--- title: "War hero Max Cleland recounts how he (barely) made it out of Vietnam alive" date: "2026-11-11" modified: "2026-11-11" authors: - name: "Stephen Ruiz" job_title: "Editor, Writer" link: "https://www.wearethemighty.com/authors/stephen.md" url: "https://www.wearethemighty.com/history/war-hero-max-cleland-recounts-how-he-barely-made-it-out-of-vietnam-alive/" categories: - "Army" - "Heroes" - "History" - "Veterans" - "Vietnam War" - "War History" tags: - "Army" - "Military History" - "Veterans Day" - "VHP" - "Vietnam War" --- # War hero Max Cleland recounts how he (barely) made it out of Vietnam alive ![Max Cleland]() *Max Cleland served in the Army during the Vietnam War. He lost both of his legs and his right arm at the Battle of Khe Sanh on April 8, 1968. (Photo courtesy of the Max Cleland Collection at Stetson University)* *Max Cleland joined the U.S.* [*Army*]() *and served in the* [*Vietnam War*]() *in 1967 and 1968. On April 8, 1968—days behind his tour was to end—a grenade exploded and cost Cleland both of his legs and his right arm. For years, Cleland falsely believed his own grenade caused his injuries.* *After serving, Cleland became the first Vietnam War veteran to become administrator of the Veterans Administration. He also entered state politics in his native Georgia and served in the U.S. Senate from 1997 to 2003.* *Cleland, who died November 9, 2021, at the age of 79, spoke to the Library of Congress in 2002 for its Veterans History Project. On Veterans Day, We Are The Mighty is running a transcription of that interview. WATM edited Cleland’s comments for brevity and clarity.* “My father served in the [Navy]() at Pearl Harbor after the attack, and I grew up with that legend and that incredible story of the attack and the American response and \[President Franklin D.\] Roosevelt and the day of infamy and the draft. Then my father joined the Navy and went through Camp Perry, Virginia. He rode on a train all the way across the country and then got on a LST \[Landing Ship, Tank\], went for days across the Pacific, and landed in Hawaii. “He was lucky to be able to stay in Hawaii. At one time, because he had been a truck driver, he was, at one time, billeted to be a driver for Adm. \[Chester\] Nimitz. He didn't get the job, but he did stay at Pearl Harbor as shore patrol. And so there are pictures I have that I've seen since I was just two years old of him on his scooter with his shore patrol badge and his .45. **Also Read:** [**How this Marine veteran scrambled to survive after the USS Indianapolis sank**]() “I grew up with that whole legend of Pearl Harbor and military service. Also the draft was under way. A lot of people now, since 1973, have no idea about the power of the draft, because it was something that was over the head of every 18-year-old male in America. You had to make a decision. So when I went to Stetson University in DeLand, Florida, for college, I had to make a quick decision when I was 18 to join ROTC. “That's how I got involved in [Army]() ROTC. It was the only ROTC offered to me. Actually my dream was to become a Navy pilot. I went to graduate school. So basically I was attracted to the 1st Air Cavalry Division, which was the first big unit sent to Vietnam by President \[Lyndon B.\] Johnson. I volunteered for the cav twice, once in '66, and then I was siphoned off to be an aide to a brigadier general. In 1967, I volunteered again and went with the 1st Air Cavalry Division, the Army's old helicopter outfit. So I got to fly a lot, just not under the controls. I spent a lot of time in helicopters.” ### Figuring Out His Future ![Max Cleland Bob Kerrey]() *Sens. Max Cleland (left) of Georgia and Bob Kerrey of Nebraska, both Vietnam War veterans, shake hands as they speak to the Democratic National Convention at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, August 16, 2000. (Paul J. Richards/AFP via Getty Images)* “When I was a young junior, I thought, ‘Well, I'm going to do this ROTC thing,’ and I'm beginning to like it. I want to be a helicopter pilot. So I figured my future after undergraduate school was \[to\] go in the Army, go to helicopter school, go to Vietnam, get shot at, and then we'll see what happens. So that was my future until I came upon the Washington semester program at American University the first semester of my senior year. That changed my life literally, because after a week or two in Washington—seeing, as they say, government in action—quite frankly, I was much more interested in the action than in government. “I met members of the Senate and Congress. The whole Washington scene and the spirit of the new frontier infatuated me. I was 21 years of age. That turned me on to American politics, and I'm still turned on by it. I then decided I didn't want to be a helicopter pilot and get shot at. I really needed to learn more about this thing called government and politics. “They ultimately gave me a $1,200 assistanceship, I think, to go to Emory Graduate School. I went to Emory, got the money, and studied, in effect, American history. But it wasn't just pure American history. It was American studies. That has been a great background for me as I've entered politics.” ### “The Dumbest Human Being that God Ever Created” ![1st Cavalry Division]() *Troopers from the 1st Cavalry Division support combat operations during the Vietnam War. (U.S. Army via the 1st Cavalry Division Association)* “I entered the Army on October 18, 1965. No man or woman ever went on active duty with a greater sense of pride, with a greater sense of wanting to be there. ‘Thank God, I finally get my chance to make my mark in life.’ I'd get out of the academic world. I'd had it with school. And I really wanted to tackle life in all its grandeur. “I went to airborne school, which is a few weeks into being a young officer at Fort Gordon \[in Georgia\]. I'm going to tackle this thing called jump school. After Fort Gordon and then microwave radio officer training at Fort Monmouth \[in New Jersey\], I went to jump school where I knew I was crazy then. Jumping out of a perfectly good airplane, you know you're flat-out crazy, but that was a great experience to survive and to get my wings pinned upon my chest. “Back in those days, that was what you're supposed to do. Keep in mind that in 1964 or '65, Barry Sadler's song, ‘The Ballad of the Green Berets,’ was the No. 1 song in America. He was on ‘The Ed Sullivan Show.’ So Special Forces, Vietnam, airborne, that was all *de rigueur*. I went to jump school, was an aide for a year stateside to a general, and then volunteered for Vietnam.” “The first time I jumped out of an airplane, I thought, ‘Cleland, you are the dumbest human being that God ever created.’ I felt that way, but I did it.” ### “I Didn’t Want to Avoid the War of My Generation” “My first and second lieutenants, I found myself very much a part of them. We weren't particularly hardcore, West Point, killer warriors, but we weren't particularly academicians out for a stroll in the sun, either. Everybody had a sense of obligation, a sense of duty. We weren't fanatical, but we felt like we had to take our place in the line. I didn't want to avoid the war of my generation. “I knew this was going to be big, and as a history major, you know these defining moments in American history come along every now and then. If you really want to learn about it, you really hope to be part of America in the future, you'd better get in there and understand it so you can be a good leader afterward. That's part of my ethos, my ethic. I volunteered to Vietnam, to learn what I could learn about it, to do my part, and to keep my faith with my country and with my fellow soldiers. “Now in the Senate, as I vote to send young men to war to Kosovo, to Bosnia, to Afghanistan, you know, I have a sixth sense about what they're going through. I take this responsibility very, very seriously. Committing young men and women in harm's way is the most serious decision our government can ever make. It must be taken with all seriousness. It must be done with a great sense of perspective and with a great sense that you don't commit unless you're going to be successful. Those are powerful lessons I learned out of Vietnam.” ### “This Was a Weird Business” ![Max Cleland]() *Former U.S. Sen. Max Cleland delivers remarks during a National POW/MIA Recognition Day ceremony at the Pentagon River Parade Field in Arlington, Virginia, September 19, 2014. (U.S. Army/Staff Sgt. Sean K. Harp)* “I look back now at my young troops, and I love them more now than I did then. I wish I could put my arms around all of them, because we went through something very special, very unique, the camaraderie of the battlefield, the camaraderie of the foxhole and the trenches. Even today when I see one of my young troops, I embrace them. Vietnam veterans just try to embrace one another. We were isolated and pretty much left alone and abandoned by the country. If we didn't have each other, we didn't have anything. “When I came back and became head of the VA, I was proud to put together the vet center counseling program so that Vietnam veterans could at least hold on to one another. “I chose the Signal Corps, because I wanted to be shot at every other day, not every day. If I went infantry, I figured I'd be dead. I wanted to be part of the action, but I just didn't want to get killed being part of the action. It was a great assignment. Fort Gordon, Fort Monmouth. I learned about microwave radio and all this kind of stuff. As a matter of fact, my technical specialty in the military was as a microwave radio officer. “When Khe Sanh happened, when the Tet Offensive happened, I realized the defining moment of the war was about to happen. In my opinion, it was going to happen not at Tet, but at Khe Sanh; that unlike the French, if we could hold Khe Sanh, we would prove to the bad guys we were superior and we were going to win. However, if they took it, it would be our Dien Bien Phu, and they'd run us out. So I saw that as the defining moment, the