thedrifter
02-27-04, 08:31 AM
Joe Galloway: Don't Destroy One True Hero
WASHINGTON - Who would have thought four years into the 21st century that the ghosts of the Vietnam War would emerge to haunt two men running for president, as well as a third who dared to speak up in favor of one of those candidates?
This spring it will have been 29 years since the Vietnam War ended with an ignominious helicopter retreat from the roof of the U.S. Embassy and the fall of Saigon to the victorious North Vietnamese Peoples Army. Those of us who were there during the decade of what the Vietnamese call "the American War" can't forget, and shouldn't. The war was our youth. It gave us much and it took away much. The memories won't fade until the last of us has crossed the river.
One presidential candidate, Sen. John Kerry, has been attacked from the right on the details of his honorable service in Vietnam and for turning against the war once he was back home and thinking about a political career. Did he properly earn his medals of valor? Did he associate with Hanoi Jane Fonda? The sitting president, George W. Bush, has been attacked from the left on the details of his honorable service in the Air National Guard in lieu of a tour of duty in the Vietnam War. Was he a draft-dodger? Did he attend the requisite weekend drills while on temporary duty in Montgomery, Ala.?
Those who specialize in such matters have been mining the tailing piles of the personal histories of both Kerry and Bush in search of nuggets of proof. So far they seem to have come up with nothing more than fool's gold. Nor does it seem likely that they will find anything that really matters.
In a year when American troops are fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, our Army is stretched to the breaking point, the federal deficit is ballooning out of control, the threat of terrorism hangs over us all, and the economy can't make up its mind whether it is half-alive or half-dead, there are enough real issues to discuss without the distraction of a long-lost war.
The Vietnam War and my memories of those days are a vital part of my life, and yet I would be the first to suggest that we lay Vietnam to rest with regard to the service of both Kerry and Bush. Enough already. Both of them served, each in his own way. I would not include either man on my short list of real heroes, but why don't we let Vietnam go and turn to the real issues in this campaign?
There is one man I DO include on my short list of heroes who has been damaged by this phony debate, and that is former Sen. Max Cleland. Max Cleland is a terribly wounded Army veteran of service in Vietnam. He travels in a wheelchair because he left two legs and an arm, and a shattered youth in the red dust of Khe Sanh in 1968. I also count him a good personal friend.
Because he dared exercise a right that he paid a terrible price to earn, the Republican attack dogs were unleashed on him. Max went on the road to campaign for his friend and Senate colleague, John Kerry, in Iowa, New Hampshire and elsewhere.
For that he was subjected to personal attacks that stepped far over the line of fair comment and criticism. One columnist, displaying both ignorance and meanness, wrote that Max was on his way to get a beer at the club when he dropped one of his own hand grenades and blew himself up.
In point of fact, then-Capt. Cleland had flown with the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), on their way to relieve the U.S. Marines in the siege of Khe Sanh, when he stepped off a Huey helicopter. Some say the hand grenade that grievously wounded Max fell off his belt; others say it fell off another soldier's belt.
It doesn't matter whose grenade it was. It blew up a fine and decent soldier and came within a hair of killing him. There was no club, and no beer, at Khe Sanh. Only death and destruction and hard duty. It ill behooves someone who was never there and knows nothing about the war or Max to slink out of the dark woods, killing the wounded and picking their pockets.
Whatever else, Max Cleland paid an unimaginable price for his American citizenship and his right to speak his mind on any subject and to campaign for whoever he deems the best candidate.
The bitter divisions of Vietnam, the angry incivility that war provoked in our nation, have no real place in an American presidential campaign in the year 2004.
Sempers,
Roger
:marine:
WASHINGTON - Who would have thought four years into the 21st century that the ghosts of the Vietnam War would emerge to haunt two men running for president, as well as a third who dared to speak up in favor of one of those candidates?
This spring it will have been 29 years since the Vietnam War ended with an ignominious helicopter retreat from the roof of the U.S. Embassy and the fall of Saigon to the victorious North Vietnamese Peoples Army. Those of us who were there during the decade of what the Vietnamese call "the American War" can't forget, and shouldn't. The war was our youth. It gave us much and it took away much. The memories won't fade until the last of us has crossed the river.
One presidential candidate, Sen. John Kerry, has been attacked from the right on the details of his honorable service in Vietnam and for turning against the war once he was back home and thinking about a political career. Did he properly earn his medals of valor? Did he associate with Hanoi Jane Fonda? The sitting president, George W. Bush, has been attacked from the left on the details of his honorable service in the Air National Guard in lieu of a tour of duty in the Vietnam War. Was he a draft-dodger? Did he attend the requisite weekend drills while on temporary duty in Montgomery, Ala.?
Those who specialize in such matters have been mining the tailing piles of the personal histories of both Kerry and Bush in search of nuggets of proof. So far they seem to have come up with nothing more than fool's gold. Nor does it seem likely that they will find anything that really matters.
In a year when American troops are fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, our Army is stretched to the breaking point, the federal deficit is ballooning out of control, the threat of terrorism hangs over us all, and the economy can't make up its mind whether it is half-alive or half-dead, there are enough real issues to discuss without the distraction of a long-lost war.
The Vietnam War and my memories of those days are a vital part of my life, and yet I would be the first to suggest that we lay Vietnam to rest with regard to the service of both Kerry and Bush. Enough already. Both of them served, each in his own way. I would not include either man on my short list of real heroes, but why don't we let Vietnam go and turn to the real issues in this campaign?
There is one man I DO include on my short list of heroes who has been damaged by this phony debate, and that is former Sen. Max Cleland. Max Cleland is a terribly wounded Army veteran of service in Vietnam. He travels in a wheelchair because he left two legs and an arm, and a shattered youth in the red dust of Khe Sanh in 1968. I also count him a good personal friend.
Because he dared exercise a right that he paid a terrible price to earn, the Republican attack dogs were unleashed on him. Max went on the road to campaign for his friend and Senate colleague, John Kerry, in Iowa, New Hampshire and elsewhere.
For that he was subjected to personal attacks that stepped far over the line of fair comment and criticism. One columnist, displaying both ignorance and meanness, wrote that Max was on his way to get a beer at the club when he dropped one of his own hand grenades and blew himself up.
In point of fact, then-Capt. Cleland had flown with the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), on their way to relieve the U.S. Marines in the siege of Khe Sanh, when he stepped off a Huey helicopter. Some say the hand grenade that grievously wounded Max fell off his belt; others say it fell off another soldier's belt.
It doesn't matter whose grenade it was. It blew up a fine and decent soldier and came within a hair of killing him. There was no club, and no beer, at Khe Sanh. Only death and destruction and hard duty. It ill behooves someone who was never there and knows nothing about the war or Max to slink out of the dark woods, killing the wounded and picking their pockets.
Whatever else, Max Cleland paid an unimaginable price for his American citizenship and his right to speak his mind on any subject and to campaign for whoever he deems the best candidate.
The bitter divisions of Vietnam, the angry incivility that war provoked in our nation, have no real place in an American presidential campaign in the year 2004.
Sempers,
Roger
:marine: