 2018 interview.

41. Garcia and Prochazka, interview; Noel Benavidez, 2018 interview; “Hero Needs Help,” The Sentinel (Carlisle, PA), May 25, 1998, B3; and Tom Waddill, “Vietnam War Hero Benavidez Is Listed Stable,” Victoria Advocate, May 8, 1998, 8A.

42. Garcia and Prochazka, interview; and Noel Benavidez, 2018 interview.

43. Garcia and Prochazka, interview; and Noel Benavidez, 2018 interview.

44. Garcia and Prochazka, interview; and Noel Benavidez, 2018 interview.

45. Sig Christenson, “Veteran Faces New Struggle,” San Antonio Express-News, November 8, 1998, 1B and 5B.

46. Garcia and Prochazka, interview.

47. Letters can be found in box 4Zc198, folders 1–9 and box 4Zc196, folders 1–6, RBP.

48. Letters can be found in box 4Zc198, folders 1–9 and box 4Zc196, folders 1–6, RBP. Specific reference taken from card in 4Zc196, folder 5.

49. Letters in box 4Zc196, folders 4–6, RBP.

50. Letters in box 4Zc196, folder 3, RBP.

51. Noel Benavidez, 2018 interview.

52. Barbee, interview; and Roy Benavidez to John Garcia, San Antonio, TX, November 17, 1998, box 4Zc198, folder 20, RBP.

53. Garcia, interview; and Barbee, interview.

54. Texas State Department of Health, certificate of death, reg. file # 02 09666 (Dec. 10, 1998), Roy Benavidez, Bureau of Vital Statistics, San Antonio Metropolitan District, copy in author’s possession.

55. Kelly Shannon, “Last Farewell to a Soldier and a Hero,” Corpus Christi Caller-Times, December 4, 1998, A13; Barbee, interview; Garcia and Prochazka, interview; Patricia Smith-Newsome to Mrs. Benavidez, San Antonio, TX, December 8, 1998, box 4Zc198, folder 2; and Dan Rather, “Benavidez Death,” #379838, CBS Evening News, December 4, 1998.

56. Louis Lerma, “Benavidez Gave His Life to Serving America,” Galveston Daily News, December 2, 1998, A14; Richard Estrada, “Benavidez Personified Patriotism,” El Paso Times, December 7, 1998, 11A.

57. Hiram Benitez to Mrs. Benavidez and the Benavidez Family, Eagle River, AK, December 16, 1998, box 4Zc198, folder 4, RBP; Diana DeLaRosa to Noel Benavidez, Houston, TX, December 10, 1998, box 4Zc198, folder 8, RBP; and other cards box 4Zc198, folders 1–8, RBP.

58. Garcia and Prochazka, interview; and Noel Benavidez, 2018 interview.

59. Barbee, interview; Barbee Eulogy, December 1, 1998, El Campo, TX, box 4Zc195, folder 22, RBP; and pictures from the ceremony located in box 3T4.3, RBP.

60. “The Passing of an American Hero,” The Drop, Spring, 1999, 4–7, quoted on 5.

61. Personal observations made on numerous occasions; Barbee, interview; and AP, “Veterans Turn Out to Say Goodbye to Roy Benavidez,” Victoria Advocate, December 4, 1998, 1.

62. Roy Benavidez Funeral Program, box 4Zc195, folder 22, RBP; pictures from the ceremony located in box 3T4.3, RBP; and personal observations made on numerous occasions.

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Epilogue

1. Louis Caldera to Mrs. Roy P. Benavidez, Washington, DC, December 3, 1998; and Sympathy Card located in box 4Zc198, folder 1, RBP. Other cards and letters located in folders 1–9, box 4Zc198, RBP.

2. Chris Barbee, “U.S. Army Complex Named in Honor of Benavidez,” El Campo Leader-News, August 25, 1999, 3A; and “Roy P. Benavidez Special Operations Logistics Complex Ribbon Cutting and Dedication Ceremony” program, August 16, 1999, box 4Zc200, folder 4, RBP.

3. “Play Honors Latino Vets,” Los Angeles Times, July 27, 2000, 52; Scott Huddleston, “San Antonians May See Play About Benavidez, Other Veterans,” San Antonio Express-News, October 26, 2000, 1B; Chris Barbee, “Benavidez Featured in Wortham Play,” Wharton Journal-Spectator, June 8, 2002, box 4Zc194, folder 58, RBP; and “Veteranos: A Legacy of Valor” program, box 4Zc200, folder 38, RBP.

