Once upon a time, sounds like a fairy tale beginning but even as we've sunk to the depths of incivility in more then our politics in this country, it isn't a fairy tale I assure you. For once there was a closer resemblance to debating issues and cross political party ideology, good or bad, were really discussed seriously.
What do the Vietnam congressional debates have to do with the now, as Sen. John Kerry says "lawmakers' meetings during the Vietnam War offer useful lessons for the discussing the Afghanistan war."
Meant to inform of this day, to send you to one extremely dedicated individuals own post, to hopefully send some to search out even more {if you haven't followed the real issues}, for the trolls who won't see these issues on conservative blogs or news? sites, and we probably won't hear a peep on any of the Sunday Morning empty blab shows or news outlets.
Sons and Daughters In Touch, a group of grown children who had a parent killed in the Vietnam War, gather at the Vietnam Wall to clean it before it opens for the day.
Jun-06-2010 Years of denial, small breakthroughs, and a large setback, or is it a stab in the back?
Senator Jim Webb, a Vietnam Veteran himself, has won approval to STALL the newest three presumptive illnesses from the Agent Orange list which Secretary Shinseki had already approved.
This is, at least for now, a temporary and 60 day freeze. However, if he receives congressional momentum in favor of what he is proposing, these three new presumptives, COULD be prevented from being approved.
I continue to urge everyone to submit your claims.
I also urge you to contact your local congressional and Senate representatives ASAP. I also urge you to write to the Secretary as well as our President urging they all take our side and override this amendment sponsored by Webb. It is not, I repeat, NOT supportive of the Agent Orange victim.
In his article on Herald.net, "Spending limits placed on new Agent Orange claims", Tom Philpott wrote:
"The chief architect of the pricey new GI Bill education benefit for veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan war era could become a new champion - for taxpayers - against what he perceives as excess spending on military pay and on a new wave of Agent Orange claims[1]. Continued
If he wins, and frankly I hope he does {this now becomes the old best of those running and nominated in that state}. he will be watched as to All Veterans Issues!!
Reportedly he's already been a strong advocate of veterans, though not holding an office his stature may have helped sway others who have or do, but that doesn't excuse the so called 'misstatements' that weren't! Now knowing he served in the Nixon Administration, at a time they were using Federal agencies and others to gather information on those of us returning from actual In-Country tours who were speaking out as well as those testifying to wars atrocities, maybe someday he might speak as to his roll or non roll, in that administration as to those issues, and he wouldn't be the only one that needs to, but I don't hold my breath!
You've got to understand what it was like here at home during the Vietnam War. How rapidly society was changing. How deep and broad opposition to the war grew and how sharp the backlash was.
Soldiers returning from their time "in country" entered an altered landscape. The "Ballad of the Green Berets" was blown away by Jimi Hendrix's "Star Spangled Banner" at Woodstock. Madras plaid button-downs bled into tie-dyed T-shirts. College students cut classes for anti-war protests, leaving a waft of marijuana smoke in their trail.
As protests spread and confrontations with police grew violent, some returning soldiers were met with taunts, and nobody postponed the revolution to welcome them home. Most often they were greeted with shrugs, veterans say today.
As we are once again watching and listening to the rabid language of hate about those like most of the rest of us, immigrants, illegal, while companies and individuals readily employ, and legal, though they resemble the illegal so one state is forcing all to carry papers of identification, Question: what about white european illegals?, many have always served in our armed forces while those condemning haven't!
We never came to terms with those years leading up to April 30th 1975, one of the reasons we've had the recent past decade, will we come to terms with that, doubt it, but it will just add to what the coming generations will face and their presents and future.
Thanks to the "This week in History" from the Peace Buttons site for the following:
25 Years ago, I recorded the song '19'. The idea came about whilst watching a documentary which highlighted the plight of young men and women who fought in Vietnam. "In World War 2 the average age of the combat soldier was 26, in Vietnam he was 19." These words really made me stop and think.
When I first approached Chrysalis Records with the Demo of '19' most people there didn't believe it would get any attention as there would be no interest from the media, and I quote "the public don't want to hear a song about war."
It's always nice when a hero is welcomed home. Such is the case for Air Force Maj. Curtis Daniel Miller, missing in action since 1972:
On Monday, Miller's remains, identified in 2008, were buried in the Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery. He received full military honors, including an Air Force flyover.
