Chapter 7: Which war to fight?

We left the Hilsmans, satisfied yet hungry for more intimacy. The next day, Eleanor called, appreciative, and also asking to work with us. Our various Cultivators assured us that would be discreet and productive.

Back in our group meeting, I said, “Aside from all the personnel and organizational issues, we need to get back to Forrestal’s work. All of you understand that I can’t reveal quite how I got this, which was intended for the President alone and is TOP SECRET but without SCI information

“Where are we going with people? While Vivian is excellent for the organizational issues, I also realize we need people with land warfare experience. Now, Greg isn’t a combat aviator, but he knows more about aviation than anyone else. Is he ready to be sworn?” I felt a wave of agreement.

“Everyone think of the broader problem: what is the endstate that we desire in South Vietnam? Why are we sending soldiers there?”

He was eager to see us, and vice versa. Greg was more than willing to be of help. “Before I get further into the air aspect, think about how uniformed folk perceive the war. It started off with conventional soldiers that are thinking about refighting the Korean War, with heavy forces out of North Vietnam rather than North Korea. That’s the most common orientation among the MACV leadership. Those people, thinking of Korea purely in force terms, not ideology, worry about China.

“Air Force and some Navy people also think about conventional invasion, but countering it with air power.

“Mostly Army, with some Air Force and Marine influence, is the air mobility view.

“Another tribe has the counterinsurgency and guerrilla people, mostly Special Forces, and some of the attached Marines. They also have CIA ties.

“Understand, though, I’m a fixed-wing driver. I could give pretty solid insights into light transports such as the Caribou, and probably some light recon aircraft, but I’d be having problems with ground attack that the Navy doesn’t fly. Given that Vietnam is turning into a helicopter war, I have some nontraditional people in mind. One of the good things about being a transport driver is that you meet people in many roles, which is extended even further by my aide duty. When the Army was first sending helicopters to Vietnam, they did so with an auxiliary carrier, the USNS Card. I got asked to help them plan using light fixed wing support for the carrier.

“In the process, I met some Army people from the Aviation Center at Fort Rucker. Micki Melamed is an aeronautical engineer who has hit a glass ceiling for women, even though she qualified, before there were schools and rules, as a fixed wing and helicopter test pilot. She’s had a couple of trips to Vietnam where she was one of the experts on a team, but officially in the background. While I think you could use her knowledge directly, she can also put you in touch with Army combat arms people. The Army hasn’t yet decided how to organize its aviation and develop doctrine -- right now, the helicopter units over there are under the Transportation Corps, which isn’t a combat arm. They do have a U.S. Army Aviation Board, where Micki labors in the fields. She was detailed to the Tactical Mobility Requirements Board, better known as the Howze Board, last year, but didn’t have the impact she would have liked.

“I called her, and she mentioned an air operations major who is probably headed for a medical discharge, Larry Peake. I think he’s heading to Fort Sill, but maybe to Bragg. He’s a paratrooper, who went in with a Vietnamese jump and very badly broke his leg, to a point that he can’t meet physical standards.”

We chatted a bit. Greg mentioned that there seemed to be frustration, among senior officers, that it was difficult to measure progress in a counterinsurgency war. That got worse with McNamara’s insistence on pure quantitative solutions.

“Some are considering a really bad idea: assuming that the number of bodies found is a measure of success. In the real world, the VC try to remove their dead from the battlefield, just as we do.

“Further, since the guerrillas wear the same uniforms -- or lack thereof -- as the peasants, it becomes awfully easy to count a dead villager as an enemy. The best metric that I know is the number of weapons captured, which underestimates if anything -- the VC regard retrieving weapons as even more important than retrieving bodies.”

Before the next meeting, we again sensed his emotions, and then his commitment on the offer to join. Soon, he was taking the oath. He was roundly congratulated. His almost 6’5” muscular build, features that I can only call noble, and warm intelligence attracted wide female interest. Arlene and Frankie got to him first, each taking one of his hands.

