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Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Marvin, U.S. Army
Special Forces (Retired)
Born in Detroit,
Michigan on 10 October 1933
Dan Marvin was an Army “Mustang,” first enlisting
in June 1952 as a recruit and later holding the rank of Sergeant First Class.
He was later commissioned as a Second Lieutenant and went on to retire as a
Lieutenant Colonel. A fully qualified Special Forces Officer (Green Beret),
Master Parachutist and Combat Infantryman, he was experienced in covert
operations. A veteran of eight combat campaigns in the Korean and Vietnam Wars,
he was thrice decorated for heroism. More significantly he accepted the Lord
Jesus Christ as his personal Saviour on 29 January 1984 and since that day he
has fearlessly crusaded for truth and justice with the goal of fighting evil
that dwells in certain agencies and/or various personnel in our government.
Marvin was schooled in unconventional warfare and
learned the fundamentals of guerrilla warfare, special demolitions and
underwater demolitions in addition to assassination and terrorism techniques,
civic action and psychological warfare operations. Taught by veteran Green
Beret, CIA and US Navy SEAL Team instructors, in 1964 he volunteered to organize
and command a covert operations team of eight Green Beret volunteers; the first
Green Berets to be prepared to employ the man-portable atomic demolition device
(SADM) with an explosive force equivalent to ten tons of TNT. Their contingency
mission was to blow the hydroelectric plant at the ASWAN High Dam in Egypt,
under construction at the time by the USSR That same year he and Green Beret
Master Sergeant Joseph Hill were involved in a bizarre series of interactions
with the leadership of the Boston area Mafia, giving them personal insight into
the unique alliance that existed between the CIA, the Mob and the U.S. Army’s
Special Forces when their unique talents were needed to conduct extremely
critical covert operations, including assassinations and sabotage.
In the Vietnam War Marvin commanded Green Beret
Team A-424 in An Phu, South Vietnam from 27 December 1965 through 2 August 1966,
leading the first combat actions against enemy forces inside their Cambodian
safe-havens. These sanctuaries had been provided our enemies by then President
Lyndon B. Johnson. Marvin’s A Team also conducted counterinsurgency, direct
combat, civic action and psychological warfare operations throughout the
district of An Phu. Fighting alongside their courageous South Vietnamese
Buddhist Hoa Hao “Irregular fighters” they secured and held fifty kilometers of
common border with Cambodia and were continually victorious against a
numerically superior and better equipped enemy. Marvin considered the Hoa Hao
irregulars the most courageous and most motivated foreign fighting men he’d ever
known.
His small team of Green Berets gained the respect
of the 64,000 Hoa Haos of An Phu District. With no civilian doctors or
organized medical treatment facilities in place, Marvin’s two team medics filled
the gap, providing a wide range of medical and dental services to the local
populace while helping to defend their homes, farms and fishing industry against
thousands of Communist insurgents. Victory after victory of these outnumbered
fighters attested to the valor of the Hoa Hao fighters, their families and the
local population.
In June 1966, the CIA asked Marvin to assassinate
Cambodian Crown Prince Norodum Sihanouk. He would employ his Hoa Hao Irregular
fighters in an operation designed to make it appear to have been carried out by
the Communist Viet Cong. This mission was accepted but later aborted when
President Johnson failed to honor Marvin’s quid pro quo wherein he demanded that
President Johnson deny the enemy further use of their safe havens inside
Cambodia. He was to announce that fact publicly in the United States. Within 10
days of his aborting the mission and ordering the CIA agent out of his camp,
Marvin’s men and approximately 400 Hoa Haos were in danger of being attacked and
annihilated by a heavily armed ARVN Regiment sent by the CIA in retribution of
Marvin’s actions. South Vietnamese Lieutenant General Quang Van Dang
interceded, ordered the ARVN Regiment back to their home base, and then flew
into Marvin’s An Phu Camp and told them they no longer would fear reprisal.
There would be no brother killing brother.
When Marvin’s team departed An Phu on 2 August
1966 it was the most secure area in South Vietnam. His next foreign tour was
with the 46th Special Forces in Lop Buri, Thailand where he commanded the
Special Forces Logistical Operations Center which provided unconventional
logistical support to all covert operations in that area of the world. He
retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in May, 1973.
Among his most treasured awards is the Hoa Hao
purple silk scarf that was presented to him by the Hoa Hao Central Committee
when they named Marvin an Honorary Hoa Hao, the only American to receive that
special tribute.
The
Victory Edition of Marvin's nonfiction book Expendable Elite - One
Soldier's Journey Into Covert Warfare was published in July 2006 with an
added preface by renowned author and expert on CIA
assassination programs Douglas Valentine. It has more than 100
added pages covering the lawsuit financed by the Special Forces Association in
their attempt to financially destroy Marvin and Millegan and the actual trial
which vindicated Marvin and Trine Day's publisher Millegan, finding them not
guilty of writing and publishing lies that defamed or libeled the plaintiffs in
January 2006. Finally, it discusses the Special Forces Association's continuing
effort to derail their effort to publish the truth and to bankrupt us. The
second edition can be ordered by calling
1-800-556-2012. If you desire an autographed copy - just ask.
related articles: Reflections of a Green
Beret, The Horrors of War
Liberty To The Captives
Podcast:
Green Beret Lt. Col. Daniel Marvin (Retired) Blows the Whistle on CIA-Directed
Assassination Campaigns |