HERTZ, GUSTAV GRANE
Name: Gustav Grane Hertz
Rank/Branch: U.S. Civilian
Unit:
Date of Birth: 10 May 1918
Home City of Record:
Date of Loss: 02 February 1965
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 105051N 1064631E (XS940996)
Status (in 1973): Killed in Captivity
Category: 1
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: Honda
Other Personnel in Incident: (none missing)
Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 01 April 1990 with the assistance of
one or more of the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources,
correspondence with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews. Updated
by the P.O.W. NETWORK May 1997.
REMARKS: 670924 DIC - ON PRG LIST
SYNOPSIS: Gustav G. Hertz was a U.S. civilian working in Southeast Asia. On
February 2, 1965, Hertz was riding a Honda motorbike about 5 miles northeast of
Saigon near Thu Duc when he was captured by the Viet Cong. Hertz spent the next
2 1/2 years as a prisoner of war.
On June 15, 1967, the Viet Cong Liberation Radio, broadcasting from Hanoi,
announced that Gustav Hertz had paid his "blood debt to the Vietnamese people."
Hertz, according to the report, had been executed.
When 591 American prisoners were released by the Vietnamese in the spring of
1973, the Vietnamese supplied a list to the U.S. of those captives who had died
in captivity. Gustav Hertz name was on the list, and the Viet Cong stated that
he had died on September 24, 1967. (Note the unexplained date-of-death
descrepancy.)
Through the years following the war, the U.S. has held tentative talks and
meetings with the Vietnamese on many issues, including that of resolving the
POW/MIA issue. In the face of nearly 10,000 reports relating to Americans
missing in Southeast Asia to date, it doubtless has been difficult to keep a
politely diplomatic attitude in these dealings. The result of recent series of
talks has yielded over 300 sets of American remains. Few of these have been
identified thus far.
Critics of U.S. Government efforts complain that U.S. efforts are not adequate.
They fear normalization with Vietnam before the POW/MIA issue is fully
resolved. Most of all, they fear that hundreds of Americans are still alive in
Southeast Asian prisons, and that these men will be abandoned in diplomatic
expediency.
Gustav Hertz was not a soldier ordered to Southeast Asia by the military.
Indeed, public records do not state his occupation or reason for being in
Vietnam at all. Information on civilians is difficult to get. But Gustav Hertz
is an American citizen, and his government has an obligation to him to see that
he is returned -- dead or alive. It's time we brought our men home.
The book "Pacific Stars and Stripes, VIETNAM Front Pages" published in 1986
states:
Five-Star Edition
Vol. 21, No. 98
Fraiday, April 9, 1965
U.S. Aide Faces Death, VC Warn
Toyko (AP) -- The communist Viet Cong warned Wednesday that a high-ranking
American civilian captured in saigon two months ago will be shot if Republic
of Vietnam authorities execute one of its men.
The warnibng was announced by the "South Vietnam National Liberation Front"
in a communique issued Wednesday and carried by Hanoi Radio in a broadcast
heard here.
"If he U.S. and its henchmen execute Nguyen Van Thai, the front will
immediately give the order to execute G. Hertz (Gustav Hertz of Leesburg,
Va.), a member of the USOM (U.S. Operation Mission) in South Vietnam who is
guilty of spying activities and many bloody crimes against the South
vietnamese people," the front said.
The front said Nguyen Van
[the article ended there]
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