Cowboy: The Interpreter Who Became a Soldier, a Warlord, and One More Casualty of Our War in Vietnam Paperback – April 19, 2018

“Cowboy” is the story of a man, and something more: Dan Ford gives us a look at America’s early years in Vietnam, when we were fighting an insurgency that was not yet a war, and U.S. Special Force were winning hearts and minds in South Vietnam’s Central Highlands.The highlands were “rugged, vast in area,” an infiltration route and safe haven for the Vietnamese communists. “And if they could dominate the highlands, the communists would be in position to…cut South Vietnam in half.” The American response was … to work directly with the Rhade, one of the 30 tribal groups, the French called Montagnards, the mountain people. The Rhade were enlisted to create the CIDG, the Civilian Irregular Defense Groups, and their villages turned into defensive bases.The effort with the Rhade started in October 1961. As the advantages of the American presence, with its economic and medical benefits, became apparent, other tribal groups joined in. By June the next year, there were twenty base camps defended by over 20,000 Montagnards. By the time Dan Ford “toured the highlands in June of 1964,” the situation was more improved. There were Forward Operating Bases in “Indian Country… the area where the Viet Cong could operate with impunity.” And there were Strike Forces, mobilized CIDG “Strikers” who could be sped to the scene of a V.C. attack by truck or even helicopter. Into this struts “Cowboy,” a unique personality, the epitome of a character not unknown to Americans who work in foreign lands: the sharp, young local with language skills and personal traits that make him indispensable to the Americans handling the knottiest of local problems. “Everybody in Spec Forces knew or had heard about cowboy.” Cowboy – as Philippe Drouin – was a “spoiled kid,” who graduated from schools the French built “to foster a friendly elite among … highland tribes.” He joined the French Colonial Army – and Montagnard anti-French groups. U.S. Special Forces knew him in “cowboy boots, jeans... a smart western-style hat.” He was a “natural soldier,” once grabbed a 19 pound Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR), “fired it from the hip, like a Hollywood hero… silenced the ambush.” But a hero with a dark side: Viet Cong prisoners “often came to a bad end.” The U.S. Special Forces officer who had to explain that in Saigon, fired Cowboy when he returned.Not long afterwards, FULRO, the United Fighting Front of Oppressed Races – of which cowboy was a member – revolted against Saigon government forces in the highlands. Among the rebels were 3,000 Strikers, and Cowboy. In the negotiations with the government that followed, Cowboy was a FULRO delegate and wore a tailored suit.The war expanded, and the U.S. Special Forces mission changed as the U.S. Army took control. What had been “the very model of a counterinsurgency program,” would now have Green Berets lead battalions of “Strikers” wherever they were needed.By then, Cowboy was living in a masonry house, drove a robin egg blue pickup, and signed himself, “Col. Philip Drouin, Commanding, Dan-Yi Mobile Division of Commando Paratrooper.” He had multiple U.S. employers; if one “needed troops for a special project, Cowboy would rent him a few hundred men for a week or a month.” There was a lot of money to be made from the war.In December 1967, Cowboy argued with an ARVN sergeant and killed him. Trying to smooth things over, took Cowboy through a series of events in which he may have conspired with Vietnamese officials to assassinate FULRO leaders. In the end it apparently was FULRO that had him shot dead.“Cowboy” gives the reader a good sense of that time, when the Green Berets were running a counterinsurgency program that actually seemed to be succeeding. Ford examines the reasons that program was ended, not all of them good. In the end, success in the Central highlands would have been limited and temporary, and likely would not have affected the ultimate outcome of the war. An interesting read.

Good

I was an advisor with the 51st VN Ranger Bn "67-68" and recognized all the hardhips written. Our team had a "Cowboy" who often caused gov't problems but we were lucky to have him.

I can't add much to what Jim Morris had to say, I was on the Special Forces A-Team that relieved Jim's team and knew and worked with Phillip Druin AKA Cowboy. Dan Ford visited our camp in June of 1964 and I and Russ Brooks took him out on an extended patrol which he based a book and a movie on.Our Team leader Capt. Judge fired Cowboy for killing our prisoners, Cowboy then went to the B-Team at Pleiku and went to work for Mal. Buck. That was the last I knew of him till Dan wrote this book. As far as I know it is factual and a good read.

