MWSA Review

This detailed memoir/history is divided into three distinct parts. The first is a true memoir, briefly covering the author's youth and early years as a Marine aviator in the Vietnam era. The main part of the narrative is an exhaustive accounting of a then-secret 1970 military raid into southern Laos, in which the author played a supporting role. The last part comprises the author's critical analysis of a discredited CNN investigative report that was broadcast some 28 years after the raid.

At a period when opposition to the Vietnam War was reaching its high point, the author doggedly pursued his goal of becoming a Marine aviator. Assigned in country to an attack helicopter squadron, he provided close air support for Operation Tailwind, a four-day CIA-led raid against North Vietnamese forces on a segment of the Ho Chi Minh Trail deep in southern Laos. Since Laos was a neutral country, the use of US ground forces there was highly classified. The action was met with fierce opposition, and ended with a costly withdrawal and limited success. The author provides a day-by-day account of the raid, which was conducted by a small contingent of American Special Forces soldiers and a company of Montagnard troops. By the time the team was extracted, all sixteen Americans had been wounded and three Montagnards had been killed.

Operation Tailwind might have become a minor footnote to the Vietnam War, but 28 years after the incident a controversial TV documentary entitled "Valley of Death" alleged the use of deadly poison gas by United States forces. "Valley of Death" arose from a perfect storm of over-eager journalism, questionable sources, and slipshod oversight. A joint venture of the fledgling Cable News Network and TIME Magazine, and narrated by Pulitzer Prize-winning war correspondent Peter Arnett, the 18-minute show was quickly discredited but nonetheless cast a shadow over the integrity and heroism of the original raiders and their leadership. The fact that the operation was highly classified added to the difficulty of countering the accusations of the documentary. Nonetheless, the sponsors and promoters of "Valley of Death" were ultimately forced to withdraw their claims and in many cases professionally disgraced.

The author is reluctant to let the conclusions of the many critics of "Valley of Death" stand and spends the third part of his book addressing the many inconsistencies and outright falsehoods in the documentary.
The book provides excellent background on the political and military challenges presented by North Vietnam’s covert invasion of its neighbor to the west and the vital role of the Ho Chi Minh Trail as the lifeline for the communist fighting forces in South Vietnam. The story of Operation Tailwind provides a vivid example of the intensity and desperation of combat in the shadows of a little-known sideshow to the greater Vietnam conflict.

Review by Peter Young (February 2023)

 Author's Synopsis

The Studies and Observations Group was a covert American military unit in Vietnam that specialized in clandestine cross-border operations in Laos and Cambodia. In September 1970, sixteen Green Berets and one-hundred-twenty Montagnard mercenaries departed on Operation Tailwind, the largest and deepest raid in SOG history. Their mission was to disrupt and distract the enemy in support of a larger CIA operation that originated in the White House.

Over the next four days, as their ammunition dwindled and casualties mounted, these soldiers, and the aircrews overhead that went to extraordinary lengths to keep them alive, achieved the improbable if not the impossible.

Twenty-eight years after Tailwind concluded, CNN produced a documentary about Tailwind, called “Valley of Death,” accusing the participants of war crimes, specifically using nerve gas to kill women, children, and American defectors. This broadcast created a media firestorm that reached around the world.

In Operation Tailwind: Memoirs of a Secret Battle in a Secret War, Barry Pencek gives an incredibly detailed account of the four-day running battle and does a thought-provoking deep dive into the failure of journalistic ethics at CNN that created a media debacle. Besides being one hell of a war story, Operation Tailwind provides a great example of the need for the highest integrity in journalism and should be required reading for all J-school students.

Format(s) for review: Paper and Kindle

Review Genre: Nonfiction—Memoir/Biography

Number of Pages: 339

Word Count: 87,600