4. Invitation to Texas Medal of Honor Presentation to Roy Benavidez, box 4Zc200, folder 4, RBP; Juan B. Elizondo Jr., “Patriotic Texan Wounded in ’68 Rescue Is Given Legislative Medal of Honor,” Austin American-Statesman, May 3, 2001, B1 and B5; and “Local Military Hero Wins Legislature’s Top Honor,” Victoria Advocate, May 3, 2001, 1 and 12.

5. Christening, USS Benavidez, Program, July 21, 2001, box 4Zc200, folder 31, RBP; Buddy Gee, “Navy Christens USNS Benavidez,” El Campo Leader-News, July 25, 2001, 7A; Cristina McGlew, “A Hero Both on the Battlefield and Off,” Sealift, August 2001, box 4Zc200, folder 35, RBP; and Ann Rundle, “Ship Sails with Local Hero’s Name,” Victoria Advocate, July 29, 2001, 1A and 8A.

6. Stephanie L. Jordan, “Another Honor for Roy Benavidez,” Corpus Christi Caller-Times, July 22, 2001, 1 and 9; and Rundle, “Ship Sails.”

7. Rundle, “Ship Sails”; AP, “G.I. Joe, the Hispanic Hero,” Albuquerque Tribune, August 20, 2001, 1. Roy Benavidez G.I. Joe in author’s possession.

8. Melony Overton, “Cuero to Honor War Hero with Life-Sized Bronze Statue,” Victoria Advocate, September 27, 2000, 4; Ann Rundle, “Building a Memorial to a Hero,” Victoria Advocate, August 28, 2002, 1; “Area Veterans Day Events,” Victoria Advocate, November 11, 2004, 4D; “Dance Will Raise Money for Memorial,” Victoria Advocate, February 7, 2002, 5A; “Paving the Way”; AP, “Vietnam War Hero Honored with Statue,” Austin American-Statesman, 13, 2004, B5; and personal observations made on multiple occasions.

9. Personal observations made at the Reagan Library and Presidential Museum, Simi Valley, CA, June 19, 2019.

10. Blehm, Legend; Yvette Benavidez Garcia, Tango Mike Mike: The Story of Master Sergeant Roy P. Benavidez (self-published by author, 2017); and Medal of Honor: Roy Benavidez (Arlington, VA: United States Army, 2019).

11. Roy P. Benavidez Elementary School website: https://www.southsanisd.net/BES, accessed August 22, 2018; and “State Highway to Be Dedicated to Special Forces Veteran,” Victoria Advocate, March 19, 2019, A6.

12. Alex Horton, “Army Should Remove Ft. Hood’s Confederate Namesake for a Legendary Hispanic Soldier,” Washington Post, July 31, 2019, www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/07/31/army-should-remove-ft-hoods-confederate-namesake-legendary-hispanic-soldier-group-says; Emily Caldwell, “Panel Gathering Input on New Military Base Names,” Marion Star, October 4, 2021, A4; Sig Christenson, “Castro and Other Hispanic Lawmakers Renew Call to Rename Fort Hood for Roy Benavidez,” San Antonio Express-News, April 13, 2021, www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/Castro-and-other-Hispanic-lawmakers-renew-call-to-16098856.php; Sarah Kuta, “Nine Army Bases Honoring Confederate Leaders Could Soon Have New Names,” Smithsonian Magazine, May 26, 2022, www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/these-are-the-9-new-names-recommended-for-army-bases-honoring-confederate-leaders-180980160; and Rachael Riley, “These 9 Fort Bragg Roads Will Be Renamed,” Fayetteville Observer, April 5, 2023, www.fayobserver.com/story/news/military/2023/04/05/fort-bragg-officials-renaming-nine-roads-on-post/70069513007.

13. Bianca Montes, “Hero,” Victoria Advocate, November 11, 2015, A1, A4, and A5.

14. Montes, “Hero.”

15. Samantha Douty, “El Campo ISD Rejects Naming School After War Hero,” November 23, 2019, A1 and A3; “School Board’s Decision Insult to War Hero,” Victoria Advocate, December 6, 2019, A6; and Yvette Garcia, email to author, November 7, 2022.

16. Douty, “El Campo ISD”; “School Board’s Decision”; and Garcia, email to author.

17. David Tarrant, “Who Was Roy Benavidez?,” Dallas Morning News, June 9, 2020, www.dallasnews.com/news/2020/06/09/who-was-roy-benavidez-the-man-whose-name-some-say-should-replace-confederate-generals-at-fort-hood/#:~:text=Texas%20native%20Roy%20Benavidez%2C%20a,U.S.%20president%20would%20later%20say; and US House, “Diversity in America: The Representation of People of Color in the Media,” September 24, 2020, 116th Cong. (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 2022), 13–20, www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-116hhrg42635/html/CHRG-116hhrg42635.htm, accessed February 24, 2023.

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