Green Berets in Vietnam

PROGRAM DATES

Monday Nov. 13, 2017

St. John Library 10am

Tekoa Library 4pm

Palouse 7pm

Tuesday Nov. 21, 2017

Colton School Gym 10am

In 1957, Captain Harry Cramer led the first team of Special Forces (“Green Beret”) advisers to South Vietnam to assist the development of the Vietnamese Army. This mission was highly classified at the time. The situation in Vietnam in the 1950’s was much different from that of the 1960’s, and Dwight Eisenhower’s strategy for dealing with it differed sharply from that of John Kennedy or Lyndon Johnson. Captain Cramer was killed in Vietnam in October 1957, becoming the first US Army soldier to die in that war. His son, folksinger and historian Hank Cramer, will share the story of this mission, and its once secret details. Hank has a unique perspective on this story, as he is not only Captain Cramer’s son, but he himself later served with his father’s Special Forces unit in Asia, three decades later.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER . . . Hank Cramer is a traveling folksinger and historian based in Winthrop, WA. He is also a retired US Army officer. Hank has presented programs of history and music for Humanities Washington for over eight years. He was the 2011 recipient of the prestigious Humanities Washington Award. He is currently writing a book on the subject of this 1957 Special Forces mission.