Scope and Contents

The collection consists of photographs and slides documenting H. Norman Schwarzkopf's U.S. Army service in Vietnam. The materials are dated 1961-1970 or are otherwise undated.

Biographical / Historical

H. Norman Schwarzkopf Jr. (August 22, 1934 – December 27, 2012) was a United States Army general. While serving as the commander of United States Central Command, he led all coalition forces in the Gulf War.

Born in Trenton, New Jersey, Schwarzkopf grew up in the United States and later in Iran. He was accepted by the United States Military Academy and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Army in 1956. After a number of initial training programs, Schwarzkopf interrupted a stint as an academy teacher and served in the Vietnam War.

In the Vietnam War, Schwarzkopf served as a task force adviser to the Army of the Republic of Vietnam Airborne Division. He was promoted to major shortly after arriving in Vietnam. After an initial orientation at Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV), headquartered in Saigon, Schwarzkopf was sent north to Pleiku in the central highlands, in the II Corps Tactical Zone. He got his first combat experience on August 3, when he was the senior adviser to a force of 1,000 South Vietnamese paratroopers sent to relieve a beleaguered South Vietnamese Army force at Đức Cơ Camp. The paratroopers took heavy casualties and a second, larger force was required to relieve them. That force too came into heavy contact. Schwarzkopf and his group fought continuously for several days. At one point, he braved heavy North Vietnamese fire to recover and treat a handful of wounded South Vietnamese soldiers and escort them to safety.

By August 17, the 173rd Airborne Brigade arrived and broke the siege, ending the Battle of Đức Cơ. General William Westmoreland later arrived to review the incident and congratulate Schwarzkopf. For his leadership in the battle, Schwarzkopf was awarded the Silver Star. On February 14, 1966, Schwarzkopf led an ARVN paratrooper assault on a Viet Cong position, during which he was wounded four times by small arms fire. However, he refused medical evacuation or to relinquish command until the objective had been captured and so he was awarded a second Silver Star and a Purple Heart.

After ten months of combat duty, Schwarzkopf was pulled from the front by MACV and reassigned as senior staff adviser for civil affairs to the ARVN Airborne Division. Then, he returned to the United States and finished his teaching assignment at West Point, where he was an associate professor in the Department of Mechanics. In 1968, he attended the Army's Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, completing the course in June 1969. In this time back home, he met Brenda Holsinger, a flight attendant for Trans World Airlines. They were introduced at a West Point football game in 1967 and married the next year. The couple would later have three children: Cynthia, born in 1970; Jessica, born in 1972; and Christian, born in 1977.

Schwarzkopf was promoted to lieutenant colonel and ordered to a second tour in Vietnam, leaving in June 1969. He was assigned as executive officer to the chief of staff at MACV headquarters, based at Tan Son Nhut Air Base in Saigon. Schwarzkopf later recalled this second tour of duty was very different from his first; there were now 500,000 U.S. troops in Vietnam, the strategy of Vietnamization was in full effect, and recent events such as the Tet Offensive and My Lai Massacre had put US combat troops under increased political scrutiny. In December 1969, he gained his first field command, taking over the 1st Battalion, 6th Infantry, 198th Infantry Brigade at Chu Lai. He later returned to the United States in 1970, where he was awarded a third Silver Star and a second Purple Heart, as well as three Bronze Star Medals and a Legion of Merit for his command performance.

Rising through the ranks after the Vietnam war, he later commanded the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division and was one of the commanders of the Invasion of Grenada in 1983. Assuming command of United States Central Command in 1988, Schwarzkopf was called on to respond to the invasion of Kuwait in 1990 by the forces of Ba'athist Iraq under Saddam Hussein. Initially tasked with defending Saudi Arabia from Iraqi aggression, Schwarzkopf's command eventually grew to an international force of over 750,000 troops. After diplomatic relations broke down, he planned and led Operation Desert Storm, an extended air campaign followed by a highly successful 100-hour ground offensive, which defeated the Iraqi Army and removed Iraqi troops from Kuwait in early 1991. Schwarzkopf was presented with military honors.

Schwarzkopf retired shortly after the end of the war and undertook a number of philanthropic ventures, only occasionally stepping into the political spotlight before his death from complications of pneumonia.