Select this to read [the Whole Story].My father was there. He still has a dispatch from the day the US left. It ends "Fin RVN". All those lives lost and we just rolled over and let them take control, let them butcher millions and enslave the rest, let them brainwash the children to distrust their parents, let them carry on a war on the peoples of Laos and Cambodia.
I have extreme pride and reverence for all the US and ARVN soldiers who fought against the butchers. I have nothing but disgust for those who revised history to try and excuse their mistake, and pity for those AW people who later admitted that they did make mistakes.
I would like to know where you were and what you did.
I was at home, wondering why my father was away so long. When he came home I hugged him and talked with him and helped to heal his misery.
Maybe you thought you were doing the right thing at the time, but you can't live in the past forever. Eventually, you must read what the communists did and understand why we were there. I truly hope you will learn the real lessons and help future generations learn them so that we will never ever betray our soldiers or our allies again like that.
*****
The delay in my response was due to my being in Vietnam for the last month. I am now home for the holidays and preparing for another trip o/a March '95.
I was on the other side of the movement, therefore, as a professional career soldier with three tours in VN (1946, 1959-60 & 1967-68), I see the movement from a different perspective. I fully understood why I was there and what needed to be accomplished. Each of my tours were during different phases, pacify & clean-up after the Japanese occupation, remove war materials after the French defeat + civil action (humanatarian) projects and the military actions during the major build-up. During all three phases the Marxist-Leninist (Viet Minh, later called Viet Cong) were assasinating educators, doctors, lawyers, journalist and elected governmental officials. Even today they maintain a huge prison system for religious and political "detainees". No one seems to ask why so many people left the country when the communist took over. I do not see any of the movement people sitting down and talking with the Viet Kieu after it was all over to really see just why they fled, risking everything. Was the "anti-war" movement just a gross social affair? Being thousands miles away, really not studying the politics and culture of the situation, and not knowing actually what was happening (being fed condensed media over prolonged periods of time) was really in tune with Hanoi's general plan.
Select this to read [the Whole Story].
I have a few questions I would like to ask:
You served in Vietnam from 3/70 to 3/71. I seem to recall that was around the
time Nixon was trying to put together an all-volunteer army. Were you a
volunteer, or were you drafted? How did you feel when you were assigned to 'Nam?
I believe that our "poor" behavior in Vietnam has been grossly exaggerated by many many people and that we, as returning veterans, took the brunt of many peoples' hard feelings. Most of us simply wanted to come home, put it as far behind us as we could and, if not be thanked for our service, not be abused for it either.
I was first sent to Italy and my name came down on a "levy" for Vietnam. I really didn't have any feelings one way or the other except a small pang of fear. I was a radio operator in the army, which meant I could have wound up almost anywhere. Fortunately, I was not assigned to an infantry unit when I spent my year there. I was sent to a place that was rocketed and mortared fairly frequently (once a day or so), but I didn't have to hike through the jungle (hump the boonies), nor did I lose any close friends.
Select this to read [the Whole Story].
