Magazine Aims to ‘Unlock Enigma’ of Vietnam War

An old generation is remembering the Vietnam war and a new generation is curious, stirring a revival of the controversial era in books and movies. Now comes a new publication, a slick magazine simply named Vietnam, whose first issue goes on sale today.

“Our timing could not have been better because right now, look at all the Vietnam movies that have come out,” said publisher Gregg R. Oehler in a telephone interview from Leesburg, Va., where the magazine is published by Empire Press. “Look at all the major emphasis now on video, on books. It’s Vietnam. Everyone now is talking about Vietnam.”

Oehler said 150,000 copies of the first issue were printed, including 50,000 for subscribers and 100,000 for newsstand sales across the United States and in 16 other countries.

The magazine, a quarterly, sells for $2.95 a copy on newsstands and for $9.95 for the four issues by subscription.

Oehler said the response has been so overwhelming from wholesalers, subscribers and the media that the magazine will probably go to six issues a year in 1989. Many of the subscribers are Vietnam veterans, a large number of them in prison.

“I’ve gotten hundreds of letters from Vietnam veterans in prison,” said Oehler. “They’re so happy to hear that a magazine is coming out.”

Color Photographs

Each issue will run 68 pages with a regular format of four feature stories and six departments including editorial, fighting forces, bases and installations, arsenal and book reviews.

The initial issue includes an interview with Gen. Fred C. Weyand, America’s last military commander in Vietnam, and a story on Tan Son Nhut Air Base, the command center for America’s forces in Vietnam which was called the “Pentagon East.” It also includes 32 pages of color photographs and maps. The cover shows two soldiers defending their post with a machine gun.

In the editorial in the first issue, the editor, retired Col. Harry G. Summers Jr., explains the goal of the magazine:

“Thirty-eight years after American involvement in Vietnam began, 15 years after the withdrawal of all U.S. military forces there, and 13 years after the fall of Saigon, the war there truly remains an enigma. The goal we here at Vietnam magazine have set for ourselves is to find the key to unlock that enigma.”

In an interview, Summers said that in visits to colleges he has found great interest in Vietnam among young people who want to know what really happened there. He said there seems to be a misunderstanding of the war especially among this generation, many of whom were not even born when American soldiers were pouring into Vietnam in 1965.

“There is the perception that the United States was defeated by a guerrilla army,” he said. “That’s not true. The American military withdrew from Vietnam 2 1/2 years before the fall of Saigon. The North Vietnamese did not defeat the American military when they seized Saigon for a very simple reason: There was no American military there to defeat. One of our objectives is to refute some of the myths.”

‘Diverse’ Voices

Summers, 56, is widely known and respected as an authority on military affairs. He served in both the Korean and Vietnam wars.

He is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, a contributing editor for U.S. News & World Report and the author of two books, including the widely acclaimed “On Strategy: A Critical Analysis of the Vietnam War.”

The magazine’s editorial review board includes Gen. William C. Westmoreland, former commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam, and authors Stanley Karnow and Al Santoli, both of whom have written books on Vietnam.

Asked if the presence of Westmoreland and other former Vietnam officers on the board will leave the impression that the magazine will give only the official view, one that was often discredited during the war, Summers said:

“We’ve tried to get the voices as diverse as possible. I don’t think Stanley Karnow’s an apologist for the war. I don’t think I’m an apologist for the war. Certainly my book was very critical of the war. And so was Al Santoli.”