“A Tumultuous Two Years”: A Combat Veteran’s Transition To The State Department’s Foreign Service

Kenneth Moorefield grew up in Temple, Texas, outside Camp Hood. His father had commanded a battalion during World War II, one of the units that crossed the Remagen Bridge. His mother’s family worked for the Panama Canal. After the war, from 1950 to 1954, the Moorefields lived in occupied Germany, notably in the towns of Nuremberg and Heidelberg. Two of his best friends, John and David Vann, later became his West Point classmates. His father’s example, combined with the West Point T.V. series, convinced Ken to apply to the Academy. Although he appreciated the “profound impact” West Point had on his life, he wished for more academic options in the rigid curriculum of the 1960s, and less hazing. He vividly remembers a military history lecture where Bernard Fall showed a map of Vietnam with red dots indicating where village chiefs had been murdered, and that, coupled with a visit from President Kennedy, indicated their destiny to serve in Vietnam. He branched Infantry and deployed to the Dominican Republic with the 82nd Airborne Division, where he was injured during a riot when someone threw a piece of coral at him. After recovering, he attended the MATA course (Military Advisor Training Academy) and learned some Vietnamese. Deploying to Vietnam, he was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, in the 21st ARVN Division in Ca Mau province in the southernmost tip of the country. During the Tet Offensive in 1968, he was wounded while trying to position air support, and his Vietnamese Soldiers evacuated him. After months of recovery in Japan and at Walter Reed, he returned to Vietnam and took command of A Company, 2nd Battalion, 47th Infantry Regiment, in the 9th Infantry Division. Although he commanded a mechanized infantry company, he primarily used his tracks to get to the battlefield and then fought dismounted. After his time as a company commander, he served as an aide to two different generals in the 25th Infantry Division. He illustrates the “tactical and psychological” distance between troops on the ground and higher headquarters by describing a battle where a beleaguered company commander was receiving guidance from five levels of command stacked vertically in helicopters above him while he was trying to fight his company. After returning from Vietnam, he joined the Old Guard, and the sheer number of funerals he supported led to him leaving the military. After resigning his commission, he attended Georgetown, earned a Master’s Degree at the School of Foreign Service, and was selected by Ambassador Graham Martin to return to Vietnam as a Foreign Service Officer, serving as a Political / Military Officer in Nha Trang. He remained in Vietnam until the morning of April 30, 1975, the day Saigon fell, evacuating on one of the last helicopters out of the city. Years later, he returned to Vietnam when the U.S. Embassy reopened. His Foreign Service career included service as an ambassador. He later served in the Department of Defense Inspector General’s Office. In this interview, he talks about his childhood, his years at West Point, and his experiences as an Army Officer and Foreign Service Officer in Vietnam. He describes, in detail, several engagements he fought in as an Advisor and as a Company Commander, including receiving friendly fire from a Swift Boat .50 caliber machine gun. He discusses his role as an aide, sharing stories of a battalion commander being relieved and officers being rotated through positions to “punch their ticket.” He shares the climate of the Army in 1969, as “nobody believed we were fighting to win the war, and nobody wanted to be the last to die.” Regarding his return to Vietnam as a Foreign Service Officer, he describes working with the ICCS Officers (International Commission of Control and Supervision) who were responsible for reporting cease-fire violations. He felt that Nixon’s resignation killed the Republic of Vietnam, because the President had made commitments that were not upheld once he left office. He also reflects on the “terrible decision” to allow 12-13 North Vietnamese divisions to remain in South Vietnam, despite all the indicators of their intent to violate the cease-fire. Near the end of the interview, he highlights, in great detail, the last few days of the Republic of Vietnam and the efforts to evacuate South Vietnamese citizens who had helped the United States, providing gripping insights into his last hours on the ground. Finally, he describes what West Point means to him.