"Thirty-eight long years of not knowing is absolute purgatory," Miller's wife, Susan, said in an interview with CNN affiliate WFAA-TV. "It's something that never ends."
Sean Flynn, right, who was covering the war in Southeast Asia for Time magazine, is seen during operations near Ha Thanh, some 325 miles from Saigon, in South Vietnam in 1968. On the left is a Montagnard mercenary, a native hill tribesman fighting in alliance with the U.S. Special Forces.
Photographer Sean Flynn disappeared during Cambodian War
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - Forensic tests will be conducted on what two searchers believe are the remains of photographer Sean Flynn, son of Hollywood star Errol Flynn, who disappeared during the Cambodian War 40 years ago, the U.S. Embassy said Monday.
At least 37 journalists were killed or are listed as missing from the 1970-75 war, which pitted the U.S.-backed Lon Nol government against the North Vietnamese-supported Khmer Rouge.
A number of journalists were known to have been captured by the Khmer Rouge and probably -->-->--.
There are many for if there is an end it doesn't come for decades later for those invaded and occupied by others. The innocent are the ones who suffer the most and in greater numbers by the destruction and death from the moment of invasion and decades later with what's left behind by those who are ordered to invade and then occupy in these Wars of Choice based on lies or for reasons of material worth a small country can add to a power that wants to control.
This is just one of many of the long running destructive remnants of our generations War of Choice, an extremely destructive Weapon of Mass Destruction, Dioxin, Agent Orange and the others used as we occupied a small country Vietnam for over a decade. Destructive not only to the Vietnamese Civilians, then and now, but also to many soldiers who served in country and elsewhere, where it was stored and packaged for shipment to Vietnam and stored at bases to be sprayed over the country at the whim of the commanders of war.
Vietnam Vet Tells ABC News' David Muir: 'I Went Down Into Almost a Death Spiral'
As a young Army platoon leader in Vietnam, Max Cleland sent hours of audio dispatches home to his parents not knowing just how true his words would become.
"I'm definitely coming back a little bit differently than when I came here," he said on tape.
On April 8, 1968, just days from the scheduled end of his tour in Vietnam, Cleland spotted a hand grenade in the grass as he jumped off a helicopter. It had been dropped by another soldier, and Cleland reached for it, not knowing it was live.
In a flash of fire, Cleland lost both legs, his right arm and, almost, his life.
The vets said they hope not all Muslims would be blamed for the actions of one man. The suspected shooter who killed 13 people is Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist who is said to be a devout Muslim.
"I'm not a terrorist. I love America," said Salahuddin Hasan, a veteran of the Vietnam War.
Hasan and the other vets gathered at the Masjid Ash-Shaheed mosque on West Sugar Creek Road in Charlotte where Khalil Akbar is the Imam...>>>>>Rest Found Here
On November 6, 2009, the JOURNAL broadcasts THE GOOD SOLDIER, a film which follows four veterans - one from World War II, two from Vietnam, and the fourth from Iraq - as they reveal how the experiences of battle changed their lives. Watch a preview below.
We've been going through this for some four decades now, and it's gotta Stop Now, but I doubt it will, because it comes mainly from those that don't serve as they wrap themselves in the banner of a political party that's "Strong On National Defense" while condemning all others as not! It's in their political ideology to be used and accepted by those that claim that ideology, like they found great enjoyment wearing and laughing about "purple heart bandages" not long ago. Even some who serve, and do so in our wars and occupations of choice will use it, strickly as their political meme, disgracing their own service as they attack their brothers and sisters, never having real facts to back up their claims, and never apologizing especially to their brothers and sisters!
The leading scorer on his high school basketball team in a small Georgia town, and a young man with political ambitions, Max Cleland's early life seemed promising.
Later, he headed the Veterans Administration, served in the U.S. Senate and today heads the American Battle Monuments Commission, founded in 1923 to manage overseas cemeteries and memorials honoring our veterans.
Cleland almost died in Vietnam when an exploding grenade destroyed both his legs and part of his right arm....>>>>
Yesterday, the fifth of October, I posted up a Parade Magazine article I found on Max Cleland and his new book {on my site and a few open threads etc.}. This morning I heard a short, but real good, interview on NPR's Morning Edition {below with links}, that should be added to the Parade article. This, while short, was a pretty good interview as Max hit's on a number of issues but unable to delve deeper. Here's hoping as he has started to promote the book that we get to hear and see longer more in depth interviews, I for one hope so, not only because of the brotherhood of us 'Nam Vets and the whole Veterans community, but because Max doesn't hold back, never did, and speaks with feeling and conviction.