The Cultivators provided us with what I can only call a nice pornographic kaleidoscope, sharing images of the various playmates.

Somehow, it was if I looked down at myself and knew the image that was being shared, at least at an empathetic level, with the others.

I looked at Dorothy and Eleanor. “You two don’t know it, but you’ve found a button that I didn’t know that I had: white stockings. How about sitting side by side, while I stroke your legs, kiss and lick above your hose, and then direct my mouth to the center? You two can kiss and excite one another’s boobs.

“I can’t fully explain it, but the Cultivators want the clan leaders to restrain themselves from full intimacy with members of the other clan. That emphatically does not mean that they can’t watch and share with them.”

It wasn’t that I felt like forcing dominance, but that I was serene in giving and getting respect. There was something important in the way that I was exchanging power, not in the BDSM sense but in mutuality, with Eleanor.

click My perception changed.

Wearing heels, Frankie was tall enough to be face-to-face with Greg. Most happily, she attacked his mouth with her tongue. Arlene called to the two, “let me encourage the nasty.” She moved behind Frankie, and reached under her skirt. “Greg, I’m reaching around with both hands, using one to expose her clit and one to rub it. You take care of her boobs.”

Up to now, Greg wasn’t sure if this was real. He’s just accepted it, and also that absolutely no one cares about his color other than it’s attractive.

Frankie and Arlene sensed the excitement and satisfaction of their Clan family.

click

George, Vivian, and Shelley went off together. “I’ve got to be honest, Vivian. You intimidate me, in a nice way. If I weren’t taller than you are, I might freak. As it is, I’m reminding myself you are wearing heels.”

Neither woman was offended. Shelley took his hands. “I’m happy you’re comfortable with me. What makes me more comfortable than Vivian?”

“I’m having trouble finding the right words. Shelley, you’re very smart -- both of you are. But Vivian has more take-command style, which is something at which I wish I could do better.”

James Bong, this is teaching me a great deal about our people. Thank you. I hope they will learn about me.

Yes, they will, although we will be careful that they learn only as much of your insight and past as is necessary.

click

Terry and Lois grinned. “Lois and Mark, I think I’m the official head cougar. Should I growl, meow, or roar? Mark, you look delicious.”

“For whatever reason, ladies, I’m feeling especially confident and strong, even though it’s a new dimension for me. Margaret, even though older, is on the shy side. Shelley, for want of a better term, shares some heritage and appearance with me. Lois, at least I know you, but Terry, I’m pleasantly amazed that I’m ready to roar back. I’m not saying that you are trying to be a dominatrix, but there are times where you seem so strong, so secure, that I wouldn’t approach. Right now, that’s not the case.”

Terry got an enormous smile, fell onto the bed, raised her knees, and spread her legs. Underneath, she wore nothing but stockings. She ripped at her upper buttons and, in a happy growl, snarled “Do me, then, stud!” Lois rubbed his butt, and then paused to yank up her skirt and begin to jill herself.

Mark surprised himself. Somehow, I know that my new family is enjoying themselves in the rooms around me, making me feel both secure and excited. As did many of the men, he wore something that one might wear to a strip club -- soft stretch pants and a shirt with cloth-covered buttons. While Lois stopped her own play and attempted to help him, he was soon naked from the waist down, and striding to Terry. Lois did stop him for a moment, falling to her knees and taking him deeply into her mouth. No one was gentle or wanted to be.

This is exactly what we want the sexual energies to produce: confidence and growth. Terry and Lois shouldn’t have any doubts about their appeal, but Mark will reinforce them.

click

Paul and Margaret looked at one another, thought the same thought, and laughed until nearly in tears. “Paul, you realize, of course, that with all the mad experiences of our being in the Clan, we suddenly have an opportunity to have a date between two teachers with the hots for one another?”

“Without, my dear, the anxieties of wondering if he or she will do it.”

