thedrifter
02-08-07, 08:47 AM
Iraq, Vietnam: Soldiers returning from Southeast Asia were heroes too
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
— In American history, nothing defines us as a nation quite like war. Our very beginning was forged in the crucible of revolution. Our darkest night saw brother against brother and father against son in the horror of Civil War. We have fought two world wars in the noble cause of liberation of oppressed peoples as we also protected our liberty.
Now, we as a nation are engaged in another war, quite unlike any other campaign we have conducted: The war in Iraq and Afghanistan. We know details of this war unlike any other, courtesy of the instant nature of news coverage via cable and satellite television and the internet. Who can’t recall the image of the statue of Sadaam Hussein falling? We know now of places once anonymous: Tikrit. The road to Baghdad. A “green zone” is in this war a fortified position, not an ecological garden.
The armed forces send into battle professional soldiers and citizen soldiers — guardsmen and reserves — who serve their country with honor and courage. Our community has sent individual soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines as well as guard and reserve units. Some have not returned to their families, their friends, their community. Our pride in these unselfish men and women who understand duty calls us out to welcome them as they return to homes, jobs and schools. It has become, in a word, a personal war, the effects of which permeate the collective national conscience.
In the marketplace of ideas, first described by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, free speech is alive and well. Debate rages from Washington to the outer limits of the country. War, after all, is not a part-time venture. It consumes both hawk and pacifist. Nothing holds my attention quite like a threat to my safety. The senses sharpen. And so, sometimes, words sharpen, too. And as the debate carries on, a seemingly inevitable comparison is made to another American war.
Vietnam.
Even now, 32 years after the last American soldier left that corner of Southeast Asia, the word means much more than just identifying a country. It conjures visions, emotions, pains and nightmares for an entire nation. We simply cannot escape it. Vietnam was the war of my generation. The “baby boomers” fought this one. It was the last war of the draft. I did not serve, but like millions of young men, I remember getting my draft card, waiting until my 19th birthday and then watching the lottery drawing to see my place in 1974. My birthday drew 26th place. And then, President Nixon announced a suspension of the draft consistent with the Paris Peace Accord. And 1-A gradually faded as a draft classification and became a classification meaning “best of class.”
There were no good images of Vietnam. It was the first television war. In the face of 1964’s Gulf of Tonkin resolution committing this country to victory over the North Vietnamese communists, the North Vietnamese Army and the Vietcong began an offensive in January, 1968, known forever as Tet, which was broadcast back home in horrifying detail. We defeated the NVA and VC in the Tet Offensive, but you couldn’t tell it at home. Walter Cronkite, the iconic evening news anchor, proclaimed Vietnam “unwinnable”. President Johnson, facing unending criticism and pressure for troop buildups, declined to run for re-election.
‘Nam was replete with valor. The Marines at Firebase Khe Sanh withstood a siege of four months. Forces at Hue withstood assault after assault. Indescribable courage was shown by the “tunnel rats” who descended into the darkness of the Cu Chi tunnels to combat enemy forces underground.
Yet, what does history recall? The 500 civilians killed at My Lai. The Battle of Hamburger Hill, a military success and a political firestorm, which fueled a Congressional mandate to begin real withdrawal of forces. And forever burned into our minds is the image of the last helicopter leaving the embassy in Saigon in April, 1975, just ahead of NVA tanks coming through the gate.
Vietnam won’t let go. We still fight over it. The 2000 Presidential election questioned the ability to be president of a decorated prisoner of war who spent years in the infamous “Hanoi Hilton.” The 2004 Presidential election discussed the National Guard duty of the sitting president and the propriety of returning home as a veteran in protest of the war of the challenger. And as a famous actress spoke at a protest of the Iraqi war this past month, sounds of “Hanoi Jane” were echoing off the monuments.
In Washington, there is a memorial every American should visit. It is a low series of black granite slabs. Upon this wall are listed the names of 58,000 patriots who gave their lives in service to their country. Three soldiers look to the wall for their buddies. Three nurses attend a wounded soldier. It is a somber place. Not a long walk away is the Memorial to the service men and women of World War II. That memorial is a celebration. And there, in stark contrast, white marble to black, fountains to flowers, is our conflict.
The men and women who served in Vietnam, most by being drafted, quietly performed their duty. They were aware of what was going on at home. And upon their return, there were no bands, no yellow ribbons, no crowds cheering. To the contrary, they were met with jeers and insults that defied and denied their courage, honor and patriotism.
So, is the Iraq war to end as Vietnam? I don’t know. But in the chaos, the debate, the national anger, I sense something else rising. As we honor those who return from the Middle East, our focus turns to all veterans who have so nobly served the cause of freedom.
The military has many traditions, but none is so remarkable as the brotherhood and sisterhood that compels every person in uniform to leave no one on the field of battle, to bring every one home. As the soldiers and sailors, airmen and Marines, men and women all, return from the Middle East, they bring with them, some on their backs, some side by side, their fathers, mothers, aunts, uncles, employers, teachers, friends and total strangers, veterans of another war who never received their due – a band, a celebration or a simple thank you. They bring these forgotten warriors to sunlight from darkness, to our attention.
So, as we celebrate the service of those who return from their time in the desert, take the time to find Vietnam veterans who won’t talk about their service nor ask the country for any attention. Tell them they, too, are heroes. Tell them two words they have longed to hear for an entire generation.
Tell them simply “welcome home.”