Former Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) has this op-ed in today's Washington Post:
The Limits Of Force Iraq and Afghanistan Aren't Ours to Win or Lose
By Chuck Hagel
Thursday, September 3, 2009
The other night I watched the film "The Deer Hunter." Afterward, I remembered why it took me so many years to be able to watch Vietnam movies.
It all came tumbling back -- the tragedy, the innocent victims, the waste. Too often in Washington we tend to see foreign policy as an abstraction, with little understanding of what we are committing our country to: the complications and consequences of endeavors. It is easy to get into war, not so easy to get out. Vietnam lasted more than 10 years; soon, we will slip into our ninth year in Afghanistan. We have been in Iraq for almost seven years.
When I came to the Senate in 1997, the world was being redefined by forces no single country controlled or understood. The implosion of the Soviet Union and a historic diffusion of economic and geopolitical power created new influences and established new global power centers -- and new threats. The events of Sept. 11, 2001, shocked America into this reality. The Sept. 11 commission pointed out that the attacks were as much about failures of our intelligence and security systems as about the terrorists' success.
The U.S. response, engaging in two wars, was a 20th-century reaction to 21st-century realities. These wars have cost more than 5,100 American lives; more than 35,000 have been wounded; a trillion dollars has been spent, with billions more departing our Treasury each month. We forgot all the lessons of Vietnam and the preceding history.
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No country today has the power to impose its will and values on other nations. As the new world order takes shape, America must lead by building coalitions of common interests, as we did after World War II. Then, international organizations such as the United Nations, NATO, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and GATT (now the World Trade Organization) -- while flawed -- established boundaries for human and government conduct and expectations that helped keep the world from drifting into World War III and generally made life better for most people worldwide during the second half of the 20th century.
Our greatest threats today come from the regions left behind after World War II. Addressing these threats will require a foreign policy underpinned by engagement -- in other words, active diplomacy but not appeasement. We need a clearly defined strategy that accounts for the interconnectedness and the shared interests of all nations. Every great threat to the United States -- whether economic, terrorism, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, health pandemics, environmental degradation, energy, or water and food shortages -- also threatens our global partners and rivals. Accordingly, we cannot view U.S. involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan through a lens that sees only "winning" or "losing." Iraq and Afghanistan are not America's to win or lose. Win what? We can help them buy time or develop, but we cannot control their fates. There are too many cultural, ethnic and religious dynamics at play in these regions for any one nation to control. For example, the future of Afghanistan is linked directly to Pakistan and what happens in the mountains along their border. Political accommodation and reconciliation in this region will determine the outcome.
Bogging down large armies in historically complex, dangerous areas ends in disaster. In Vietnam, we kept feeding more men, material and money into a corrupt Vietnamese government as our own leaders continued to deceive themselves and the American people. Today's wars are quite different from Vietnam. But the Obama administration, Congress and the Pentagon must get this right because it will frame the global architecture for the next generation. We must put forward fresh thinking. We can no longer hold ourselves to narrow "single issue" engagement when dealing with nations such as China, Russia, India, Brazil, Turkey or South Korea. The United States needs all these countries and many more if we are to engage the most dangerous challenges -- not one at a time but all together. Our relationships with these nations have matured since World War II, as these nations have matured. Does anyone believe we will get to a responsible resolution on Iran without Russia? There's a reason we are part of a Group of 20 rather than a G-8. Even the world's largest economies cannot handle today's problems alone.
Global collaboration does not mean retreating from our standards, values or sovereignty. Development of seamless networks of intelligence gathering and sharing, and strengthening alliances, diplomatic cooperation, trade and development can make the biggest long-term difference and have the most lasting impact on building a more stable and secure world. There really are people and organizations committed to destroying America, and we need an agile, flexible and strong military to face these threats. How, when and where we use force are as important as the decision to use it. Relying on the use of force as a centerpiece of our global strategy, as we have in recent years, is economically, strategically and politically unsustainable and will result in unnecessary tragedy -- especially for the men and women, and their families, who serve our country.
