Long Binh Jail (H)

From August, 1970 to September, 1971, I was a guard on the twelve-hour nightshift at Long Binh Jail, the U.S. Army's stockade in Vietnam. And so, I had a special interest in reading Cecil Barr Curry's "oral history" of "LBJ". It could be said, I suppose, that my direct involvement with the place prevented me from making an objective evaluation of Curry's book. But I believe it gave me an advantage in determining if Curry's account of this "notorious" episode in America's venture in Vietnam was accurate. And, for the most part, it was. I say "for the most part" because it is an oral history, told by prisoners and cadre. And, as Curry noted at the outset, memories tend to modify over the years into either exaggerations or self-serving alternations. I even found myself questioning my own memories of certain "incidents" and conditions there but, to be certain, Curry's account validated much of my experience. If I had any problem, it's that I wish he had used more "eye witnesses." In the eight-year history of Long Binh Jail, literally thousands passed through its Main Gate, one way or another, and seeing the same names used repeatedly for his sources was frustrating (or maybe I was just disappointed I hadn't been interviewed). Curry traced the development of both the physical structure and the human condition of LBJ. The first began as little more than a tented encampment on old tennis courts near Tan Son Nhut Airport near Saigon. It eventually grew into the maze of fence and concertina wire that I knew at the sprawling post at Long Binh. To be sure, there was more than one LBJ, and I turned out to one of the last to work at the "old" LBJ. The new and final version was begun soon after I arrived, and I observed its gradual construction during my entire tour (I also have photos). But, of course, the real story about the Army's stockade in Vietnam was the human factor, and Curry treated this directly and honestly. For most of its existence, the issue behind all the fence and wire was a black/white one, far more than a guard/prisoner one or even the political dynamics of the war itself. During my time there, the hatred seethed between the mostly black inmate population and the mostly white guard staff. For thirty years, I've had to keep in perspective those very emotions I came to feel there, although I can remember thinking during my more rational moments, when I wasn't worried about getting my throat slit or my head bashed in, what it must have been like to be black and in jail in Vietnam, exactly the insight that Curry mentions. I doubt very much if a whole book about Long Binh Jail would have been warranted if it hadn't been for the full-scale riot there in August of 1968. At the time, it was considered the worst prison riot in American penal history, and Curry gave a detailed account of the events leading up to, during, and its aftermath. The facility reconstructed on