HL Serra

Review written by Bernie Weisz Historian and Book Reviewer, Vietnam War June 13, 2011 Pembroke Pines, Florida U.S.A. Contact: BernWei1@aol.com Title of Review: An American NILO in Cambodia: Abandoned If Captured, Rewarded And Encouraged by Wishy Washy Staff On The Home Front! A Nilo? What is a Nilo? The acronym NILO stands for "Naval Intelligence Liaison Officer" and is the role Larry Serra historically utilizes in fictional form to vicariously express his ordeal performing that very function during the Vietnam War. At the age of 24, Serra was in S.E. Asia in 1970, previous to, during and after the most significant event of that year, the "Cambodian Incursion." Why did Larry Serra write this as fiction? Any trip to your local bookstore or a browsing of offerings on book seller Internet sites will reveal an abundance of recent Vietnam War memoirs being put out the last ten years. This outpouring actually exceeds published memoirs put out the first ten years after the war ended, i.e. 1973 to 1983. Why is this? Most Veterans did not like to talk about a war they considered fraught with traumatic issues, such as losing comrades, survivor's guilt, Agent Orange issues, mistreatment by an ungrateful citizenship upon return, etc. There are numerous accounts of soldiers being spit at upon coming back to "The World" or striping off their uniforms immediately upon landing on U.S. soil to avoid a traumatic confrontation with peace protesters, not to mention the stigma of feeling like they were returning from a "lost war." Possibly time does not heal all wounds, however, it sure makes it easier for a Vietnam Veteran to reflect with less pain when the tincture of time is in effect. However, any recollection, even put out as pure nonfiction, will have an element of inventive imagination, as names, dates and even events get dimmed with the passage of time. Nobody wants to read a straight, boring monologue of recollection, completely lacking novel imagery and cliffhanger inventiveness, features this novel is jammed packed with. "Nilo Ha Tien" is a historical novel. The author states right in the beginning the following admonition to the reader:"This story is told as fiction for a number of reasons: to inject a textural and sensory feel for the places, people and events; to protect the innocent and the guilty, and to allow the author a flight of fancy in undertaking the prosecution of a naval officer for his intelligence activities." Serra's last reason was why I titled this review as such. You will read with indignation the humiliating ordeal a great American patriot was subjected to by just doing what he was told to do by people concerned with personal accolades and conflicting agendas, some contrary to the goal America attempted to achieve in S.E. Asia. How much of "Nilo Ha Tien" is fiction? Serra answers this right in the introduction by asserting: "Virtually all the events described herein actually happened, and the author leaves the reader to guess which did not. He probably will guess wrong, truth being stranger than fiction."

Winning the Bronze Star as well as ten other combat and campaign awards, Larry Serra was a lieutenant in the United States Navy, serving under Admiral Elmo Zumwalt as a NILO in Ha Tien, the very last outpost before Cambodia in the southern tip of the now extinct Republic of South Vietnam. His tour of S.E. Asia lasted three years, replacing Philip Babb as the Nilo in charge of this strategically important naval area. This book is loaded with very real photos, some provided by Mr. Babb, that gives the reader the picture that "Nilo Ha Tien's" labeling as fiction is certainly a misnomer. Frank Brown, one of the characters in this book, actually exists, teaching Mr. Serra what he labeled "Intelligence Tradecraft." Most navel personnel operating along the Mekong Delta as well as the Gulf of Thailand were deemed the "Brown Water Navy." For the most part unaware of NILO activities, these men operated small gun and patrol boats as well as larger ships, the PBR units, Riverines, LST's, the helicopter and Seawolf units as well as all other Naval units operating in Vietnam. Serra brings the reader into the secret world of covert operations and Navy spy networks operating in Cambodia in early 1970. Serra's protagonist, Thomas Medici, who actually is Serra's pseudonym, covertly penetrates Cambodia on U.S. Naval Intelligence missions and negotiated a secret weapons agreement with the Cambodian Navy, then foiled the annihilation of the Port of Sihanoukville, for which he was ignominiously tried at a Naval Board of Inquiry." This hearing is conveyed by Serra, a man who in real life is an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Arizona Rogers College of Law. Serra's recounting of the reality that Medici faced in this Board of Inquiry truly makes the reader feel the persecution and indignation that was unjustly thrust on unselfish Americans that put themselves in harm's way. Actually, Serra took forty painstaking years to produce this thrilling novel. During this period, every small anecdote that he recalled, he meticulously recorded, as the people, places and events that he encountered all jelled together to form the basis of this book. Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr. who passed away in January of 2000, was Serra's Chief of Staff, not to mention and the youngest man to ever serve as Chief of Naval Operations. Zumwalt played a major role in U.S. military history, especially during the Vietnam War. A highly-decorated war veteran, Zumwalt ameliorated U.S. Navy personnel policies in an effort to improve enlisted life and ease racial tensions as well as reshaped the Navy's effort to replace large numbers of aging World War II-era vessels with more modern and economic ones that could be bought in greater numbers. Serra based this book on missions that he was directly sent on by Admiral Zumwalt.