Are our policies worthy of these Americans' great sacrifices? That question must always be at the fore of our leaders' decisions. Threats to America come from more than Afghanistan. Consider Yemen and Somalia. Are we prepared to put U.S. ground troops there? I doubt we would seriously consider putting forces in Pakistan, yet its vast Federally Administered Tribal Areas and mountainous western border harbor our most dangerous enemies today. We must shift our thinking, now, to pursue wiser courses of action and sharper, more relevant policies.
The president and his national security team should listen to recordings of conversations that President Lyndon B. Johnson had with Sen. Richard Russell about Vietnam, especially those in which LBJ told Russell that we could not win in Vietnam but that he did not want to pull out and be the first American president to lose a war. Difficult decisions with historic consequences are coming soon for President Obama.
The writer is a former Republican senator from Nebraska.
For those that Still don't get what War does to a Human Being, and not only those fighting, nor understand the same happens to civilians who experience extreme trauma, like the recent reports about the young girl kidnapped and now found almost two decades later, Read This Short Article!!
General (Ret.) Wesley Clark published an op-ed in yesterday's New York Daily News warning the President that we cannot let the war in Afghanistan go the way of Vietnam. This is a comparison that has become more and more prevalent recently, though not exactly from the perspective from which General Clark approaches the problem.
General Clark does not make a strategic or moral comparison between the two wars, but rather relates the war for public opinion on the war in Afghanistan to the same for Vietnam. I'd like to highlight a couple portions of General Clark's piece:
Much has been done in six months to deal with the ongoing war in Afghanistan. We have restated that our aim is to eliminate the threat of Al Qaeda; built a new leadership team, including Special Representative Richard Holbrooke; reinforced our troop strength and adjusted our tactics; and have begun augmenting our force with synchronized diplomatic, political and economic efforts.
But can we explain how all of this adds up to an effective strategy that will sustain American engagement in one of the world's least accessible regions?
I made this same point on an Afghanistan panel at Netroots Nation over the weekend. The fight in Afghanistan and Pakistan is incredibly important, and we must do whatever it takes to achieve success. However, we cannot continue to take arbitrary actions with no stated goal. That is the practice of the previous Administration, and we must hold this Administration accountable so they do not do the same. Whatever the action, whatever the cost, however many troops are requested, it must be explained in explicit detail to the American people how such an action will necessarily effect success in Afghanistan.
So in Afghanistan, we must avoid confusing Americans by citing too many justifications for our presence. We aren't there to create democracy for Afghans, stabilize a nuclear-armed Pakistan or deal with strategic rivalry on the subcontinent. These may be means to an end, but we must not lose public focus on Al Qaeda. And we must be cautious in claiming progress.
Again, I'm going to relate this to one of my points from the Afghanistan panel. What General Clark is referring to here is what is commonly known as "mission creep". To believe that Afghanistan can become a liberal democracy at anytime in the near future borders on intellectual dishonesty. And even if it could, that is the business of Afghans, not Americans. What we must do however, is discern what our goal is in the region. From there we can define a strategy that will achieve that goal, then the tactics to achieve that strategy, and the define the tasks necessary to achieve those tactics.
Our goal should be simple: a climate in the Af-Pak region were American national security is not threatened. But what strategies best serve to complete that goal?
Establishing liberal democracies isn't it. Insuring human rights, although it would be nice, will not necessarily effect that goal. Neither will counter-narcotic operations. The truth is I don't really know, and there are probably few, if any, people who can completely answer that question.
But one thing is for certain: not only does allowing al Quadea to operate unfettered in Af-Pak not serve that goal, it ensures it's failure. That is why General Clark is correct, and why the President must be forthright with the American people so that he does not lose public support for this war.
Vietnamese victims of the defoliant Agent Orange play at a social sponsorship center in Da Nang City June 26, 2009. US warplanes dropped about 18 million gallons of the defoliant on southern Vietnam for most of the 1960s.
The following is a letter sent to Michelle Obama by Secretary of the Britain-Vietnam Friendship Association Len Aldis, who has worked for years to spread awareness of Agent Orange victims' plight.
August 2 marks the beginning of Orange Week, a government program to create Agent Orange awareness through various programs nationwide. Orange Week ends on August 10, 48 years to the day since the US military begin spraying the defoliant on Vietnam.
Imagine being a black Army soldier serving your country in the jungles of Vietnam knowing that when you return to the states, your life and culture will be in complete upheaval because of the Civil Rights Movement. Imagine being a Marine lying on a canvas bunk on a troopship with thousands of young men on a three-week journey to Vietnam. Imagine being shot down over Vietnam in 1966 and being a prisoner of war for seven years.
