A . Peter Dewey Albert Peter Dewey ( October 8 , 1916 – September 26 , 1945 ) , shot to death in a case of mistaken identity by Viet Minh troops on September 26 , 1945 . Dewey was the first American fatality in French Indochina , killed in the early aftermath of World War II . ( This is often confused with the Vietnam War ) . Early life and education . The younger son of Congressman Charles S . Dewey and his wife , Marie Suzette de Marigny Hall Dewey , and also a distant relative of New York Governor Thomas E . Dewey , Dewey was born in Chicago . He was educated in Switzerland at Institut Le Rosey , before attending at St . Paul ' s School ( Concord , New Hampshire ) . He graduated from Yale University ( where he studied French history and was a member of the Berzelius Secret Society along with friends such as William Warren Scranton . Later , Dewey also attended the University of Virginia School of Law . Newspaper work . After his graduation from Yale in 1939 , Dewey worked as a journalist for the " Chicago Daily News " in its Paris bureau . Dewey later worked for family friend Nelson Rockefeller and his Office of Inter - American Affairs , part of the Office of War Information . Rockefeller once sent him to France to meet secretly with General Charles de Gaulle . Dewey was forced to stop at a road block but he refused yelling at them in french and they killed the innocent Dewey thinking he was french Battle of France . While reporting on the German invasion of France for the " Daily News " , Dewey became more directly involved in the war . In May 1940 , during the Battle of France , Dewey enlisted as a lieutenant in the Polish Military Ambulance Corps with the Polish Army fighting in France . Following the defeat of the French army , Dewey escaped through Spain to Portugal , where he was interned for a short time . Marriage and family . On August 1 , 1942 , Dewey married Nancy Weller . The couple had one child , a daughter , Mrs . Nancy ( Charles ) Hoppin . Dewey ' s widow , Nancy , married John Pierrepont in 1950 . Dewey ' s nephew David Dewey Alger , a descendant of Michigan political scion Russell A . Alger , was killed in the 9 / 11 attacks on the World Trade Center . Office of Strategic Services . On August 10 , 1944 , Lt . Col . Dewey parachuted into southern France as the leader of a 10 - man team from the United States Office of Strategic Services ( OSS ) . Operating behind enemy lines for six weeks , he transmitted intelligence reports on German troop movements . For his service , General William " Wild Bill " Donovan personally awarded him the Legion of Merit and the French gave him the Legion of Honor and a second Croix de Guerre . Dewey arrived on September 4 , 1945 in Saigon to head a seven - man OSS team " to represent American interests " and collect intelligence . Working with the Viet Minh , he arranged the repatriation of 4 , 549 Allied POWs , including 240 Americans , from two Japanese camps near Saigon , code named Project Embankment . Because the British occupation forces who had arrived to accept the Japanese surrender were short of troops , they armed French POWs on September 22 to protect the city from a potential Viet Minh attack . In taking control of the city , the French soldiers were quick to beat or shoot Vietnamese who resisted the reestablishment of French authority . Dewey complained about the abuse to the British commander General Douglas Gracey , who took exception to Dewey ' s objections and declared the American " persona non grata " . Because the airplane scheduled to fly Dewey out did not arrive on time at Tan Son Nhat International Airport , he returned for lunch at the villa that OSS had requisitioned in Saigon . As he neared the villa , he was shot in the head in an ambush by Viet Minh troops . Dewey ' s jeep overturned , and Dewey ' s subordinate , Captain Herbert Bluechel , escaped without serious injury , pursued by Viet Minh soldiers . The Viet Minh afterward claimed that their troops mistook him for a Frenchman after he had spoken to them in French . Bluechel later recalled that Dewey had shaken his fist and yelled at three Vietnamese soldiers in French while driving back to headquarters . According to Vietnamese historian Tran Van Giau , Dewey ' s body was dumped in a nearby river and was never recovered . Reportedly , Ho Chi Minh sent a letter of condolence about Dewey ’ s death to U . S . President Harry S . Truman while also ordering a search for the colonel ' s body . Memorials . Dewey is not listed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington , D . C . because the United States Department of Defense has ruled that the war officially started , from a U . S . perspective , on November 1 , 1955 , after the U . S . took over following the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu . Dewey ' s name is listed on the American Battle Monuments Commission ' s on the Tablets of the Missing at Manila American Cemetery and Memorial as " Major Albert P . Dewey . " Dewey is also commemorated in a side chapel in Bayeux Cathedral . After his death , Dewey ' s non - fiction book , " As They Were " , about life in Paris before the war , was published with the help of his widow Nancy and the Rockefeller family . Also , 2005 ' s " Fatal Crossroads : A Novel of Vietnam 1945 " is based on Dewey ' s time and death in Vietnam and written by journalist and Dewey family friend Seymour Topping . Topping dedicated the book to Dewey and his O . S . S . colleagues . He also had returned to visit Vietnam with Dewey ' s daughter Nancy and her husband .