By using Naval Historical Archives declassified records, Serra was also able to give an exact depiction of a Cambodian weapons supply deal that he brokered as well as his involvement in preventing the destruction of the Port of Sihanoukville, the only deep water port in Cambodia. During the Vietnam War, there were "Rules of Engagement," such as respecting the neutrality of noncombatant countries, i.e. Cambodia and Laos. The problem was that the North Vietnamese were covertly supplying the Viet Cong as well as bringing in arms and military supplies themselves to the South, which ran on a secret trail that snaked through neutral countries. These countries, Laos and particularly Cambodia, were NVA "superhighways," conduits of the infamous "Ho Chi Minh Trail." Although not immune to aerial bombing, land penetration of these supposedly neutral territories was strictly prohibited. Innumerable times the North Vietnamese and their Southern brethren, the VC, would come from Cambodia, attack U.S. and South Vietnamese forces in hit and run skirmishes, and surreptitiously sneak back into Cambodia. NILO's knew that the North Vietnamese audaciously trucked unlimited tons of Communist weaponry into the faltering South Vietnamese democracy, taunting Allied forces. Although eventually deposed, Cambodia's Prince Sihanoukville wavered between shifting loyalty to both the North Vietnamese and the U.S. A NILO's spy target was to discover information that would agitate and disrupt this North Vietnamese weapons infiltration through this ostensibly neutral Cambodian Kingdom. NILO's made it their business through their spy network to know how, when and where the Russian and Chinese weapons were shipped in, trucked down the coast, and ultimately infiltrated across the Cambodian border by the NVA.

On 1 May 1970, U.S.and South Vietnamese units launched a ground and air offensive into farcically neutral Cambodia to eliminate North Vietnamese sanctuaries used for frequent raids into South Vietnam. The "Cambodian Incursion" announced by President Nixon, was a U.S. ground operation that took place over a 60-day period from May 1st to June 29th, 1970, and was overlapped by Allied air strikes and a 75 day South Vietnamese incursion. By combining the efforts of the South Vietnamese, devastating air power, and army ground forces, the Allied Forces overwhelmed enemy positions and supply points resulting in thousands of enemy killed and an unprecedented recovery of enemy materiel. Although the incursion is sometimes portrayed as a strategic failure, it was not. It ultimately proved to be the key event necessary for severing the North Vietnamese lines of communications and logistics in Cambodia, aiding the successful withdrawal program of American troops in an unpopular war, saving U.S. credibility. It was also a demonstration of the success of Vietnamization, a complete turnover of the war effort to the Vietnamese, which because of the way events in S.E. Asia eventually played out is an academic moot point. The U.S. only invaded Cambodia one time, however, the other supposedly neutral country that the NVA constantly violated, Laos, was invaded during "Operation Dewey Canyon." This was the last major offensive by the U.S. Marine Corps during the Vietnam War that took place from January 22 through March 18, 1969. It involved a sweep of the NVA dominated A Shau Valley by the 9th Marine Regiment reinforced by elements of the 3rd Marine Regiment. The 56 days of combat were a tactical success but similar to the Cambodian Incursion, it did not stop the overall flow of North Vietnamese men and materiel into South Vietnam. However, without giving away this fascinating story line, Serra teaches us much more about this war rarely found elsewhere. There is not much material out there on intelligence activities, aside from recently declassified "Special Operations Group" memoirs. The reader learns that similar to the Navy's NILO's, the Army had its own spy agents called the "Military Intelligence Group." Conversely, the Special Forces had their own spies, and the CIA had what they called "agents." Literally, South Vietnam was crawling with spies!