You do not have to imagine these situations-they will be presented at the Virginia Historical Society (VHS) from June 6th to August 30th in three exhibitions about the Vietnam era: Soul Soldiers: African Americans and the Vietnam Era, Marking Time: Voyage to Vietnam, and Bring Paul Home: Phyllis Galanti and Vietnam War POWs. In addition, the society is offering free admission to all while the exhibits are on display this summer as a way to honor military personnel who served in the Vietnam War and their families...........Press Release Here
On thursday, 6.11.09, I caught a short report about one of the legacies, more like the left over WMD's, of our Wars and Occupations and their destructive power years later, and how we just walk away unconcerned and certainly uncaring, it's now their problem, move onto the next War of Choice by the few, seeking their wants of power, wealth and glory in their sorry lives.
Back on the 25th, of last month, for Memorial Day I put up a post to cover an interview about a new book release I caught on NPR's WBUR Here and Now, out of Boston.
While waiting for them to put up the stream link after the show I did some searching, for information on the book as well as some back information on what's covered in same.
Below you will find that post but UpDated, with a few more links and audio discussion, I've found since the posting.
Today is the Celebration for Europe and the United States of D-Day President will address veterans at American cemetery on Omaha Beach, this is not to celebrate but to Remind, and in many cases Instill in everyones minds, there's other sides, long living results, of All Wars Waged and not only for those who serve in them!
Backround From 1961 to 1971, U.S. military forces sprayed more than 20 million gallons of Agent Orange and other herbicides on forests and crops in southern and central Vietnam. The campaign had both human and environmental consequences. The immediate effect was to defoliate and destroy vegetation over wide areas. The delayed impact came from dioxin, a highly toxic chemical in Agent Orange that is critically harmful to humans................
The flag is not powerful in spite of its ambiguity; it is powerful because of its ambiguity. It has stood, at different times, for radical democracy, opposition to immigration, the abolition of slavery, unregulated capitalism, segregation, integration, and a hawkish war policy, among many other things.
I had a first hand view, though very young than, and like the rest of the extended family didn't realize it, of what War does to those that serve in them, and you then have to extend that to those that live in where they occur.
I won't go into the details but to say it was an Uncle who was one of my favorites, he was a gifted craftsman but a troubled soul. He was full of life trying to live it that way, than he suddenly snapped! He died alone in the little home he built, more the size of a shed it was supposedly to become, by the lake, shortly before I left Panama and went to 'Nam. There were a couple of other uncles who showed the results of serving in WWII in other ways as well, and like the book and articles, it was just said "They cam back different then how they left.". While in 'Nam I started to understand what he might possibly had been going through, understanding what the rest of the extended family, and his friends, didn't. And probably still do, as I'm the only one of the recent branch of the family, especially my large immediate family, till a couple of younger distant cousins kids served in Gulf War I, that has served in a combat/occupation theater.
Yesterday, 5.19.09 in the morning, at the U.S. House Committee on Veterans Affairs there were two important hearings. In the morning there was this Gulf War Illness Research: Is Enough Being Done?
Like a recent tragic event in Iraq brought out a number of reports on PTSD around the country there have also been a number of other reports as well that focussed on the homeless veterans, the first one just below is in and around this Nations Capital:
A new report is giving sobering statistics about how homeless veterans are treated in the Washington area.
The report says beds are available for only 10% of the homeless vets in Virginia, 8% have beds in Maryland and in the District, there is room is less than 2%.
From the Iraq War with the Army's First Calvary Division to fighting a battle to find homes for fellow veterans, Chad Lego says he never imagined when he came home, he would find some 200,000 service members homeless. >>>>>More
Thirty-eight years ago today, a young veteran was invited to testify before a committee of Senators and silenced the talkative politicians by speaking about the human costs of war. He did so on behalf of thousands of compatriots who could not be there. He spoke with the power of one who had seen war up close. The Senators listened intently, for some of them had never worn the uniform of the soldier and none had served in the jungles of Vietnam.
Today, that young veteran is himself not only a distinguished Senator but also chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the very same committee he had addressed in 1971. And tomorrow, at a hearing before his committee, Senator John Kerry will be giving a new generation of young veterans a chance to share their views of war, specifically, the war in Afghanistan.
