On May 5, 1961, an Air America helicopter dropped Dickey Chapelle in the mountain village of Khoui Ka Cham, Laos. Surprisingly, no one had tried to stop her from going, and the only hoop she had to jump through was a series of questions by an aged colonel culminating with the query, “Will you eat bats?” The Special Forces she wanted to cover were expected to live off the land if supply lines failed. They had to be sure she would do the same.
“Yessir,” she answered unflinchingly.
The Green Berets greeted her with a smile. This was not the first time they’d met. She’d recently jumped over the DMZ with them to cover their patrol of the North Korean border with South Korean anti-communist forces. Nor did they doubt that she would eat bats or do whatever was necessary to survive and get their story. Dickey had a reputation for covering armies fighting for freedom all over the world under the most challenging conditions.
In 1956, she had been arrested and imprisoned while covering the Hungarian uprising against a Soviet installed regime. Less than a year later, she faked her own kidnapping to report on the Algerian Liberation Front’s struggle for independence from French colonial rule. She lived off the land for more than three weeks with the Cuban Revolutionary Army while coming under fire from machine guns, planes, and mortars. These are just to name a few of her more notable adventures in journalism.
Every time, she got the story that no one else could. Her unique capacity to scoop her male counterparts stemmed not only from her exceptional courage and ability but also from her devout belief that all humans, regardless of race, color, creed, or gender, were entitled to the right to self-determination and the privilege of freedom. Most of her white Western male colleagues were not as enlightened, so she left them in the dust when it came to getting the story out first.
Laos would be no different as Dickey set out to capture the story of American Special Forces training Hmong guerillas fighting for freedom against the Soviet-backed Pathet Lao. For the better part of a month, Dickey flew in helicopters as they dropped supplies to forces embedded deep within the highlands, came under intense fire, and went on patrol through the Mekong Delta in a sampan. Once more, she captured her subjects’ prowess and fortitude with an objective eye and an insightful pen.
There was only one problem.
What she - nor anyone outside the highest echelons of government knew - was that what she had witnessed, photographed, and written about, was the core of Operation White Star. Far from an altruistic endeavor to help Laotians fend off dictatorial communist forces, this covert CIA program aimed to reshape the landscape of the Laotian countryside in order to build the foundation for an expanded war that would soon engulf the region.
Crossed lines of communication and the absence of a press strategy allowed Dickey to get in. But government censorship would ensure her story would never get out. Back in the States, Dickey submitted her writing and photographs for approval from the military. This had been standard practice during WWII when Dickey got her start, and back then, the military had allowed stories to go through that didn’t endanger national security.
That was no longer the case and now, the US military simply disappeared her photos, claiming they were lost even though Army Digest actually ran one of them without crediting her. By suppressing her photographs, the Armed Forces knowingly killed her story.
Operation White Star remained classified for another 40 years. Once the truth came out, it was clear that the Kennedy Administration and the CIA had plans to expand the war in Southeast Asia from the very first.
How different would history have been if the public had known? Would the anti-Vietnam War movement gained momentum sooner? Would voters have held elected leaders accountable for their complicity in these dangerous and illegal actions?
We’ll never know what the outcome might have been. But it is clear the government was well aware of the awesome power of images to sway public opinion and expose the truth with intense immediacy.
They know that now, too.
Pete Hegseth’s Defense Department recently announced it would delete tens of thousands of photos from its image archive.
Among the first photos on the chopping block?
Private First Class Christina Fuentes Montenegro preparing to hike to her platoon’s defensive position during the Infantry Training Battalion patrol week near Camp Geiger, N.C.
Major Lisa Jaster, the first Army Reserve female to graduate from the Army’s Ranger School, stood in formation with other Rangers during a school graduation ceremony on Oct. 16, 2015, in Fort Benning, Georgia.
All female flight crew member assigned to the 816th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron Flying Crew Staff Sgt. Krysteena Scales preforming a preflight check.
Photographs of Navajo Code Talkers, the Tuskegee Airmen, and many other members of the military who are not white-cis-straight males have also been removed.
Why?
These photographs are proof that Americans of every gender, color, creed, and sexual orientation fought for our rights and gave that last full measure of devotion to the cause of liberty. They are irrefutable evidence that we are all a part of this experiment called the United States, entitled to the privileges and responsibilities of freedom.
The current administration’s hamfisted attempt to erase American history has received plenty of pushback, leading to the restoration of some of the photos. But the purge continues, and no doubt Pete Hegseth and his goons will continue to attempt to advance their revisionist and wholly inaccurate account of history by erasing photographic evidence. Hopefully, he will again add the editor of a major news publication to his Telegraph chat while discussing his intentions.
Barring that, we must keep the pressure on and hold all our elected officials accountable for this mass erasure of images that The Dallas Morning News calls a “national security threat.”
Among those leading this charge is photojournalist and Lens for Change Founder Michelle Riley. Like Dickey Chapelle, she knows that images are a powerful tool in the fight for freedom with the capacity to reveal the whole truth no matter who wants to keep it hidden. After her exceptionally informative and alarming LinkedIn post on the DOD purge went viral, she launched the Visual Truth Matters Campaign that helps concerned/outraged citizens stand up and take action. If you’re looking for a way to get involved, this is an easy way to make your voice heard.
Erasing history, and particularly women’s history, has always been a central pillar of tyranny. Suppressing our history obscures the truth that women have always been integral in the fight for freedom on the the home front and on the frontlines. We cannot and must not allow this administration to write us out. We were there and we are still standing.
I’m a photo researcher who works primarily for educational and academic publications and I firmly believe historical images best teach history, and that history teaches us the best paths forward. So of course this doesn’t surprise me , and enrages me . With all the shock and awe vying for our attention, thank you for posting about this !
Erasing women from history… This is why Gerda learner had to write a whole separate book, entitled “creation of Feminine consciousness” after she wrote “creation of patriarchy”. In fact, that was actually her first book she wanted to write, but couldn’t until she wrote “creation of patriarchy”. Why? Because she couldn’t find consistent women’s history throughout the ages. She proved that women had to start over from scratch constantly to recreate their history in order to see themselves in it, and thus as an active participant in the world. One has to ask why would erasing women from history be necessary for the patriarchy? Answering that question might help you wake up. Next week on my YouTube channel, I will be releasing a video about how history is made and it’s vital that we understand it is made and not just coming out of the thin air. It’s more about probability than facts as we are seen in real time.. Thank you, Lorissa for always bringing forward to the individual stories that are so poignant to the bigger picture.