defining battle. “That's why I volunteered. Then I got scared to death and \[laughter\] realized, ‘You know, this was a weird business,’ and ultimately paid heavily for it. My mother and daddy didn't want me to go to Vietnam. “It was May 31, 1967, when I boarded the aircraft to fly over there. I was ready to get on that plane at Travis Air Force Base \[in California\], seeking my daring adventure in life. I think special training \[consisted of\] taking my first malaria pill. \[laughter\] That was about it. “I don't think we knew what we were getting into. I can remember early on in '67, one of the young radiomen I had in my unit had come out of Napa Valley, California. He said he was going to a golf course. That was what they called the main line, the flight line for the helicopters at An Khe in the jungle. So he was wondering whether he should take his golf clubs. I mean, looking back, it was a laugher, but that just showed you that, just a young kid draftee, you're going to be a signalman. You're going to Vietnam. The landing strip is called a golf course. That's what the pilots called it. “That's just a story that shows the naivete about not only me, but a lot of young men who wound up in Vietnam to, in many ways, lose our innocence and especially those of us who went to the Tet Offensive and especially the siege at Khe Sanh. In so many ways, that was total war, total war like only few Americans had ever experienced.” ### “The Tension Started Immediately” “Whatever battle—Vietnam, World War II, Korea—replacement troops have what \[Gen. George S.\] Patton used to refer to as the ‘valor of ignorance,’ and the hardened experienced troops have that hollowed-out look in their eyes, what became known as the 10,000-foot stare in a 10-foot room. They're the ones, been there, done that, gotten a few holes in their T-shirt. Your combat veteran has seen the elephant. Those of us who come back from that experience are different. “When we landed in Vietnam, the tension started immediately. The moment the door opened, the heat comes in. The tension immediately begins, and you never shake that tension as long as you're in-country. All the battle-hardened soldiers over here were looking at us, making sly, snide comments. But everybody, after a number of months in Vietnam, always looked forward to their freedom bird, the plane that took them out. “How we did replacements in Vietnam later came to bite us big time. Because we went over as individuals, came back as individuals. The entire burden of the war, in effect, fell upon you afterward as you came back—in my case, wounded, and in the case of every Vietnam veteran, which makes us a band of brothers of our own.” ### “The Military Changes You” ![Max Cleland]() *Max Cleland, secretary of the American Battle Monuments Commission, takes part in the 72nd anniversary Pearl Harbor Day Commemoration Ceremony at the Pearl Harbor Visitor Center, Hawaii, December 9, 2013. (U.S. Navy/Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Diana Quinlan)* “We came back alone and had to deal with the experience of combat alone. We didn't have the solidarity of a unit, a company or the [National Guard]() unit from my little hometown going over as one with your basketball buddies and everything. It was an estrangement to go there and an estrangement to come home. “There was no decompression time for Vietnam veterans, and they came home and had to deal with all the stuff with which they had dealt with in Vietnam and deal with it personally. It was just too much for any single individual to handle. So 20% or 30% of our Vietnam-era veterans wound up with some kind of psychological challenge. Many of us, including myself, wound up in counseling afterward. “One of the things I guess I'm proudest of, when I was head of the Veterans Administration, I worked with President \[Jimmy\] Carter and Sen. \[Alan\] Cranston, who was head of the Veterans Committee at the time in the Senate, to put together what is now called the Vet Center Program, a psychological readjustment counseling program to deal with the aftermath of war. Now we know it doesn't have to be just combat. It can be Bosnia, Haiti, or Afghanistan. It can be [Desert Storm]() or Saudi Arabia. The military changes you. “When you come back, you need support to deal with those changes in your life.” ### “There’s Something About Combat” “Apparently, Gen. \[William\] Westmoreland used the cav as a blocking force to secure the Marines at not only the Da Nang but at Hue. We were astride Highway 1 when three North Vietnamese divisions came down. That's where the 1st Air Cavalry Division and the Marines and other units got shredded. We lost a lot of people. “Here's a young first lieutenant out there in the weeds. In many ways, young officers, young sergeants, young corporals picked up what was going on in reality much better than a lot of people at higher headquarters, particularly in Saigon. Something was up. We just didn't know what and when. We certainly didn't know the scope of the