equivalent in responsibilities of a major general in the US Army. Death Three days after the Battle of Kontum, Vann was killed when his helicopter crashed into a grove of trees near a village cemetery. He was 47 years old. He was buried on June 16, 1972, in Section 11 of Arlington National Cemetery. His funeral was attended by such notables as General William Westmoreland, Major General Edward Lansdale, Lieutenant Colonel Lucien Conein, Senator Edward Kennedy, and Daniel Ellsberg. Legacy On June 18, President Richard Nixon posthumously awarded Vann the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian citation, for his ten years of service in South Vietnam. For his actions from April 23–24, 1972, Vann, ineligible for the Medal of Honor as a civilian, was also awarded (posthumously) the Distinguished Service Cross, the only civilian so honored since World War II. Neil Sheehan wrote a Pulitzer Prize-winning Vietnam history and biography of Vann, A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam, in which Sheehan also examines two of Vann's alleged career-stunting incidents involving morals charges during his service in West Germany and at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and how these possibly affected Vann's future actions and resulting career path both in and after Vietnam. In 1998, HBO made the film A Bright Shining Lie, adapted from the book, with Bill Paxton playing the role of Vann. Quotes "It was a miserable damn performance." (speaking of the Battle of Ap Bac) "If it were not for the fact that Vietnam is but a pawn in the larger East-West confrontation, and that our presence here is essential to deny the resources of this area to Communist China, then it would be damned hard to justify our support of the existing government." "This is a political war and it calls for discrimination in killing. The best weapon for killing would be a knife, but I'm afraid we can't do it that way. The worst is an airplane. The next worst is artillery. Barring a knife, the best is a rifle — you know who you're killing." "We don't have twelve years' experience in Vietnam. We have one year's experience twelve times over." "In one fell swoop [President Thieu's Land to the Tiller Program] eliminated tenancy in Vietnam. All rents were suspended." "The basic fact of life is that the overwhelming majority of the population — somewhere around 95 percent —