TLS signed “Chuck Heston,” one page, 7 x 10.5, Colorful Detachment C-1, 5th Special Forces Group, 1st Special Forces letterhead, no date, but postmarked January 24, 1966. Letter written while on a two-week tour of Vietnam, to Leonard Lyons of the New York Post. In part: “This is the first typewriter I have seen in several days…The mountain camp I’m scheduled to hit this morning is zero-zero, so I’m sitting on the strip in a sandbagged shack…It’s been quite an experience. After several days with the Navy and Sea Bee units around the port of Danang, I went with the Marines first the Air Group working F-4s (incredible, terrifying brutes of aircraft, like armed, flying rocks) out of the airbase, and then with some thirty of the units holding the perimeter outside the city…Now I’m with the Special Forces…Believe me, they are a VERY special force. A selected, highly trained elite created by President Kennedy in 1961, their mission here is to go into the mountain villages in very small teams of a dozen men…and set up camps enlisting the local villagers, most of them primitive Montagnards…I flew into three of those camps yesterday and was tremendously impressed…As for me, I’m in great shape, and as careful as porcupines making love. I’m treated fine everywhere I go, and watched over like a first born. I’ll be back next week intact, and richer than I left.” Heston also adds a short handwritten postscript at the bottom, “It occurs to me you might not have heard I’m in Vietnam for a two week tour (that’s the easy kind). I’ll be glad to get home, but I’m glad I came, too.” In fine condition, with some scattered light toning. Accompanied by the original mailing envelope, addressed by Heston, and signed in the return address area “C. Heston.” At the time, Heston was a staunch opponent of the Vietnam War, an opinion he would change years after. An incredible letter, brimming with fine firsthand content. Pre-certified PSA/DNA and RR Auction COA.
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