Prologue & Glossary

And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.

My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.

John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address

This starts roughly in December 1962, in a timeline different than ours, and after the Cuban Missile Crisis was over. It is time-travel, do-over, and somewhat autobiographical, although it departs much more significantly from our history than in the previous story, Tomorrow is another Day.

The history here of the early Vietnam events is generally quite accurate, drawing from sources mentioned below, as well as my own academic and professional background from a few years after the events. Without spoilers, I simply shall say that November 1963 was very important to the Kennedy Administration -- you’re thinking of the overthrow and killing of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem, right?

I moved the locale to Washington, DC, where I lived for more years than I spent growing up in a New Jersey suburb of New York City, where I experienced the events. When I discuss the Pentagon, CIA, NSA, White House, and other places, I’ve been there.

Please see the “Glossary” below, for an explanation of acronyms such as CIA, but also TS/SCI and TALENT KEYHOLE.

Most characters live and work in an apartment complex near American University, which I attended. Terry, a major character, leases several floors -- assume rooms and remodeling are quickly available. There is no experimental high school at the real AU, but the equivalent is common. The Alien Space Bats ensure that the group, which considers itself a clan, has all the money and other resources that it needs.

Once the establishing chapters are set, the general form is to have, on specific dates:

• Historical events

• (Fictional) Do-over actions of the characters

• Hard sex as part of the continued bonding of the clan of characters

Beyond the effects of the Others/Alien Space Bats, that clan is bonded emotionally, intellectually, and sexually. Their mutual oath of honor comes from an Honor Harrington novel by David Weber. I hope you will recognize a scene taken from the acting of Anne Bancroft.

Aspects of the sex are drawn from the sexual magick of Aleister Crowley, and other more academic studies of sexuality and magic-with-a-k (that works). If you are squicked by snowballing and creampies, you probably won’t like this story, because the combination of male and female fluids is considered, in this model, to have strong magickal properties. There may be minor M-M and transgender interactions.

I have taken liberties with certain historical figures, but, for example, I have no reason to believe that Roger Hilsman, Clint Hill, or others were open to seduction -- as opposed to the President, Robert Kennedy, Dave Powers, and others known for womanizing.

Sexual interactions

There is no open M-M homosexuality, as in among two men alone, but the characters are open to the idea of heterosexual group scenes in which there is M-M, F-F, and M-F contact. I personally identify as het, but I once had a lovely lady turn to me and say “You like watching me with other women. Why shouldn’t I get turned on by watching you with another man?”

She had a point. At our next threesome, she asked her husband and I to play a bit, under her direction, and it was a very hot scene. Subsequently, I went to a swinging party where, in designated rooms, women could suggest men interact in ways that they enjoyed, in return for giving very hot lesbian shows as well as true orgy scenes in which pretty much anyone could do anything to anyone. Male characters in this story may well have sexual interactions, but helped by women.

There is also sexual fluidity, such as a character who is cis male, but psychologically a woman. In this context, she presents as female and is rapidly transitioning -- the Others’ mind control can affect bodies. More conventionally, they accelerate the physique training results for everyone, and also help the boys especially look more mature.

A Lesbian Lass of Khartoum

Invited a Gay Guy to her Room

They argued all night

As who had the right

To do what, how, and to whom.

Since some people will give 1’s because they don’t like sexual practices about which they were warned, I will turn off voting until the first few chapters are up. The surviving readers will be fair.

A Personal Comment

I’m involved in a group that looks seriously at the Second Indochinese War, variously known in the U.S. as the Vietnam War (i.e., with Vietnamese extras in the movie) or, to the Vietnamese, the American War. Something that awes me is the warmth which which our once-enemies there interact with us, and, increasingly, that our veterans accept and offer back.

The books by Hal Moore and Joe Galloway, We were soldiers once, and young, and We are soldiers still, are a fine example. When I read of LTG (ret) Moore being embraced by Senior General (ret) Vo Nguyen Giap, it always puzzles me that there must be an onion being sliced nearby. Why else would my eyes do that?

