Robert B. Rheault

Robert Bradley Rheault (October 31, 1925 – October 16, 2013) was an American soldier in the U.S. Army Special Forces who served as commander of the First Special Forces Group in Okinawa, and the Fifth Special Forces Group in Vietnam from May to July 1969.

Rheault was best known for his role as a co-conspirator and commander of the unit responsible for the 20 June 1969 execution of South Vietnam double agent Thai Khac Chuyen, who compromised intelligence agents involved in Project GAMMA operating in Vietnam and Cambodia.

Early life and education Robert Rheault was born October 31, 1925, to Charles Auguste and Rosamond (née Bradley) Rheault in Westwood, a suburb of Boston. Prior to immigrating to the United States in 1924, his father had served with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and was stationed in Labrador where he met Rosamond Bradley, from a prominent Boston family, who had been working at the Grenfell Medical Mission.

Rheault spoke French from an early age and attended Phillips Exeter Academy, from which he graduated in 1943. He graduated in 1946 from the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. He also completed graduate work at the University of Paris and received a master's degree in international relations from George Washington University.

Military service and post-military career Rheault was awarded the Silver Star for his actions in combat in the Korean War, attaining the rank of captain. After Korea, Rheault taught French at the U.S. Military Academy for several years in the mid-1950s, attaining the rank of major. He attended the Special Forces Qualification course, the Q-Course, in 1961, and his initial Special Forces assignment was with the 10th Special Forces Group in Germany.

He would later command the 1st Special Forces Group on Okinawa before being assigned to Vietnam to take command of the 5th Special Forces Group. Colleagues said of Rheault that he was one of the most respected and beloved officers ever in Special Forces, a "must promote" to general officer rank if his command, and career, had not been ended prematurely by the Green Beret Affair.

Colonel Rheault took command of the 5th in May 1969 and his unit was charged with seeking out leaks in a CIA-directed espionage ring as part of Project GAMMA. Rheault, along with six of his Special Forces officers and a sergeant were arrested by the U.S. military under the orders of General Creighton Abrams and threatened with charges of murder and conspiracy to commit murder, arising from the alleged extrajudicial killing of Thai Khac Chuyen, a Vietnamese double agent for the Americans and the North Vietnamese.

The investigation and court-martial, held by the U.S. Army in Vietnam, rapidly became engulfed in a firestorm of media publicity. Most of the American public and the Special Forces believed that Colonel Rheault and all involved had been made scapegoats for a matter that reflected poorly upon the Army. The view that there was no wrongdoing by the soldiers was probably best stated by Rheault's 11-year-old son, Robert, Jr. who upon learning of his father's arrest said, "What is all the fuss about? I thought that was what dad was in Vietnam for ... to kill Viet Cong".

Upon retirement from the military, Rheault served as an instructor, program leader, and later, acting president of the Hurricane Island Outward Bound School in Rockland, Maine; retiring from the school in 2001 after 32 years of service. He also taught at the Northfield Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts. Rheault served on the board of directors of The Apprenticeshop, a traditional boat building and maritime school in Rockland, as well as on the board of directors of The Warrior Connection, a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to the rehabilitation of military veterans suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Family life In 1947 Rheault married Caroline Young (1927–2006), a Vassar College student from New York, and they had three children: Susanne; Michèle; and Robert B. Rheault Jr. Rheault resided in Owls Head, Maine, with his second wife, Susan St. John, married in 1977, and the couple adopted two children, Nicholas St. John-Rheault and Alexis St. John-Rheault.

Death Rheault died on October 16, 2013, at his home in Owls Head, Maine.

Rheault was interviewed for Ken Burns and Lynn Novick's PBS documentary series, The Vietnam War, which aired in September 2017, four years after his death.