Herminie native’s book details struggles of longtime friend, Army veteran
Share this post:
As Memorial Day draws closer each year, Ronald Kaiser of Franklin Park always thinks of Anthony Herbert.
Kaiser and Herbert grew up together in Herminie. Kaiser went on to a career in advertising, and Herbert went on to become one of the most decorated enlisted veterans of the Korean War.
As Herbert’s career continued, however, he went from poster boy to pariah. His story is the subject of Kaiser’s first book, “Herbert’s War.”
After being promoted to lieutenant colonel, Herbert received command of a battalion in the 173rd Airborne Division during the Vietnam War in 1969. That same year, Herbert was relieved of his command for alleged unsatisfactory performance.
Kaiser said that before being removed from command, Herbert had informed his superior of war crimes he had witnessed, committed by South Vietnamese troops and U.S. and Vietnamese interrogators.
In 1971, Herbert brought charges against his superior, Col. J. Ross Franklin, and Franklin’s boss, Maj. Gen. John W. Barnes, saying they had failed to investigate his accusations.
“He was interviewed on ‘The Dick Cavett Show’ and by the New York Times,” said Kaiser, 90. “And then ‘60 Minutes’ just destroyed him.”
In the wake of the recently reported My Lai massacre in 1968, Kaiser said U.S. military leaders were under pressure and did not want the additional publicity that Herbert’s newfound celebrity was generating.
The 1973 segment on “60 Minutes,” titled “The Selling of Colonel Herbert,” in which Franklin and others cast doubt on Herbert’s accusations, led to a $44 million libel lawsuit, Herbert v. Lando, that went all the way to the Supreme Court.
“That case went on for 13 years, and he never got into a courtroom to testify,” Kaiser said.
Despite ultimately losing the libel case, Herbert’s charges were confirmed when a 2006 Los Angeles Times investigation into U.S. military crimes revealed documents validating his claims. Declassified records showed that while his superiors were working to discredit Herbert, they also were turning up evidence of wartime atrocities that even went beyond what he had claimed.
Kaiser said he is disappointed his friend did not survive to see his vindication.
“Anthony Herbert was relegated to obscurity,” Kaiser said. “I was on my way to see him in 2015 when I found out he’d died, alone, in a veterans hospital in Colorado.”
When Kaiser reached his 80s, he began indulging the writing bug that helped propel his advertising career.
“I didn’t know what to write,” he said. “I started writing about myself, with the idea of leaving it for my kids one day. But Tony Herbert kept popping up.”
Ever since they got into a fight in high school over a basketball, Kaiser and Herbert had been good friends, which is part of what inspired Kaiser to spend years making Freedom of Information Act requests and poring over military documents and transcripts as he wrote “Herbert’s War.”
“He’s never gotten his due,” Kaiser said. “ But he’s a military hero from Westmoreland County.”
During his 22-year military career, Herbert was awarded four Silver Stars, three Bronze Star Medals, six battle stars and four Purple Hearts. He was wounded 14 times, 10 by bullets and three by bayonets, and once by the chemical white phosphorus.
“He didn’t like the idea of reporting war crimes,” Kaiser said. “And because he dared to bring it up, he gets almost no recognition at all.”
“Herbert’s War” is available at Amazon.com. For details, visit RonKaiser.net.