Peter A. Taylor's Home Page

Tag: history

  • Black Market Operations During the Vietnam War

    Black market activities posed major difficulties for American and South Vietnamese authorities during the Vietnam War. The massive arrival of U.S. military supplies, consumer goods, and US currency sparked an enormous underground economy. Items meant for American troops—like cigarettes, alcohol, clothing, and electronics—were frequently redirected and sold illegally, sometimes with help from corrupt officials or… →

  • The Last Days

    I talk a little bit about it in my third book of the Vietnam series: “The Hardchargers”. On the 15th of January 1973 my team was ordered to shut down all operations; “cease and desist”. We were told that it appeared that the Peace Accords we’re going to be signed and they were afraid that… →

  • SHORT!

    For most soldiers, sailors and marines who were assigned to Vietnam our tour of duty was one year or 365 days. In some cases it was longer than that but for most of us that anniversary of our arrival in Vietnam was also the anniversary of our departure one year later. Some basic facts about… →

  • The Telegraph in the US Civil War

    Samuel F. B. Morse, the inventor of the telegraph made an interesting discovery in 1844. When he was trying to lay his first telegraph line from Washington DC to Baltimore Maryland he tried to lay the wire inside of a pipe. During the construction process it appears that they got some bad wire. Morse was… →

  • My Recollections as an Intelligence Officer in Vietnam

    Based upon my writings you can probably easily tell that I was a Military Intelligence officer serving in Vietnam during my three tours over there. So, what was it like? I had no intention of becoming a Military Intelligence officer. I enlisted in the United States Army in the US infantry, 11-Bravo. When I was… →

  • Garrison Commander, Captain Charles Leib!

    A Short Story Captain Charles Leib Captain Leib took a seat in the outer office and waited for Lieutenant Goff to summons him into the office of the Clarksburg Garrison commander, Colonel Stanley “Ah, Good morning Captain Leib. Thank you for coming to my office so quickly. I’m sorry to have interrupted your morning routine.… →

  • Veterans Day 2025

    Today we celebrate Veterans Day. On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918 the guns fell quietly silent over the battlefields of Europe. This was my Grandfather’s War. He called it the War to End All Wars. More than 117,500 American soldiers, sailors and Marines died as a direct… →

  • Official After Action Report – Battle of Long Khot

    HEADQUARTERS US MILITARY ASSISTANCE COMMAND VIETNAM LESSONS LEARNED NO. 78 UNCLASSIFIED UNCLASSIFIED HEADQUARTERS UNITED STATES MILITARY ASSISTANCE Command, VIETNAM APO 96222 MACJ3-052                                                                                                                 17 February 1970 SUBJECT: Vietnam Lessons Learned No. 78: Action at Long Khot SEE DISTRIBUTION FOR THE COMMANDER: Incl FOREWORD Vietnam Lessons Learned No. 78 is a summary of a recent combat operation… →

  • Unhorsing the “Wizard of the Saddle”

    This short story is based on an actual event at the end of the US Civil War involving the notorious “Wizard of the Saddle,” General Nathan Bedford Forrest,  and Sergeant Hugh Longstaff. It involved a small detachment of cavalry soldiers from the First Wisconsin Volunteer Cavalry Regiment and a large detachment of General Forrest’s Cavalry… →

  • The Saga of Lieutenant Lancaster

    Sergeant Leonard L. Lancaster sat in his tent outside Memphis, Tennessee early in the morning of April 13th, 1865. He had just finished breakfast in the mess with his ‘pards’ when a rider roared into camp with fantastic news. Headquarters had just received a telegram from the War Department that General Grant had received the… →

  • The Harrowing Adventure of Captain Charles Leib

    To My readers: this short story is based upon my book “The Most Hated Man in Clarksburg” I hope that you enjoy the story! By Peter Taylor It was April 1862, and it had been an exhausting week in Washington DC. Captain Charles Leib had been ordered to Washington City to appear before a congressional… →

  • The Most Hated Man in Clarksburg – Tour

    In conjunction with the Clarksburg History Museum, I have been asked to put together a tour of Clarksburg, West Virginia during the Civil War. The tour is based upon my historical novel “The Most Hated Man in Clarksburg” and showcases the city as it existed in May 1861 when Captain Charles Lieb first arrived in… →