Equally complicated was Ha Tien, a town in Vietnam's southwest corner, which the North Vietnamese Army called its Military Region 3, the area responsible with infiltrating communist weapons and ammunition into the Mekong Delta from Cambodia. Serra explains how the munitions were brought by sea into Sihanoukville on Soviet and Russian ships, offloaded and split half and half with Cambodian and NVA military commanders. The NVA's half was trucked down to the South Vietnamese border for infiltration in modest quantities, with smugglers traveling by obscure canals and rivers. That's where the "Brown River Army" attempted to thwart them. However, the tactical intelligence from a NILO's network, discovering the "when and where" the interceptions would occur, was their responsibility. It is interesting to note a section that Serra includes in this novel. Knowing the prohibitive nature of the "Rules of Engagement," Serra's protagonist, Thomas Medici asks his superior, Kenck, how he is supposed to find out this information. Medici has the following very telling conversation with Kenck, with the latter asserting: "From now on, we want more political intelligence from Cambodia, and you have the authority to direct your agents deeper into Cambodia to get it. The NVA have used Cambodia throughout the war, thanks to Sihanouk looking the other way. Now, we want you to hit 'em where it hurts. You tell us where." How am I supposed to find this stuff out?" Medici asked? I thought we weren't supposed to go into Cambodia because of its neutrality and the Rules of Engagement." "Right, The Rules of Engagement keeps us out of Cambodia, except under hot pursuit circumstances." He leaned closer to Medici. You'll never get a direct order from the staff, but it's up to you to do what you must to get information. That's what your post is about Lieutenant. You are not to discuss it with anyone." He smiled, "You're gonna do Cambodia, pal."

Thomas Medici, in "Nilo Ha Tien" was referred to in Saigon circles as a "can do man." Paradoxically, some of his methods were called "cheeky." He also was warned by a captain the following ominous exhortation: "In all fairness to you, Lieutenant, that if you are caught up there, where no Americans are supposed to be, well, we'll treat you like the colored relative who shows up at the wedding and deny your existence." Because of Medici's ruthless methods, the NVA placed a $10,000 bounty on his head. Although SOG members also penetrated Cambodia and Laos on Black Operations called "Over the Fence" missions, they would always have a rescue mission sent after them should they get into trouble. These desperate recovery endeavors were referred to as "Bright Light" missions. Later, Medici would testify at his Board of Inquiry hearing the following: "It's my show and my risk all right-entirely mine. Staffers in Saigon won't look me in the eye when they tell me they can't help me if I continue my solo trips into Cambodia and get caught. Then they always wink and say, "But keep up the good work." There are other sensitive issues Serra brings to light. Larry Serra's arms deal to the Cambodians, as the reader will find out, prevented a Cambodian style "Dien Bien Phu." Serra also gives a preview of the grim future Cambodia would face in his 1970 description of preliminary Cambodian "ethnic cleansing." He also shows how a NILO can properly interrogate a prisoner to get the desired information, Cambodian war booty pilfered, and most interestingly, how a NILO can manipulate the press to get yellow journalism reported as desired. Finally, and sadly, Serra's comments about ill conceived and impossible missions, guaranteed to result in future American names on "The Wall, were generated by generals that: "could write each other up with medals." Larry Serra might have taken forty years to write this amazing book, however the information put forth in this expose is priceless, enhancing, and should be part of any serious study of the Vietnam War. It is easy to read, extremely well written and without error. A must read!… (más)

Review written by Bernie Weisz, Historian, Vietnam War. Pembroke Pines, Florida, USA Contact: BernWei1@aol.com Nov. 11th, 2012 Title of Review: A Reflection of My Spy Time in Cambodia & A Psychological Memory of Visceral Fear.
Larry Serra's last book, "Nilo Ha Tien" took forty years to write. "The Monk, and other Stories" took three years following his initial offering. The author has come full circle, filling in all the gaps of his first historical novel and giving the reader further priceless gems in historical anecdotes about the Vietnam War. Are both books fiction? Not likely! In 1970 Serra was a Naval Intelligence Liaison Officer, known simply with the acronym NILO. He did in fact broker a secret weapons agreement with Cambodia's Navy, thereby foiling the Port of Sihanoukville's destruction. Although acquitted, he was hypocritically tried at a Naval Board of Inquiry, a sad fact no Special Operations Group member who did "Over the Fence" missions in Laos or Cambodia ever faced. So why is this "historical fiction?" As he explained in "Nilo Ha Tien," Serra elucidates the following as to his fictional format; "To inject a textural and sensory feel for the places, people and events; to protect the innocent and the guilty; to allow the author a flight of fancy in undertaking the prosecution of a naval officer for his intelligence activities. Virtually all of the events herein actually happened, and the author leaves the reader to guess which did not. He will probably guess wrong, truth being stranger than fiction." Knowing this, after digesting "Nilo Ha Tien,"the reader hungers for more of Serra's stories. With "The Monk," you now have them!

