Dorothy Harrison delivers a presentation about the life of M.T. "Tuck" Sacher 
and her service in the U.S. State Department 
which began in 1954 and led to a stint in Vietnam from 1968 to 1973


[00:02] Another member of the Louisville unit of the Women's Overseas Service League who gave us an interview was M.T. Sacher (S-A-C-H-E R). Her nickname was Tuck and we never called her anything else than that. She had lived from 1953 to 1960 at 4520 North [Claremont 00:31] Street in Chicago, Illinois and, uh, she lived in Louisville, uh, at 1407 St. James Court. She is not now available to us, though she is not dead. Again, I must say that she gave us this interview knowing perfectly well that it would be, uh, put into some kind of written form and, um, that it would be presented to the public through a library. After the interview we had with Tuck was over, we put it into a written form, as we intended to, to covey it to the library and I read from that report.

Tuck joined the Department of State in 1954 and went to Vietnam in January of 1968. From '54, uh, to '58, she had served in, um, in Libya at Cyrenaica and Tripolitania. Um, in, um, Vietnam, she was there on January of 1968. She served in Saigon and the Delta area – 13, covering 13 provinces, the Delta area does. She served near Cambodia. And, um, she left Vietnam in July of 1973 for return to Washington. Uh, she was housed in government housing in Saigon and elsewhere. The apartments she had were, uh, either built or leased. They were western style in the cities. Barracks were used occasionally in the field. Apartments in Saigon were all over town. Some apartments were multistoried; others were 1 or 2 stories. They were air conditioned at work and at home. Uh, Americans took care of maintenance and Tuck had her own apartment; she did not have to share with anyone.

Tuck acted as an advisor for financing, with the main objective of gathering information. She was assigned to specific jobs in specific areas, whether sometimes she drove and sometimes she took a boat. It was safest to fly, since the roads were apt to be blown up. Attacks were made on vehicles and even on boats. Snipers were a hazard. Usually, she got a Vietnam government escort through or to towns where military installations were established. Boats, when she used them, stayed in the center of the canals. That was, of course, the safest. Tuck's colleagues were mostly men.

Tuck was first in the Chinese section of Cho Lon in Saigon. She said that the Chinese controlled the businesses there – the import and export business – and they were buyers. They bought off the Vietnamese. The Tet Offensive's bloodiest fighting took place in Cho Lon, particularly near the Y-shaped bridge because it controlled the river traffic into Saigon.

Tuck was living in Sai, Cho Lon in 1968, and often went to the rooftop to watch the dogfights, the air fights overhead. Tuck was working in a building right next to the hospital, which was included in the hospital compound. They would be escorted home by marines on especially dangerous days and would remain at home until things got quieter. The Chinese tried but couldn't take the hospital, which was filled with Vietnamese patients, not Americans. Eating was done from brown bag. She would, uh, sometimes go home, sometimes eat in the military club or at a restaurant. Tuck had a maid. She did, uh, shopping and the cleaning and the cooking and the laundry for $3 to $6 a month. After a while, the price for the maid went up. Guards were on, uh, um, buildings. The Vietnamese guards paid, were paid by the government, $3 a month. By the end of, uh, Tuck's service, maid service was up to $12 a month and, presumably, the Vietnamese guards were also paid more. Uh, sleep-in maids, uh, were for, for men, uh, often.

Tuck knew an American nurse in training at a nurse's training school on a boulevard that led to an old French cemetery in Saigon. She noted that, uh, that is, the American nurse noted that there were an unusual number of Chinese funerals wending their way into the cemetery. A Chinese funeral has many motorized trucks laden with food for the dead, colored, uh, paper, decorated miniature houses, chests, boats, and so forth. Marching bands, dragons, and so forth. The size of the funeral depends on the wealth of the family. Red and black is used in the decorations. Like, it's like a huge parade. Now the nurse began to worry over the many processions and finally reported to the American Embassy, who ignored her worry. This activity continued for about 6 weeks to 2 months before January of 1968, when the Tet Offensive in Saigon was fueled from ammunition cached in the cemetery by the fake funeral corteges. The Chinese holed up in the cemetery and repeatedly attacked the hospital.

That was all that Tuck told us about her experiences in Vietnam. She, as I say, came home in 1973, after nearly 5 years there.


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