58,000 of my
band of brothers died in Vietnam and hundreds of thousands were wounded –
for nothing.
The government lied about the need to support
a fledgling democracy in the south of Vietnam.The real reason we were there was to establish a military base, capable
of delivering a nuclear weapon, on the southern border of China.
The government
eventually knew the war was unwinnable, but kept sending troops into the mangling jaws
of the war machine.
Finally, we
retreated, accomplishing nothing, except a staggering death toll and the lives
of Vietnam Veterans forever scared.
My wife and I just saw the movie The Post: the story of the release of the Pentagon Papers by the Washington Post.
The Pentagon
Papers proved that from the start of the Vietnam war the government knew we
could not win.There was no strategy to
win.
58,000 men
died in Vietnam and hundreds of thousands came home wounded in body or mind.I saw young men dead and stacked like cord
wood on pallets waiting for the C-130.Young men coming home with colostomy bags and arms and legs
missing.A young girl yelled at me, ‘How many babies
did you kill?’ when I got off the plane in California on my way home.
The reason
we couldn’t win, in my opinion, was North Vietnam was being trained, supplied
and supported by China.There were
Chinese regular troops in the North and an attack on the North would have
brought China into the war.
The whole
reason we were there, I believe, was the U.S. saw China a future threat and wanted
to have a nuclear capable airbase, within striking distance, on the southern
border of China.No one in the
government gave a rat’s ass about South Vietnam.
I have never
understood why Vietnam vets celebrate the government.We should all be mad as hell and understand
that the government uses the military as pawns on the chess board, while the
players sit in Washington safe with their deferments.
Anyway, the
movie was great – a must see.It is applicable
to what is happening today between the government and the news media.