In the tradition of John Del Vecchio's "The Thirteenth Valley," John Podlaski's "Cherries" and Karl Marlantes "Matterhorn," facts about the Vietnam War and Larry Serra's life and legal career are strewn anecdotally throughout the novel. If you have read different memoirs written by Vietnam Veterans, it is not difficult to find one where a wild monkey was not kept on an American base as a pet. They were fed everything from liquor to marijuana, and sometimes they even made it as simian passengers on Huey gunships. Wild in nature, some of these primates spit, bit and even threw things at soldiers, even turning on its owner. This exasperation is expressed in one particular tale which Serra humorously entitled "The Monk." Similarly, rats were a problem countrywide in South Vietnam from remote mountaintop Fire Support Bases to the streets of cosmopolitan Saigon. Any recounting by a veteran who was unfortunate enough to be stationed at Khe Sanh Combat Base during the 1968 Tet Offensive is rife with rodent recollections. In a passage entitled "Rats," Serra humorously addresses this pesky issue, in addition to recalling the oddities he witnessed in Southeast Asia. From the absurd to the outrageous, the author recalls the South Vietnamese "Ruff Puffs," i.e. Regional Forces starting a firefight with themselves, U.S. naval officers being regularly "gracious" to the widows of deceased Vietnamese naval officers as part of their duty and even more outrageous, a tropical ice cream parlor at Ha Tien, a remote city which Serra lampoons as the "Barstow of Vietnam."

In another anecdote Serra entitled "A Little Help For My Friends," Serra takes shots at both former President Richard M. Nixon and his Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger for their deceptive duplicity on the Cambodian issue. While insisting to America that he respected Cambodian neutrality, Nixon secretly bombed this country and even ordered an American incursion resulting in a domestic antiwar uproar that culminated in the infamous incident at Kent State University. Serra refers to Nixon's sidekick, who stoically went along with the President's program as "Kissinger playing Bismark." Details about the war, the political instability in Cambodia and their longstanding antipathy for their Vietnamese brethren are recounted, as Serra unequivocally wrote of their philosophy; "The only good Vietnamese is a dead Vietnamese." The author doesn't stop there, lampooning "Air America" and its operatives. This was an American passenger and cargo airline that was covertly owned and operated by the Central Intelligence Agency supplying and supporting U.S. covert operations in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. Once again, using Lt. Thomas Medici as both his fictional surrogate and protagonist, Serra comments on a CIA helicopter landing in Chau Doc, Vietnam as a "simonized" aircraft. Landing in a remote and heavily jungled part of sweltering Vietnam, the author describes Air America crew members jumping out of their shiny helicopter in crisp white shirts, Saigon mirror sunglasses and heavy gold bracelets, all tanned and smiling like a toothpaste commercial.

The author spares no one. Recounting an ARVN interpreter named "Mung," who was escorting NVA prisoners, Serra disparagingly asserted; "He had black market written all over him from the cologne, to the cigarettes, to the ostentatious gold ring, bracelet and chain that he wore. Mung saluted, then reached to shake his hand when Medici noticed his nails were manicured. Manicured! In the middle of the Vietnam War!" While there are many other interesting narratives in this novel, there is a sobering account of a Naval Captain patrolling the South China Sea who despite the protests of Medici as well as other crew members on the U.S.S. Tulsa, fired the ship's powerful guns of at an unarmed civilian sampan. The small boat was laden only with fishing nets and attacked because it crossed into a designated "free fire zone." After the ship was sunk with lethal results, Serra wrote a most telling passage; "The Executive Officer had not permitted the survivors to be brought into the ship's sick bay from the main deck, as if they were lepers. In a way they were, Medici thought, infected victims of the Commanding Officer's moral contagion." One must wonder if perhaps this tract is a euphemism for America's conduct of the entire Vietnam War. Larry Serra also confronts his past before Vietnam as well as his legal career afterwards, all through his protagonist. A graduate of Princeton University, Serra was a Congressional Intern in 1966, a historical period that witnessed the escalation of the Vietnam War, racism in America and Lyndon Johnson's "Great Society" initiative.

Larry Serra reminiscences this period as well as what he calls his "shanghaied entry" into the Navy. Noting he was young enough to be drafted yet indignant that he was not old enough to buy a beer was a situation many faced as they were deployed to Vietnam. Throughout the course of the war, the average age of Asian bound military personnel was nineteen. Serra volunteered as a NILO once in the Navy and attended Vietnamese language school at Coronado, California. In another amusing account, the author wondered if he was learning enough of this strange language to call in fire support or get a Vietnamese medic to stop his bleeding if wounded. Serra also met Robert Kennedy while working on Capitol Hill and eerily mentioned; "There was something religiously charismatic about Bobby. But there was something else. Something marked and tragic about the man. It was the air of guys in the combat zone you knew were going to get killed." Serra has been a lawyer now for four decades and concludes his novel with his endeavors to rebuild Cambodia's legal system after the carnage Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge imposed on this forlorn nation. The reader realizes that all these short stories are real and historically significant, and a fitting continuation to the author's first installment. One can only hope that Larry Serra has in store a third masterpiece and can futuristically recount additional adventures of his amazing career. After taking in "The Monk," readers can only wait with eager anticipation for more!… (más)