During the war, I was in the U.S., supporting the effort with various engineering and scientific efforts, as well as working with military and intelligence organizations. As information became available, I became more and more dubious about American decisionmaking. A theme of this work is examining “what if it were better?”

The History

Because this is my story, I have chosen some enjoyable changes, such as moving the introduction of the miniskirt from when I remember it becoming prominent a few years later, to the start of the story. The Ethical Slut came out in 1997, but I use many of its ideas in 1962.

In the culture of the story, caring relationships between teachers and students, exploring sexuality, are accepted. No, the story line doesn’t get into legalities. Abuse of Registered Companions and Companions-in-Training is taken very, very seriously.

As in the real world, my adoptive mother was single and professional, in many ways psychologically in a fatherly role for the time. In my world, I was unaware that she was a lonely lesbian, not that I even knew the word at first. My (Harold’s) mother is off-screen, a very busy social worker and therapist who leaves him as a latchkey kid.

For story purposes, there is no accidental pregnancy and no sexually transmitted diseases, except perhaps carpal tunnel syndrome from cybersex. High heels are always comfortable, and, unless there is a story reason for it, no one trips in them. Again, unless there is a story reason, hair and makeup don’t get mussed by sleep or showers -- sometimes during sex.

Sources

Besides personal experiences and interactions with many participants, there are a great many, of which this is a small sample.

• Center for Military History, U.S. Department of the Army: Vietnam Studies series. In particular, Airmobility 1961-1971 and U.S. Army Special Forces in Vietnam: 1961-1971. These are freely downloadable.

• Citizendiu : Wars of Vietnam article with approximately 200 subordinate articles

• Department of Defense, The Pentagon Papers, officially titled “Report of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Vietnam Task Force”, was commissioned by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara in 1967. In June of 1971, small portions of the report were leaked to the press and widely distributed. However, the publications of the report that resulted from these leaks were incomplete and suffered from many quality issues. On the 40th anniversary of the leak to the press, the National Archives, along with the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon Presidential Libraries, has released the complete report. There are 48 boxes and approximately 7,000 declassified pages. Approximately 34% of the report is available for the first time, by free download.

• Fall, Bernard: Street without Joy and Hell in a Very Small Place

• George Washington University National Security Archive, FIGHTING THE WAR IN SOUTHEAST ASIA, 1961-1973,

• Joint Chiefs of Staff, Joint Publication 3-24, Counterinsurgency

• Moore, Harold G. (Hal) & Joseph L. Galloway: We were soldiers once ... and young and We are soldiers still: a journey back to the battlefields of Vietnam. The movie made from the first book is quite reasonable for Hollywood, but does change quite a few things.

• Giap, Vo Nguyen: People’s War, People’s Army [yes, I know that Vo is the family name, but he’s know as General Giap in the West]

• Hilsman, Roger: To Move a Nation

• Poole, Walter: The Joint Chiefs of Staff and National Policy 1961–1964

• Sheehan, Neil: A Bright Shining Lie

• Wiest, Andrew: Rolling Thunder in a Gentle Land: the Vietnam War Revisited

Glossary

Some simplified for storytelling reasons. Applicable to the “Tomorrow is another Day” universe.

“Operation” and “Project” are omitted in the glossary except when a numerical OPLAN. Operation SWITCHBACK is alphabetized as SWITCHBACK.

AAA: Anti-aircraft artillery, specifically guns in an AAW system.

AAW: Anti-air warfare, encompassing command & control, radar, fighters, missiles, and guns.

ADA: Air defense artillery, either missiles and guns, depending on context, or guns alone.

ADM: Admiral. At the time of the story, a “rear admiral” could be equivalent either to a one- or a two-star general of the other forces. Vice admirals wore three stars; admirals (with no adjective) were four-star. While it has been suggested that rear admirals have special interest in rears, while vice admirals supervise vice, this is an urban legend.

ANADYR: A river in the cold north of Russia, used as the code name for the Cuban operation as being in no way suggestive of the balmy Caribbean.

ARVN: Army of the Republic of Vietnam, either the Army proper, or sometimes all South Vietnamese ground forces.

