Charles Chauncey Wells Transcript .pdf

Charles Chauncey Wells, US Army

From learning the craft of the written word in local newspapers to applying it to the war zone’s of the Vietnam War with propaganda projects, Charles Chauncey Wells fought the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese with the stroke of a pen rather than the trigger of a gun.

Born on April 9^th, 1944, in Benton Harbor, Michigan, Wells was embedded into the newspaper industry since childhood. His father was the city editor for the Benton Harbor News Palladium, Benton Harbor’s daily newspaper, until he capitalized on an opportunity and bought the daily newspaper in Coloma, Michigan. His father handled the editorial work while his mother managed its advertising. Wells, surrounded by the business, learned how it operated, in particular the printing process. He used this knowledge to revitalize his high school newspaper and worked his way up to editor-in-chief of the Michigan State News at Michigan State University. Wells participated in the Reserve Officer Training Corps, earned a degree in journalism in 1966, and briefly worked for the Chicago Tribune.

Eager to utilize his journalism skills, Wells joined the Army Signal Corps, a division that creates and manages communications and information systems. He completed his basic training at Fort Gordon, Georgia, and his advanced training at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. After working as a property book officer in Fort Hood, Texas, for six months, Wells went to Vietnam where he initially worked as a photo officer with 1st Military Intelligence Battalion Air Reconnaissance Support. But with limited photography skills, he quickly transferred to running the battalion’s school near Tan Son Nhut airport, where freshly arriving imagery interpreters were given a crash-course on the conditions in Vietnam.

Wells transferred again after only six months to the 5^th Psychological Operations Battalion, where he worked on the printing and circulation of propaganda in Vietnam to gain support for the government. The unit distributed several items, including posters and cigarette packs, which was handed out to Vietnamese going through checkpoints to calm their anger. While serving in Vietnam, Wells befriended South Vietnamese soldiers with whom he maintained friendships for forty years, a rarity among his fellow soldiers.

“The viewpoint of many Americans that [the Vietnamese] are gooks and stoops and, you know, we're so superior,” Wells says. “There wasn't much cultural awareness, and, so, when you have a lack of cultural awareness, then you, then these people cease to be people. They’re just things. That's the problem.”

After returning to the States, Wells served in the active Army Reserve for two years, working on propaganda development on the weekends in the Chicagoland area and continued to work with the Tribune as an editor. Wells, who has been remarried for thirty-two years, has three sons from his first marriage. He lives in Oak Park, Illinois and remains involved in the printing and publishing business and currently runs Chauncey Park Press, which has published twenty-eight books.

While he enjoyed his time with the military, Wells believes the country needs to regain shared common values and ideals, where everyone performs one year of service for the country, which could be military, Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, among others. He also strongly advocates that everyone participate, regardless of social or economic status. “We're not together on national policy because the wealthy people do not participate in fighting these wars all over the world,” he says. “Its perpetual war nowadays and I don't think it should be.”