Marshall Wallach oral history interview

Oral history interview with Marshall F. Wallach, Class of 1965, for the Dartmouth Vietnam Project. Wallach describes his childhood growing up in a military family and the impact 36 moves in 30 years had on him. He shares how moving made him able to adapt to new situations and have a broader perspective on the world but also made it difficult to make lasting friendships from childhood. Wallach attended The Hill School, a boys residential school in Pennsylvania. He describes his transition to Dartmouth and discusses his involvement in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, Kappa Sigma Fraternity [now Chi Gamma Epsilon], the Tennis team, Dartmouth Mountaineering Club, the Interfraternity Council Judicial Committee, and Cask and Gauntlet. Wallach explains how he graduated as a distinguished military graduate and was able to decide between three years of service in a regular commission or two years of service as a reserve officer. He explains why he selected the reserve officer commission and was sent to Fort Knox in Kentucky for Army Officer Basic School and how he decided to defer from business school and volunteered for an additional year in Vietnam. Wallach discusses his position as the executive officer for the 2nd Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment. He describes the unique situation that his entire unit was sent as a group to Pleiku in Vietnam in August of 1967. Wallach describes his time in Vietnam as being mostly hot, dirty, dusty, rainy, and filled with long stretches of boredom. Wallach discusses the second part of his tour as the squadron intelligence officer for the squadron commander’s staff responsible for intelligence, located at Kon Tum, Vietnam and shares his experience flying dawn patrols and a story concerning he was shot down. He also describes his other task of leading long-range patrols. In addition, he describes how he was moved from Pleiku to Kon Tum, the night before the Tet Offensive. Wallach shares that it did not take him long to realize he had made a mistake to volunteer to go to Vietnam and chose to discontinue his service after one additional year. Wallach discusses his return from Vietnam and transition to the Harvard Business School. He describes the climate on campus during his graduate studies.