ASW: Antisubmarine warfare

AU: American University

BEAGLE: NATO code name for the Il-28 light bomber, an elderly aircraft but that still might deliver nuclear bombs. The U.S. considered it an offensive weapon, although the Soviets apparently did think of it more for island defense.

Buon Enao: First village to have a CIDG program; another name for the CIDG.

C-7 Caribou: A light fixed-wing cargo aircraft operated by the U.S. Army at the time of this story; eventually transferred to the Air Force.

CCO: Technically an abbreviation for “Handle through COMINT Channels Only”, but an abbreviation for SECRET or TS SCI SIGINT information. It might be accompanied by even more restrictive caveats such as DINAR or subcompartments thereof.

CIA: Central Intelligence Agency. From 1961 to 1965, it, and the U.S. intelligence community, were headed by John McCone. The agency itself has several, sometimes conflicting roles: all-source intelligence analysis and estimation, clandestine human intelligence (i.e., espionage) collection, and covert paramilitary and political/psychological action.

CIB: Current Intelligence Bulletin, a still TS/SCI document with extremely limited circulation, but without the complete all-source content of the PDB.

CIDG: Civilian Irregular Defense Group. Light infantry units organized by U.S. Army Special Forces, sometimes with ARVN Special Forces symbolic, or more often symbolic, cooperation. Initially, the program was under CIA control,

CINCLANT: Commander in Chief, Atlantic. I have taken liberties with this designation, rather than get into the complexities of the organizations involved. It was the operational-level headquarters for naval forces in the crisis, headed by Admiral Robert Dennison.

CJCS: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Senior officer of the U.S. military and statutory military adviser to the President. During most of this period, GEN Maxwell Taylor. His predecessor was GEN Lyman Lemnitzer, who lost Kennedy’s confidence and was ignored until transferred to the prestigious European/NATO command (SACEUR).

CNO: Chief of Naval Operations. Senior officer of the Navy; member of the JCS. In this time, Admiral (ADM) George Anderson.

COMOR: Committee on Overhead Reconnaissance of USIB. Sets reconnaissance priorities.

CSA: Chief of Staff of the Army. Senior officer of the Army; member of the JCS. During this story, General (GEN) Earle Wheeler.

CSAF: Chief of Staff of the Air Force. Senior officer of the Air Force; member of the JCS. In 1962, GEN Curtis LeMay

DCI: Director of Central Intelligence. At the time of this tale, this official was formally the head of the U.S. Intelligence Community, dual-hatted as the chief of CIA. In practice, since he did not control the Defense Department intelligence budget, his authority over the Community was limited.

DEFCON: Defense Condition. DEFCON 5 is peacetime readiness. DEFCON 3 is high operational alert, held by most commands during the Crisis. DEFCON 2, taken by SAC, is the “COCKED PISTOL” readiness for nuclear war. Actual war is the never-yet-invoked DEFCON 1.

DIA: Defense Intelligence Agency. Created by McNamara in 1961, to reconcile claims of the service intelligence agencies with independent analysis, and also to be a counter to the CIA.

Diem: Personal name for Ngo Dinh Diem, President of South Vietnam. The family name is Ngo.

DINAR: A code word for even more sensitive TS/SCI SIGINT within CCO

DOD: Department of Defense, headed by Secretary Robert Strange McNamara. That really was his middle name, which, understandably, he wrote as “S.”.

DRV: Democratic Republic of Vietnam, or Communist North Vietnam. Neither the North nor the South were actual democracies.

ELINT: Information from non-communications signals, such as radar. An example of intelligence fusion would be to confirm that a radar in a photograph became operational, when its signals were detected by ELINT. ELINT tends to need to be line-of-sight with the source, so collecting it can be risky.

EXCOMM: JFK’s main advisory and operational committee for the Crisis. Generally, it was an enlarged version of the NSC, but the only military member was Chairman Taylor.

FAN SONG: A fire control radar for the SA-2, with a backup search capability.

FAS: Foreign Area Studies center at AU, a contract research center funded by the Army.

FISHBED: NATO code name for the MiG-21.

Chapter 1 »