This was supposed to be a review, but there’s no way. You can’t review a book in which you are a character, nor a book about an old friend, nor a book BY an old friend, albeit an internet buddy rather than a physical one. A little background. In June of 1964 Dan Ford, an ex-GI journalist, somehow got himself attached to the Special Forces team at Buon Beng, about four kilometers north of Cheo Reo. The team was commanded by Captain Charley Judge and his XO was Captain Walt Swain. I didn’t know Judge, but Swain was one of my best friends. I had been XO of the team before theirs, in the days when we were doing six-month TDY deployments. Dan wrote a book about that deployment, called Incident at Muc Wa, and it was a pretty successful book in that it was made into a movie starring Burt Lancaster, Go Tell the Spartans. To my mind it is the best Vietnam movie, certainly the best early one. But when I saw it I didn’t realize that it was based on my camp, that the character who seemed so much like my friend Philippe Drouin was actually based on him, and that the character Burt Lancaster played was based on my old “B” team commander, Rick Buck. What threw me off was that the team was a MAAG team, and the characters were Vietnamese, not Montagnard. I don’t think Dan knew, when he wrote the book, that “A” teams frequently split up in two camps, and not wanting a bunch of extra characters who did not serve the plot he made up a whole fictional “Ranger” unit with x, y, and z teams. And trying to explain who the Montagnards were to a civilian audience was more than any movie studio wanted to take on at the time. Over time Dan reviewed War Story on Amazon and I learned Incident at Muc Wa was set in my old stomping grounds. And my old friend Philippe Drouin, aka Y Kdrowin Mlo, aka “The Cowboy,” made such an impression on him that now he has written a book about him. Or at least used him as a focal point for a book about the CIDG program in the Highlands that fills a big gap in knowledge, or maybe two or three big gaps, even for people who served there. The first third of the book is about Buon Enao and Dave Nuttle who put together the Strike Force there for the CIA. Even today I hesitate to use that acronym. I want to say “the Agency”, or “those guys”. Oh, well. It’s no secret now. All I knew about those Buon Enao days was anecdotal, from talking to guys who had come back from there. This book has a balanced and comprehensive description. The first commander there from Okinawa, where I was stationed, was Ron Shackleton. And what I knew about Ron Shackleton was that on my 2d SCUBA dive, off Ona Point I had found Ron Shackleton’s Oklahoma State University class ring on the floor of the East China Sea. What are the odds? But I digress. If you served in Vietnam in Special Forces the history of Buon Enao will be interesting to you, and I don’t think it exists anywhere else. The middle third of the book is about Cowboy, and Buon Beng, and Dan and Walt Swain, and Judge’s team. I have no objectivity there at all. I was constantly comparing his description of the Highlands with my own, his description of stuff that happened, like Cowboy’s bringing my CO, Crews McCulloch, the plans for the Montagnard Revolt of 1964, Crews taking it to Saigon, and not being believed, until the Revolt. There’s a good description of a long patrol he went on, one which ran directly counter to the concept of operations our team had developed. He doesn’t say that, because he probably did not know it, but it certainly tainted my perception of that patrol. But the book accurately describes Cowboy, his sense of style, his charisma, and the fact that he was the most famous Cong Killer in the Highlands at the time. I’m not objective about the guy. As it says in my book and this one, I loved him like a brother. Every major success I had, organizing the best intel net in II CTZ, the ambush that brought down an advanced party for the NVA invasion of that year and the next, and from then on, none of that would have happened without our relationship. My contribution to the formation of that great intel net was to shout, “Hey, Phil! Go hire some spies.” My contribution to the ambush of that advanced party was to lie through my teeth to a collaborating district chief as to where we were going. Cowboy couldn’t have got away with that, but I could. I got a Bronze Star for that ambush, for which he hired the agent who steered us to the right trail, organized the ambush party, and probably triggered the ambush. I think he got a $25.00 bonus. See, none of that’s in the book, so this isn’t a review. It’s sort of a hybrid of review and reminiscence. I have one correction to make. Apparently Dan did not meet Kpa Doh, who was senior interpreter at Buon Beng. He must not have been there at the time, maybe off on FULRO business. So, he confuses him with Little Cowboy, another younger interpreter, who styled himself after Philippe, but didn’t have the chops. On page 95 there’s a pic with Kpa Doh in the middle, listed as an unidentified FULRO activist. Kpa Doh became a great FULRO commander, and Cambodian Army major. Not enough credit is also given to Nay Luette, who was a better operator than Cowboy, though without the charisma. Something else that I wish was in the book, but isn’t, is what happened to Walt Swain, which is the saddest Vietnam story I know. Dan mentions finding his name on the Wall, but doesn’t know how it got there. Walt went home a bit early from that TDY tour, because his wife, Hilda, developed tubercular meningitis. He had to leave to take care of her daughter, his adopted daughter, Susie. Hilda was a bit older than Walt, and her first husband had been killed in the Korean War. Walt left Oki, diverted from the Infantry Officer’s Career Course with a “compassionate transfer” to the 5th of the 7th Cav at Ft. Carson, to be near Hilda, who was in Fitzsimons General Hospital in Aurora CO. He’d only been there a few months when the 5th of the 7th was gyroed to Vietnam. He was killed in Bong Son, commanding a company, when he should have been at Benning, drawing up plans to defend the Fulda Gap from the Red Menace. I later heard that Hilda remarried, another soldier. But I also heard he was a colonel, so this one was probably not killed in combat. The last third of the book is what happened to Cowboy, and to the Montagnards and the Highlands after the fall of Saigon. It’s not a pretty story, but it’s one all of us should know. Dan has done a pretty wonderful job with this book. It’s full of stuff you probably don’t know about the life you lived.

I was there and knew Cowboy, and this is an accurate account detailing madness of the Vietnam War. This book is a quick and easy read for those who want to better understand that armed conflict.

One of the other reviewers mentioned that this book really doesn't cover a lot about Cowboy, which is true. But it does cover a lot the events during that time and the earlier years in Vietnam. Still good reading.