Mark Huss (9/13/1917 - 12/25/2005 was a vibrant figure in American efforts to build stability in Asia in the second half of the 20th century. During his long service in Vietnam, he worked with Rural Affairs and subsequent efforts to build a viable nation. Many warm words were spoken to commemorate Mark at a memorial service and wake near his home in Maryland on January 21, 2006. The eulogy by Rufus Phillips appears below.
MARK HUSS
When I think about Mark I think about a fellow whose company was very hard to give up by those who knew him well. I first met Mark through General Edward G. Lansdale, who had been his boss in the Philippines during the exciting President Magsaysay days. Ed and I had initially tried to recruit him to go out to Vietnam in 1962 to join me in what was called Rural Affairs in the USAID Mission in Saigon. Mark was too happy at home being involved with his family and cars at the time, but later in 1964, after I was back in the States, he changed his mind and succumbed to the idea that he could make a real contribution in Vietnam. His wife Gina was all set to go when American policy changed and dependants were no longer allowed.
Out in Saigon, Mark quickly became one of the irreplaceable Americans, serving as the main liaison between the AID Mission and afterwards, the combined American pacification organization, CORDS, and the Vietnamese responsible for rural reconstruction and pacification. In that role he worked principally with General Hoang Van Lac, who worked his way up from the staff person responsible for what was called the Strategic Hamlet Program in 1962 to heading up what became the Ministry for Rural Reconstruction. It was not easy being the communications bridge between the Americans—who often thought they knew what was best for the Vietnamese—and the Vietnamese, who were too polite to tell the Americans that they were sometimes out in left field. His work was so valuable that the Vietnamese Government awarded him its second highest medal, called, appropriately, the Rural Reconstruction Medal. For those who don’t know, pacification or rural reconstruction was the main key to defeating the Vietcong and became highly successful unfortunately only after American public support had been lost at home.
General Lac, one of the most modest, self effacing and most effective Vietnamese I knew said this of Mark. “He helped Vietnam with all his heart and mind. We loved him. He was a wonderful American”. While this is eloquent testimony to how the Vietnamese thought about Mark and how much they trusted him, it does not sum up his uniqueness. Mark had a special way about him which not only endeared him to the Vietnamese but fascinated and entertained all those who knew him.
General, then Colonel, Sam Wilson lived with Mark in the house out on the road to the airport which Barbara and I had occupied in 1962 and 1963. Sam, who cherishes a deep affection for his memory, describes Mark as a gentle, unselfish man deeply sensitive of others and forever giving things away. Sam says, “We would be sitting around and having a drinks with some visitor and I would notice Mark’s eyes roving around the room looking for something. Sure enough, sooner or later, he would spot some piece of bric-a-brac, pick it up, hand it to our guest and say, ‘I just thought you might like to have this’. Then he would launch into a detailed description of the object, where it came from and its symbolic value, stubbornly refusing any move by the guest to avoid accepting the gift…Mark was a giver, sometimes a stubborn, insistent giver.”
I saw Mark in Saigon in 1965, 1966 and 1967 when I came out as a temporary consultant to the Lansdale Team in our Embassy there. Mark would give me translated tid bits he had culled from serialized, supposedly eye witness, versions of what had happened during the fateful year of 1963 leading up to the coup against Diem. I was variously described as a CIA spy in league with beautiful Vietnamese ladies plotting against Diem’s supposedly deranged, opium-smoking brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu. Mark would include some wry comment like, “Did you tell Barbara about the beautiful ladies?”
Mark was a wonderful talker. He loved to talk about anything and he always had something interesting to say. I think he would have made a fabulous talk show host with his melodious voice and wry sense of humor. Sam Wilson says that even when reading a book Mark conversed with the author and even talked back to him. He has as evidence in his library a copy of Teddy White’s “The Making of the President – 1960”, brought back from Saigon. Every available margin of each page is covered by Mark’s scrawled commentary – the volume of words almost equals White’s.
Bill Harbin, who worked for Mark in 1966 when the American military buildup was in full swing, says it was difficult for civilians to get through to senior military staff brass but Mark had a unique way of doing it. He would speak to the female secretary and say, “Oh that voice – that beautiful voice” and then continue with some flattery that would always get him through”.
That was Mark, a lovely man with imagination, wit and charm to burn, and with a unique quality of engendering trust in another people whose culture was so different but whose aspirations he shared. We will all miss him greatly as we celebrate joyful, affectionate memories of how wonderful he was.
January 21, 2006
A Mark Huss scholarship for members of the military pursuing their education while stationed abroad has been established at the University of Maryland University College. Contributions can be made to:
UMUC Foundation - Mark Huss Memorial Scholarship
UMUC, Office of Institutional Advancement UC-310
3501 University Boulevard East, Adelphi, MD 20783.