Death of a Perfectionist

John Paul Vann was a legendary figure in the long history of the U.S. presence in Indochina. A romantic and a perfectionist, he retired from the army in 1963 after a dispute with senior U.S. officials over American policy in South Viet Nam. After returning two years later as a civilian adviser, he conducted the notably successful pacification program in the Mekong Delta with his usual impatience and abrasiveness. Thirteen months ago he became the senior American adviser in the Central Highlands. By the time he died last week in a helicopter crash, while flying by night from his headquarters at Pleiku to the embattled city of Kontum, he had spent nearly ten of his 47 years in South Viet Nam. Two other Americans--the Army pilot and another Army officer --also died in the crash of the chopper.

A short, wiry man with a sharp tongue, Vann had a penchant for being in the thick of the fighting. In late April, two helicopters were shot out from under him before he managed to rescue several American advisers from the surrounded headquarters of the 22nd ARVN Division at Tan Canh. In the last weeks of his life, Vann dedicated himself to the defense of Kontum. "There is nothing else for him now," TIME Correspondent John Mulliken wrote recently, "but the saving of Kontum. Like a French colonial, he has no real ties any more with home. He will live out at least the last of the creative part of his life in Indochina."

Vann himself seemed to agree. "My entire involvement here," he once said, "has been to try to bring some reason and justice to our effort. One thing is for goddam sure, I'll never be able to get a job anywhere else."

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