Comments on: Heroes of the Vietnam Generation

By: leftfield

leftfield — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 06:35:03 +0000

Mr. Webb makes it clear the contempt he has for all those who opposed the American invasion of Vietnam and dismisses the arguments against that war to “wisdom gained from reading a few controversial books”. It’s true that we who opposed the war, out of naivete and outrage at the slaughter, were guilty at times of confusing the instruments of the American War (i.e. the soldiers) with the underlying cause of the war (i.e. American imperialism). And I think it is healing that apologies be forthcoming for those mistakes. The Americans who fought in Vietnam were as much the victims of imperialism as were the Vietnamese people themselves.

Even so, another reading of the Pentagon Papers is in order for Mr. Webb. This will remind him that there was no lofty purpose fought for in Vietnam. This war was not fought and those lives were not lost to protect this country, nor to bring “peace, freedom and democracy” to the people of Vietnam. Rather, this crime was perpetrated for much baser reasons.

If Mr. Webb would have those “elites” who opposed the war apologize, I believe Mr. Webb himself, as a representative of the US, should lead the effort to ask for another apology; an official apology to the people of Vietnam for the crimes committed against them by this country.

By: winnieo

winnieo — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 04:17:40 +0000

If I were Queen of the Earth, there wouldn’t be wars–but I’m not. In a fair world, the MEN who make war would also fight the war. Rollerball would work nicely.

The MEN who make war entice our young people (or conscript them) into doing the dirty work under the patriotism banner. The MEN who choose to use chemical warfare require the enticed under threat of court-martial. Before the enticed raise their hand to take the “I swear to…” oath, a promise is made to care for them, whatever the consequences of “service to our country.”

I know a lot of veterans–none of them consider themselves heroic. The veterans who dropped the poison (under threat of court-martial) were up in the air. Hopefully you understand that means they were in airplanes. The chemically-exposed were on the ground. The spouses and children of the chemically exposed weren’t actually in the vicinity, yet they too are affected by Agent Orange.

Now here you are, Mr. T, whining about veterans unable to secure the promised care.

Where were YOU when all this was transpiring? Did you get a rich-boy deferment? Did you flee the country to avoid the draft?

Do you honestly expect our veterans to just sit down and die when caring for them becomes necessary? What do YOU do to help ANYONE?

Until you are King of the Earth, you should either put up or shut up.

By: mike_brewer

mike_brewer — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 23:37:14 +0000

Wow, that is pretty cold. The ones who did the dropping are not the ones who got the drops.

By: tiponeill

tiponeill — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 21:35:46 +0000

>Those people who denigrated any of our troops were monsters! I plead guilty of denigrating Rusty Calley.

By: songlady

songlady — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 21:24:42 +0000

No one we knew ever spoke bad about our troops. I know there were those who did and and never understood why. We were very proud of them and worried about them until they got home safe. In our family we lost some and still have one MIA we haven’t given up on. And, here’s a nice little idea if anyone has anyone at war right now,… a very dear young friend enlisted right after graduation and was a door gunner on a helicopter and after he came home we could see how devasting it was for him. One day, years after he returned we saw him and he started crying and hung onto me for dear life and told me something I sent,”got him home again.” I had sent cookies, the normal things, but we wanted to bring him home and couldn’t so I tried to send home to him, I filled a bunch of very tiny plastic bottles with water, earth, bits of pine needles, etc. and he said, when things got really bad he would take them out of his pack and hold them in his hands. Those people who denigrated any of our troops were monsters!

By: tiponeill

tiponeill — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 17:47:19 +0000

>89 percent agreed with the statement that “our troops were asked to fight in a war which our political leaders in Washington would not let them win. Self delusion is universal. Personally I think that Sen. Kerry's reaction to the war is far more rooted in reality than Sen. Webb's. more than 58,000 American troops died because they were sent into battle based on false assumptions, flawed goals, and faulty strategies. Yes, we adopted smarter tactics near the end, but by then the die was cast. History has definitively branded Vietnam for the mistake it was—no one should believe that the deaths of nearly 60,000 Americans and at least 1.5 million Vietnamese were somehow not quite enough. Beware the Revisionists What one sees much too often today are heroic vets who heroically dropped tons of poison on innocent civilians from the air and now are whining because they got a few drops on themselves while they were doing it.