  • The Mule Train, A Civil War Short Story

    While this is written as a short story it is based on actual events that happened during the Civil War in western Virginia. The story is taken from my book, “The Most Hated Man in Clarksburg” It was mid-June 1861 and Union Captain Charles Leib, the Assistant Quartermaster General from Clarksburg, Virginia was in Parkersburg,… →

  • Happy 162 Birthday West Virginia

    On June 20, 1863, West Virginia became the 35th state in the Union. It is a state that was born out of the Civil War. It’s also the only state that separated itself from its parent-state, in our case the State of Virginia. West Virginia has a complicated history. Formerly, we were a part of… →

  • “The Most Hated Man in Clarksburg”; historical Civil War fiction

    So how could someone be called or become the most hated man in a small town like Clarksburg Virginia? What could cause a man from Philadelphia, a doctor, a newspaper editor, and a friend of Abraham Lincoln to be so reviled in a small town? The answer to this question is to be found in… →

  • The Civil War in My Hometown

    My recent blogs have dealt with some Vietnam War stories from my first book in the Advisor series, “The Advisor; Kien Bing, South Vietnam 1969-1970”,  (available on Amazon.com). What I’ve tried to do is to expand upon what I’ve written in my novel about my time in Vietnam during my first assignment there. For someone… →

  • Enlisted Training

    I did my basic combat training at Fort Benning, Georgia, “Home of the Infantry”. Since I was on an Officer Candidate School (OCS) track I was appointed as the “Platoon Goon”, or acting Platoon Sergeant. My job was basically to prepare my 44-man platoon for formations and to attempt to march them to and from… →

  • Was it Worth It? Why Was I There?

    This is a question that is well over sixty years old. Was my going to Vietnam worth it and was it worth the blood and treasure of the United States. Guenter Lewy, a German-born American author and political scientist estimated 1,353,000 total deaths in North and South Vietnam during the period 1965–1974 in which the U.S. was most… →

  • The Chiêu Hồi Program

    The Chiêu Hồi (pronounced roughly as Chew Hoy) was an interesting program that I dealt with on a daily basis. In my book I talk about our “Man Friday”, Ông Hai, or Mr. Hai. He was our go-to guy as far as maintaining our Jeep, boats, trailer, generator, and almost anything else that we needed to… →

  • The Brown Water Navy

    “Brown Water Navy” In my books I talk a lot about the relationship that we had with the US Navy River Division that we dealt with at Ap Bac (aka Ap Bing) and at Moc Hoa (aka Moc Loi) When I arrived at Ap Bac (Ap Bing in “The Advisor”, we were heavily involved with… →

  • Kien Tuong Province in the Vietnam War

    I found this interesting article on-line and it is worth sharing with my readers. It is translated from Vietnamese to English and I’m certain that there are a number of translation issues however the gist of the material is very interesting. Much of it is a military history of the Kien Tuong Province and US… →

  • Counterparts

    In my books I often describe some of the issues in dealing with our Vietnamese counterparts. As American Advisors we faced a philosophical and cultural difference with many of the Vietnamese that we dealt with. As westerners or Americans tend to think in concepts such as “never put off until tomorrow what should be done… →

  • Colonel David “Hack” Hackworth, 44th Special Tactical Zone Commander

    Another senior officer mentioned several times in my books is Colonel David Hackworth. Colonel David ‘the Hack’ Hackworth, like John Paul Vann, was a controversial figure during the Vietnam War and had a military career spanning World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam Conflict. David Hackworth joined the US Merchant Marine at the… →

  • Mr. John Paul Vann

    10 February In my books I often refer to my professional relationship with two men, John Paul Vann and Colonel David Hackworth.  In this week’s blog I’ll discuss my relationship with Mr. John Paul Vann. My recollections of Mr. Vann are nothing like those expressed by Neil Sheehan in his book “A Bright and Shining… →

  • Where is Ap Bing???

    Good morning! Readers who bought my book “The Advisor; Kien Bing, South Vietnam 1969-1970 a Novel” won’t find the locations on a map of Vietnam. Following the invasion from the north in 1975, many locations mentioned in my book were renamed. The town previously known as Ap Bing was actually named Ap Bac. The new… →