Margaret giggled. She still tended to wear long skirts that had buttons from hem to waist, rather than short skirts. On her way to her bedroom, she had paused to button most of them. Now, she flashed an ankle.

She sang softly,

In olden days, a glimpse of stocking
Was looked on as something shocking.
But now, God knows,
Anything goes.

Cole Porter

Her fingers moved along the buttons until Paul indeed could see the tops of stockings, a soft brown against her pale legs. She also reached to her top and unbuttoned a bit until cleavage was evident. Margaret tossed her hair and tittered, posing with a hand behind her head.

Paul laughed back, and bent to her chest, kissing from neck to the valley of the breasts.

Harold, did you ever think about how the teachers, and other adults that know one another, will think of their new roles?

No, I really didn’t. It does seem like these two are working it out. That does remind me that we have to integrate Ed, or find some way to back him away.

click

“Well, I’ve got stuff to learn, Marcyne! You know I haven’t done much with women, but from what I’ve seen around here, I want to do more. Will you teach me?”

“Of course! Do you mind me being so much bigger?” Marcyne was close to a foot taller, and rippled with muscle.

“No, if you don’t mind my boobs being bigger than yours.”

“Take off that damn T-shirt and let me enjoy them.”

Neither of them has felt accepted and secure, but this is helping them both.

Vox and Marcyne, tentatively at first, kissed. Their tongues touched, and they each tasted sweet. Hands reached around, caressing backs, then buttocks. The two fell happily to the bed.

When we met again, I posed the problem “how do we measure progress? Where McNamara is involved, there’s a horrible tendency only to consider those things that are quantifiable and ignore everything else. Greg has been thinking about this. He hadn’t seen the Forrestal report, but now he has.”

Obviously, Roger could not join us for daytime meetings, but Eleanor was with us. The mental dynamics were complex, but our various Cultivators assured us that we were mutually loyal and discreet. Eleanor pressed against my side, physically affirming mutual support.

Greg quoted Forrestal. “ Finally, there is considerably more optimism among Vietnamese officials than there was a year ago, although it is probably based more on the visible flow of U.S. aid than on an objective analysis of actual progress.”. If McNamara gave that any credence, it would be to ship more aid.”

“The theme of confidence building runs through Forrestal’s report, and indeed from MACV

“While Strategic Hamlets are at the heart of the RVN strategy, we don’t know what the villagers really think. Forrestal wrote “the figures on Viet Cong strength imply a continuing flow of recruits and supplies from these same villages and indicate that a substantial proportion of the population is still cooperating with the enemy, although it is impossible to tell how much of this cooperation stems from fear and how much from conviction.”

Greg concluded and sat, a new pair of friends, Terry and Dorothy, flanking him. Vivian had joined Eleanor on my other side, yet I hardly felt abandoned when I asked Vivian to take over.

“Vivian, I’ve asked you to track the organizational side. I should remind everyone that among the Principles of War, one basic one is Unity of Effort, with everyone working toward common goals. Especially in operations, that works even better with Unity of Command, with well-defined reporting and control relationships.”

Vivian stepped up in an image that charmed me: cool, sculptured, and controlled. Today, she had chosen not the short-skirted suit that was something of a uniform for her, but a silver-gray jumpsuit that reminded me of a science fiction heroine, competent but not trying to be seductive.

Quoting from Forrestal, “As of the end of 1962, the GVN claimed to control 951 villages with about half the rural population, while the VC controlled about half that number of villages but with 8% of the population.” Vivian added “I hear this often, but wonder if number of villages is too easy a statistic to use. Control may slip away in the night. There are less quantifiable factors, as Forrestal observed: “The village defenders in many of the strategic hamlets that have been attacked have resisted bravely. But in an unknown, but probably large number of strategic hamlets, the villagers have merely let the Viet Cong in or supplied what they wanted without reporting the incident to the authorities.