Yesterday I put up a post you can find here {this link takes you to the post at my site} on the recent DHS report that came out and many were extremely angry about as to labeling OIF and OEF Veterans as possible recruits to fanatical rightwing hate groups. The spin being it was labeling All Returning Vets as a possible problem, it didn't, but a few Veterans Groups and The talking heads and Congressional members of the Republican party wanted the spin to come out as that.
Kathy Upton, pictured above in the red shirt, is the manager of the Best Western in George West. On Tuesday afternoon Upton donated two rooms to Rio Grande Valley veterans who are marching to San Antonio. This allowed the veterans to get showers after their 30-mile trek from Alice. (Photo: RGG/Joey Gomez)
A couple of days ago I posted about a group of Veterans Marching to San Antonio Texas to raise awareness of the need for Veterans Hospital in South Texas that's been needed for a long time, the Texas Pols have promised but it never comes about, typical. {that link is for the post at my site}
This is to update that previous, with a few news reports, video and pictures, as these Vets are On The March!!
We've seen this before, especially us "Nam Vets as we returned, tens of thousands, and those needing and seeking the care from their service in a war became backlogged, or just plain denied. Many of us veterans were trying to be heard, over the rising drum beat of war, of what was coming especially if invading a country that did absolutely nothing to deserve that invasion and occupation. We were one of those groups politically labeled, by our hired administration, as a 'focus group' that they didn't listen to. But it wasn't only the administration not listening it was the greater majority of this country, they don't mind spending billions upon billions upon billions........... on the war machine and waging war with same, but when the soldiers start returning and the system gets overwhelmed the country doesn't want to hear anything about that, or if they hear they most certainly don't want to pay..
Decades later, civilians still suffer the consequences. Dioxin still lurks in Vietnam's soil, causing deformities which are passed on from generation to generation.
Worldfocus correspondent Mark Litke and producer Ara Ayer travel to Vietnam and witness the devastating effects the toxin has left behind.
For more information on efforts to aid the victims of Agent Orange, visit the Vietnam Friendship Village.
Coming to terms with the reality and the lessons ignored for far too long, which ultimately by ignoring led us into the Deja-Vu of invasion and long term occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan and the failed leadership exposed!
Yesterday as I was searching out a few things I came across a recent documentary that was up on the UPI site in three parts, not long but another real good look at a subject many of us, especially Veterans, have been fighting a long battle to get into the public conscious, and stuck there once in, with the realization of the hidden damages, wounds, that Wars cause to those that are sent to occupy and the occupied.
November 24, 1970 14 American students met with Vietnamese in Hanoi to plan the "Peoples' Peace Treaty" between the peoples of the United States, South Vietnam and North Vietnam.
It begins, "Be it known that the American people and the Vietnamese people are not enemies. The war is carried out in the names of the people of the United States and South Vietnam, but without our consent. It destroys the land and people of Vietnam. It drains America of its resources, its youth, and its honor."
The treaty was ultimately endorsed by millions.
Today, as many know or should know, is Veterans Day, or actually many who observe call it what it was intended to be called, Armistice Day.
On this day in a U.S. occupation of anothers country, that seems so long ago but isn't, and which I served '70-'71, the following happened:
November 11, 1972
The U.S. Army turned over its massive military base at Long Binh to the South Vietnamese army, symbolizing the end of direct U.S. military involvement in the Vietnam War. The last American forces, however, did not leave until 1975.
**********
April 29 - Corporal Charles McMahon, Jr., and Lance Corporal Darwin Judge, USMC, are the last US military personnel killed in Vietnam. They are struck during a rocket attack at the US Embassy in Saigon, during the final North Vietnamese attack on the government.
April 30 - At 7:53 a.m., 11 US Marines (the last of 865 Marines assigned to guard the US Embassy) carrying the American flag, are airlifted from the US Embassy rooftop helipad. Three hours later the Vietnam war finally ends when North Vietnamese tanks break into the Presidential Palace.
Coming home is different for everyone, but some aspects are universal: It's weird, it's awkward, and it's difficult for everybody involved. See if this strikes a chord:
Before I went over I knew a couple of friends that came back. I asked, "What was it like?" and they didn't know how to explain it and I didn't know what I was asking. And when I came back I ended up being the same way. Almost mute.
I tried to explain to people. I'm a verbal person, so I really wanted people to understand what I had gone through. My parents gave me a cocktail party. They didn't know what else to do. They gave me a cocktail party like it was a graduation party. And they realized in the middle of the party, they both did and I guess that's why I love them so much, that they really had made a mistake.