William S. Winfrey II
Princeton, WV
Ellie
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
— In American history, nothing defines us as a nation quite like war. Our very beginning was forged in the crucible of revolution. Our darkest night saw brother against brother and father against son in the horror of Civil War. We have fought two world wars in the noble cause of liberation of oppressed peoples as we also protected our liberty.
Now, we as a nation are engaged in another war, quite unlike any other campaign we have conducted: The war in Iraq and Afghanistan. We know details of this war unlike any other, courtesy of the instant nature of news coverage via cable and satellite television and the internet. Who can’t recall the image of the statue of Sadaam Hussein falling? We know now of places once anonymous: Tikrit. The road to Baghdad. A “green zone” is in this war a fortified position, not an ecological garden.
The armed forces send into battle professional soldiers and citizen soldiers — guardsmen and reserves — who serve their country with honor and courage. Our community has sent individual soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines as well as guard and reserve units. Some have not returned to their families, their friends, their community. Our pride in these unselfish men and women who understand duty calls us out to welcome them as they return to homes, jobs and schools. It has become, in a word, a personal war, the effects of which permeate the collective national conscience.
In the marketplace of ideas, first described by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, free speech is alive and well. Debate rages from Washington to the outer limits of the country. War, after all, is not a part-time venture. It consumes both hawk and pacifist. Nothing holds my attention quite like a threat to my safety. The senses sharpen. And so, sometimes, words sharpen, too. And as the debate carries on, a seemingly inevitable comparison is made to another American war.
Vietnam.
Even now, 32 years after the last American soldier left that corner of Southeast Asia, the word means much more than just identifying a country. It conjures visions, emotions, pains and nightmares for an entire nation. We simply cannot escape it. Vietnam was the war of my generation. The “baby boomers” fought this one. It was the last war of the draft. I did not serve, but like millions of young men, I remember getting my draft card, waiting until my 19th birthday and then watching the lottery drawing to see my place in 1974. My birthday drew 26th place. And then, President Nixon announced a suspension of the draft consistent with the Paris Peace Accord. And 1-A gradually faded as a draft classification and became a classification meaning “best of class.”
There were no good images of Vietnam. It was the first television war. In the face of 1964’s Gulf of Tonkin resolution committing this country to victory over the North Vietnamese communists, the North Vietnamese Army and the Vietcong began an offensive in January, 1968, known forever as Tet, which was broadcast back home in horrifying detail. We defeated the NVA and VC in the Tet Offensive, but you couldn’t tell it at home. Walter Cronkite, the iconic evening news anchor, proclaimed Vietnam “unwinnable”. President Johnson, facing unending criticism and pressure for troop buildups, declined to run for re-election.
‘Nam was replete with valor. The Marines at Firebase Khe Sanh withstood a siege of four months. Forces at Hue withstood assault after assault. Indescribable courage was shown by the “tunnel rats” who descended into the darkness of the Cu Chi tunnels to combat enemy forces underground.
Yet, what does history recall? The 500 civilians killed at My Lai. The Battle of Hamburger Hill, a military success and a political firestorm, which fueled a Congressional mandate to begin real withdrawal of forces. And forever burned into our minds is the image of the last helicopter leaving the embassy in Saigon in April, 1975, just ahead of NVA tanks coming through the gate.
Vietnam won’t let go. We still fight over it. The 2000 Presidential election questioned the ability to be president of a decorated prisoner of war who spent years in the infamous “Hanoi Hilton.” The 2004 Presidential election discussed the National Guard duty of the sitting president and the propriety of returning home as a veteran in protest of the war of the challenger. And as a famous actress spoke at a protest of the Iraqi war this past month, sounds of “Hanoi Jane” were echoing off the monuments.
In Washington, there is a memorial every American should visit. It is a low series of black granite slabs. Upon this wall are listed the names of 58,000 patriots who gave their lives in service to their country. Three soldiers look to the wall for their buddies. Three nurses attend a wounded soldier. It is a somber place. Not a long walk away is the Memorial to the service men and women of World War II. That memorial is a celebration. And there, in stark contrast, white marble to black, fountains to flowers, is our conflict.
The men and women who served in Vietnam, most by being drafted, quietly performed their duty. They were aware of what was going on at home. And upon their return, there were no bands, no yellow ribbons, no crowds cheering. To the contrary, they were met with jeers and insults that defied and denied their courage, honor and patriotism.
So, is the Iraq war to end as Vietnam? I don’t know. But in the chaos, the debate, the national anger, I sense something else rising. As we honor those who return from the Middle East, our focus turns to all veterans who have so nobly served the cause of freedom.
The military has many traditions, but none is so remarkable as the brotherhood and sisterhood that compels every person in uniform to leave no one on the field of battle, to bring every one home. As the soldiers and sailors, airmen and Marines, men and women all, return from the Middle East, they bring with them, some on their backs, some side by side, their fathers, mothers, aunts, uncles, employers, teachers, friends and total strangers, veterans of another war who never received their due – a band, a celebration or a simple thank you. They bring these forgotten warriors to sunlight from darkness, to our attention.
So, as we celebrate the service of those who return from their time in the desert, take the time to find Vietnam veterans who won’t talk about their service nor ask the country for any attention. Tell them they, too, are heroes. Tell them two words they have longed to hear for an entire generation.
Tell them simply “welcome home.”
William S. Winfrey II
Princeton, WV
Ellie