The United States Marines are using the Combined Action Program (CAP) more and more in this War on Terror.   It's a great program to serve in, but personally, I thought it was some scary stuff...   During the Vietnam War, I served on CAP 2-9-2 in the Duc Duc Resettlement Village from about the end of April 1970 to August 14, 1970. 

We actually had bounties on our heads.   The local Viet Cong terrorists offered about $1,000, if a Vietnamese peasant killed an American.    Some Marines had higher prices on their heads.   (My head was worth about $12.53 )   We made it into a joke...   (Another thing to tease each other about.)

At the time, the Viet Cong were offering about $1,000 per American in my village, an average rice farmer was making about $600 a year.  Flashing  $1,000 should have motivated a lot of poor Vietnamese peasants, but it did not.   Instead, the peasants supported us with intelligence against the communists. 

The terrorists really had the money to pay the peasants, because I was on the operation outside my village, when we found thousands of dollars in Vietnamese and American currency.  My Cap Team was out there with a company of grunts and two tanks from the Fifth Marines.  The South Vietnamese and American cash was donated to the communists by a California State College student union.  On that same operation, we found other supplies donated to the terrorists by the same American College student union.     (You can read more details about CAP at the program's two official websites:  http://www.capmarine.com   &  http://www.cap-assoc.org   )

Here's just one thing that still stands out in my mind.  In one portion of our village, if communists entered the village at night, peasant families would start banging pots to warn the American Marines.  

Because of President Nixon's troop pullout, the U.S. Marines returned total responsibility of the An Hoa Valley back to the South Vietnamese military by November 1970.  I served on the last CAP Team of the Duc Duc Resettlement Village.   CAP 2-9-2 left the village in the middle of August 1970. 

By January & February 1971, Senator John Kerry, Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland and their friends were telling  The World  on television; and in magazines and in newspapers that Americans in Vietnam were burning down villages and killing babies as a normal part of their responsibilities.

It was all great cover and diversion for what was really happening in Vietnam. 

Press Here To Read The Experiences Of Jack Cunningham Living And Serving In His Peasant-Farming Village For July 17, 1970.

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The below history of my peasant village was written BY ALAN WAUGH

http://home.earthlink.net/~ducducvietnamfriends/an_unknown_massacre_in_vietnam/id8.html

The first two weeks of March 1971 saw an increase in enemy activity in the province of Quang Nam.  Da Nang took 16 rockets in an attack on 4th March.  Throughout the An Hoa basin patrols made contact with small groups of VC or NVA.

III MAF using recovered enemy documents knew that the Communists were planning a new offensive called the K-850 Campaign.  The objectives of the campaign were to attack district Headquarters, PF & RF positions, CUPP and CAP units. Da Nang would also get its fair share of rockets .

During K-850 the VC/NVA put a lot of pressure on the Vietnamese forces and their pacification program.  On 27th March the 1st Marine Division put all its units on alert against foreseen rocket attacks.  On the night of the 28th Da Nang which was shrouded in low cloud came under rocket attack along with nearby allied positions.

In the province the enemy attacked Duc Duc, Dai Loc, Dien Ban, and the Que Son District Headquarters.  They also attacked CUPP and CAP hamlets and refugee resettlement hamlets.  Bridges and highways in the province were also attacked.

Early on the morning of the 29th at 0210 two battalions of the NVA 38th Regiment along with two VC sapper battalions charged into Duc Duc while their mortars and rockets roared in.  The District HQ compound was the NVA’s primary target.  Meanwhile the VC sappers attacked the nearby hamlets destroying everything in their path.   BY ALAN WAUGH