The Baker team spent the following months in that village, living side by side with the Montagnards. They dedicated their time training young people, showing them how to defend themselves against the Vietcong and how to skydive as well. Those young people who cared enough to join the SOG that is.
At the beginning of the monsoon season, Baker Teams A and B went on an undercover mission. Disguised as civilians, it was set to take place in the very heart of down town Saigon. That mission cost the South Vietnamese hostage they had gone to rescue, his life, not to mention the lives of a few other participating 'armed civilians', who belonged to several unidentified factions.
At the time, a few Western journalists happened to be there, at the scene. As a result, for the first time ever, an article setting the basis for a plausible conspiracy theory regarding the SOG and its very existence. The SOG expose stated plainly, black on white, what the team represented and the kind of role it played. In other words, from out of nowhere, here was this special corps used domestically as hired killers, and in covert operations, on unsuspecting foreign terrain.
Consequently, the number of foreign missions decreased temporarily until the dust had settled.
That brief interlude didn't last long however, and this was primarily for the reason that one couldn’t simply stop doing them. Without SOG standing in the way as the obstacle to contend with, Ho Chi Minh had a free hand. This in itself effected the orthodox side of the war greatly, capable of devastating consequences.
They had only been in the village a few months when Baker Team B received their mandate for another mission.
The time had come to go ‘over enemy lines’ once more.
Next stop: North Vietnam.
Simply put, they were going right into the lion’s mouth.