attack, which was all out. “You can't take away from the enemy their ability to die, and so that's what the North Vietnamese had: their willingness to die. That's what they did, by the tens and twenties of thousands. But it gave such an emotional shock to this country and to our forces in Vietnam. We lost 15,000 men that year in '68, four times more than the French lost at Dien Bien Phu in '51 or '52. That was the turning point of the war. But I sensed the climactic moment of the war was coming, and I wanted to be part of it. And it all began to center around Khe Sanh. “I’ve done crazier things \[than volunteering\], but I can’t remember what was more crazy than that. There's something about combat—the moth to the flame kind of thing. Especially, ‘Let's get this sucker over with.’” ### “We Never Had a Strategic Objective to Win” ![Ruins in Saigon]() *Civilians sort through the ruins of their homes in Cholon, the heavily damaged Chinese section of Saigon, in 1968. (U.S. Army Center of Military History)* “Vietnam, for American troops, had a big frustration level to it. You'd go somewhere, and then you'd fall back. Then you'd go somewhere else, and then you'd fall back. Then you'd go somewhere else, and fall. You never had a sense of winning or never… \[journalist\] Walter Lippmann had a great line in those days: ‘The battles we fight, we win. But the battles we fight can't win the war.’ “In many ways, American troops were hung out on that policy. We never had a strategic objective to win. That's one of the things that Clark Clifford found when he came in, replacing \[Defense Secretary Robert\] McNamara. There was no plan to win. So we ended up with this war of attrition against experts in wars of attrition. And therefore, we ultimately lost. “So guys like me, who hung it out and bet the farm on making it happen and winning, ultimately looked back with a great sense of betrayal, a great sense of disgust and distrust about those who led us there, who we followed there, and then a great sense of anger that we were, you know, the ones to go and all this kind of stuff. You work through all of that. And then you finally bottom out and say, ‘Well, what the hell? You know, I'm still here, and I've got to make the best of it.’ “The 1st Air Cavalry Division had a Marine component of going along Highway 9. I think it was from Dong Ha out to Khe Sanh, but all those bridges had been cut. I think there were 26 different bridges that had been blown up by the North Vietnamese. It was a hellacious time. All hell broke loose literally. So I thought by volunteering, getting there, being part of this and winning this sucker, we could win the war, and it would be over. This nutso stuff would be over. The lost lives, the craziness, the lack of desire, or the lack of goal-setting to accomplish a strategic objective. All that would be over. “That's what I saw in the battle for Khe Sanh. We broke the siege. I got wounded the day the siege was actually broken, April 8, '68. After the Khe Sanh base was taken, a week later, they plowed it under and evacuated it. Now how does that make you feel?” ### “I Call It a Freak Accident of War” “I came home feeling very guilty, very embarrassed. You know, if I'm such a great wonderful military leader, why did I get wounded? Why did I get wounded this way? A million questions. You replay the tape in your mind. And there was no answer. Same ending. And so it was only well over 30-some-odd years, 35 years later, that one of the men who first got to me, David Lloyd, called me after seeing a documentary on The History Channel about combat medics. I told my story, and he said, ‘It wasn’t your grenade.’ I said, ‘How do you know?’ He said, ‘Because I was the first to you.’ That sent me reeling for a while. “It was the grenade of a young guy behind me who'd been in-country a day or two and had been convinced by either himself or somebody else that he should lengthen the pins on the grenades he was carrying to make them easier to pull out in combat. That made him a walking time bomb. So David Lloyd got to me and began to patch up my wounds, then the Navy medic. Then he was sent to the guy who was filled with shrapnel and whatever, tried to patch him up, but he still had two grenades on him. David Lloyd dismantled those grenades. I call it a freak accident of war, but that's war. “I fought going out of consciousness, because I thought I would never wake up. That was just a personal fight. The people around me literally saved my life: David Lloyd first and then the Navy medic. Then a guy named Charlie Walden, who was a Marine. They tended my wounds, cut off my uniform, and tried to make a tourniquet. “My right arm was blown off immediately, right leg immediately, left leg amputated within the hour. One of the things I remember, I got to the division aid station, which was a bunker. Since the shrapnel had severed \[my\] windpipe. I looked up to the medic, and I said, ‘Do you think I'm going to make it?’ He said, ‘You just might.’ You know, like, ‘OK. We got a coin here, Cleland. This is your life. Heads, you live. Tails, you die. Flip of the coin.’” ### “A Long-Term Case” ![Max Cleland]() *VA head and Vietnam War veteran Max Cleland laid a wreath as part of the Memorial Day 1980 ceremony at the Honolulu Memorial. (Photo courtesy of the American Battle Monuments Commission)* “Because it was Vietnam, they had a chopper medevac. It was a clear day, in the middle of the day, to the division aid station. Within the hour, I was in the air medevaced about 40 miles away. A team of five doctors saved my life. One of the doctors said I owe my life to the anesthesiologist, because every time my blood pressure \[went\] down, my breathing stopped. He stopped the operation, built up the blood pressure, and they started again. Then the anesthesiologist stopped it and built it up again. Dah, dah, dah. I went through like 46 pints of blood in five hours. “The shipping back was a hellacious thing. I wanted to stay in the Navy hospital in Da Nang, because I knew I was going to get better treatment there. They said, ‘No. You're an Army guy.’ They sent me down to someplace called Tuy Hoa, which was a hellhole northeast of Saigon. I was there for seven days. I almost died. I was lucky to survive that place. “I spent about eight months at Walter Reed. I was looked upon as a long-term case. If you've had everything taken away from you, you're going to fight like hell to get it back. The rehab thing was as much another war, a war with ultimately Walter Reed, which was really wonderful for me initially, the snakepit, the camaraderie of the guys. And then the devastation at being shipped out to the Veterans Administration Hospital in Washington. I wanted to stay in Washington. I didn't want to go home, because I figured if I ever went home halfway, I'd never, never make anything. I'd never make it. I wanted to go home in as good of shape as I would ever be. “I battled the VA for another year, trying to get artificial limbs, doing my \[physical therapy\] every day, every day, every day. Finally got a decent set of limbs and went home in December of '69. I can remember sitting there in my mother and daddy's living room and saying, ‘Well, no job. No future. No girlfriend. No car. No apartment. No money. This is a great time to run for the state Senate.’” ### When the VA Finally Recognized PTSD “Coming home, the Vietnam veteran is left alone with his pain and his agony, to try to explain it by himself. That was one reason why we needed the support of psychological counseling in the Veterans Administration, which had never been done before unless you're psycho. “This was not psycho. This was saying everybody that had been traumatized has these kinds of things go on years later, now called post-traumatic stress disorder. That wasn't even a diagnosis until I went to the Veterans Administration, and in 1978, it became an official diagnosis of the Veterans Administration. PTSD, now well-known. \[It’s\] now well-known to have affected Korean veterans, World War II veterans and other victims of trauma, but Vietnam veterans were looked upon basically as crybabies back when I came back. “President \[Franklin D.\] Roosevelt said that the purpose of politics is to generate hope. I just said on the floor of the Senate last night as I gave my valedictory speech that the purpose of my life is to generate hope. That’s maybe the best thing any of us can do.” **Don’t Miss the Best of We Are The Mighty** **•** [**What this airman did to survive at the Hanoi Hilton during the Vietnam War**]() **•** [**How this Native American veteran honored her tribe by serving in the Air Force**]() **•** [**Kamikaze pilots couldn’t stop this Marine veteran, 104, during World War II**]() ## Author Stephen Ruiz is an editor and writer at We Are The Mighty. His writing revolves mostly around military history and sports stories, but it can branch into other areas. Stephen has more than 35 years of journalism experience. His career began with stints at The Ledger newspaper in Lakeland, Florida, and The Kansas City Star in Missouri, but most of his time was spent on the copy desk at the Orlando Sentinel. After accepting a buyout from the Sentinel in 2020, Stephen worked at Military.com for 4½ years as a content editor and writer. He joined the We Are The Mighty staff in December 2025. ### Author social links [Facebook]() [Twitter]() [Instagram]() [LinkedIn]() ## More - [What this airman did to survive at the Hanoi Hilton during the Vietnam War]() - [This Medal of Honor recipient takes you inside the scariest day of his life]() - [Korean War veteran pinpoints the most important lesson of war]() - [Mike Vining on Vietnam, Delta Force, and the sardines he never ate]() - [‘Good luck, soldier:’ This World War II paratrooper recalls landing on D-Day]() - [How Jane Fonda became the most-hated woman among Vietnam veterans]() - [Vietnam vet Bill Roedy left the Army for cable TV—and helped win the Cold War]() - [It’s never too late to honor America’s Vietnam veterans]()