Foreword
The United States Army has met an unusually complex challenge in SoutheastAsia. In conjunction with the other services, the Army has fought in support ofa national policy of assisting an emerging nation to develop governmentalprocesses of its own choosing, free of outside coercion. In addition to theusual problems of waging armed conflict, the assignment in Southeast Asia hasrequired superimposing the immensely sophisticated tasks of a modern army upon anunderdeveloped environment and adapting them to demands covering a widespectrum. These involved helping to fulfill the basic needs of an agrarianpopulation, dealing with the frustrations of antiguerrilla operations, andconducting conventional campaigns against well-trained and determined regularunits.
As this assignment nears an end, the U.S. Army must prepare for otherchallenges that may lie ahead. While cognizant that history never repeatsitself exactly and that no army ever profited from trying to meet a newchallenge in terms of the old one, the Army nevertheless stands to benefitimmensely from a study of its experience, its shortcomings no less than itsachievements.
Aware that some years must elapse before the official histories will providea detailed and objective analysis of the experience in Southeast Asia, we havesought a forum whereby some of the more salient aspects of that experience canbe made available now. At the request of the Chief of Staff, a representativegroup of senior officers who served in important posts in Vietnam and who stillcarry a heavy burden of day-to-day responsibilities has prepared a series ofmonographs. These studies should be of great value in helping the Army developfuture operational concepts while at the same time contributing to thehistorical record and providing the American public with an interim report onthe performance of men and officers who have responded, as others have throughour history, to exacting and trying demands.
All monographs in the series are based primarily on official records, withadditional material from published and unpublished secondary works, fromdebriefing reports and interviews with key participants, and from the personalexperience of the author. To facilitate security clearance, annotation anddetailed bibliography have been omitted from the published version: a fullydocumented account with bibliography is filed with the Office of the Chief ofMilitary History.
Major General Spurgeon Neel is especially qualified to write a study of theMedical Department support of the U.S. Army in Vietnam. Not only is General Neelone of the most decorated Medical Corps officers presently on active duty, buthe is also a specialist in a variety of military-medical disciplines. A SeniorFlight Surgeon, Senior Parachutist, and Senior Gliderist, he is the Army'sleading authority on Aviation Medicine. This, coupled with his clinicalexpertise in the specialty of Preventive Medicine, and his broad and variedcommand and staff experience, place him in the forefront of those who can writeauthoritatively of the Medical Department's role in Vietnam.
General Neel has served two tours of duty in Vietnam, in positions of extremeresponsibility, which enabled him to participate in the major decisionsregarding medical support of the Allied Forces. From 1966 to 1967, he was the,USMACV Surgeon and Senior Adviser to General Westmoreland. Later, 1968 to 1969,he returned to Vietnam and served initially as CG, 44th Medical Brigade, andSurgeon, USARV, and subsequently, as Surgeon, USMACV, and principal medicaladviser to General Abrams, Upon his return to CONUS, General Neel was nominatedDeputy Surgeon General, Department of the Army, the position in which he hasserved since 1 October 1969.
In addition to this study, General Neel is the author of some 33 articleswhich have been published in leading professional journals in this country andabroad. His present work constitutes a candidly expressed authentic overview ofthe Medical Department's experiences in Vietnam which should be of considerableinterest and benefit to all students of this period in our history.
Washington, D.C. VERNE L. BOWERS
15 August1972 Major General, USA
The Adjutant General