I was starting to get loaded, and this lady friend of my mother's said to me, "Well, did you kill anybody?" She's got a martini and a cigarette. She had no idea what she was asking. She was somebody who I'd looked up to for years as a kid. I said, "You have no idea of the dimension of your question. You just threw that out like, "Did you ever deliver newspapers as a kid?" I started staring her right in the eyes: "Do you realize what you're asking? Do you have any idea of the nature of your question?" And I left, I just split and I thought, "Oh, man."
That passage was written by Brian Delate after he got back, and it's one of several dozen in a really powerful book called Everything We Had. It's a scene to which I've kept coming back for a while now. And for me, for some reason, the most striking aspect of it is the fact that Delate isn't writing about his return from Iraq or Afghanistan. He's talking about what it was like coming home from Vietnam--where he served in 1969 and 1970 with the Americal Division at Chu Lai. And I guess I just think it's uncanny how everything about the process is exactly the same.
I'm a fellow Vietnam Vet, so I think you owe me an answer. I quit high school at 17 and joined the Marines. I went to Vietnam at the age of 18. I spent 19 months there with my 6 month extension. I was a Marine FO radio operator attached to 1/5 I saw what my artillery did to innocents. You just stated you have been fighting for your country since you were 17. that would have 1953. You were in school. So you are flat out lying. Again you lie and lie and lie When are you going to stop lying? Your claims of honor are bullcrap. you have NO HONOR
Again this year Vietnamesse Agent Orange victims are touring the United States seeking justice, Our Responsibility, for the long term damage done to their countries citizens from our occupation of their country not so long ago.
"The welcome mat for memoirs by veterans of operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom might never wear out so long as they write with the savvy of Brandon Friedman . . . Friedman's take is vivid, frank, precise and dramatic."--Military Times
"Add Brandon Friedman's The War I Always Wanted to the ranks of outstanding non-fiction produced by officers from elite combat units in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Always truthful, often excruciatingly so, The War I Always Wanted rises at numerous points to the level of literature."--Steven Pressfield, author of Gates of Fire
"A Time To Lead confirms the rewarding benefits of military service at a time when such service is experiencing considerable strain. It also includes a comprehensive description of America's current national imperatives, which deserve serious consideration."--General Alexander M. Haig, Jr., former Secretary of State
"This is a primer on leadership forged in battle and by decades of experience. . .This isn't just a book; it's a manual for leading people and living a good life."--Barry McCaffrey, General, USA (ret.)
"Whip smart, sassy, with a mouth as foul as a sailor's, 28-year-old Sergeant Kayla Williams. . .tells what it's like to be a female soldier in Iraq."--Booklist
". . .echoes military memoirists from Julius Caesar to Ernie Pyle."--Publishers Weekly
". . .a shocking, on-the-ground view of one military woman's experience in Iraq."--Bookmarks Magazine
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Sean Flynn, right, who was covering the war in Southeast Asia for Time magazine, is seen during operations near Ha Thanh, some 325 miles from Saigon, in South Vietnam in 1968. On the left is a Montagnard mercenary, a native hill tribesman fighting in alliance with the U.S. Special Forces.
Vietnam Vet Tells ABC News' David Muir: 'I Went Down Into Almost a Death Spiral'
We've been going through this for some four decades now, and it's gotta Stop Now, but I doubt it will, because it comes mainly from those that don't serve as they wrap themselves in the banner of a political party that's "Strong On National Defense" while condemning all others as not! It's in their political ideology to be used and accepted by those that claim that ideology, like they found great enjoyment wearing and laughing about "purple heart bandages" not long ago. Even some who serve, and do so in our wars and occupations of choice will use it, strickly as their political meme, disgracing their own service as they attack their brothers and sisters, never having real facts to back up their claims, and never apologizing especially to their brothers and sisters!
Kathy Upton, pictured above in the red shirt, is the manager of the Best Western in George West. On Tuesday afternoon Upton donated two rooms to Rio Grande Valley veterans who are marching to San Antonio. This allowed the veterans to get showers after their 30-mile trek from Alice. (Photo: RGG/Joey Gomez)
It begins, "Be it known that the American people and the Vietnamese people are not enemies. The war is carried out in the names of the people of the United States and South Vietnam, but without our consent. It destroys the land and people of Vietnam. It drains America of its resources, its youth, and its honor."
