Day 74, 20 December 1967 – Bob Hope, Raquel Welch, and Miss World pay a visit
"we must not put ourselves in the position of depending upon belief in what a Communist says.”
“Chu Lai, the Malibu Beach for Losers”, cracks Bob Hope as he opens up the 1967 Christmas Show in Chu Lai Vietnam. “Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, Seabees, and Marines! Here you have a choice of five wars!” The crowd is huge, camped side by side up the big hill in front of the amphitheater, every spot taken and then some. They laugh it up and clap clap and cheer loudly as Bob brings soldier after soldier up from the audience on stage to give them messages from home. Cameras click as Raquel Welch comes on stage. She’s doing a dance number and who knew she could sing! Well, she’s giving it her all and doing a pretty good job of it and besides, the soldiers don’t care…they all love to just look at her, all decked out in a frilly white top, a mini-skirt and white boots, her legs looking oh so nice…
And don’t forget Miss World, Miss Madeleine Hartog Bel of Peru! She is there cracking jokes with Bob, and handing out kisses to G.I.s. There are other stars performing too and the troops love it! Smiles all around!
While all around them their world shutters.
Bob Hope and company visited eleven U.S. bases in its 1967 tour; Saigon, Long Binh, Bearcat near Bien Hoa, Da Nang, Cu Chi, Pleiku, Lai Khe, Chu Lai, Phu Cat, Phan Rang, and Cam Ranh Bay. From his first USO performance in 1941 to his last during Operation Desert Storm in 1990, Bob Hope would do 57 USO tours, with hundreds of performances. “G.I. Bob” would do nine of his Christmas tours in Vietnam from 1964 to 1972.
Don’t Trust a Cease Fire
The Christmas cease-fire began at 18:00 hours on the 24th of December and was to last 24 hours through Christmas Day. Bombing was halted at 18:00 hours and resumed right at 18:00 the next day and enemy hostilities were put on pause, except that there were still incidents and skirmishes occurring in many locations in South Vietnam. This was to be followed by a second cease-fire for the New Year’s holiday between December 31 and January 2. That truce would be broken before it really started.
What the North Vietnamese forces did through these truces did not go unnoticed. Intelligence reports including aerial footage would show heavy truck movement (1300 trucks) as the PAVN/VC looked to resupply their forces in the South, all while the cease-fire was going on.
Also the VC had announced its willingness to observe a seven-day cease-fire during the Tết holiday, for a period running from 27 January through 2 February 1968. This “willingness” turned out to be a ruse as on 31 January 1968, the VC would begin a coordinated offensive of surprise attacks aimed at breaking the stalemate in Vietnam. It would be known as “The Tet Offensive” and was pivotal in the war in 1968.
Former U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower would later tell President Johnson that "we must not put ourselves in the position of depending upon belief in what a Communist says.”