As a small child in the 1970s nobody talked about Vietnam, or that there was a lot of fighting and death there involving millions of US personnel. At least not mentioned to me. I was the type who liked to know about American wars, or any military conflicts anywhere. We collected National Geographic Magazines that I would analyze closely. In 3rd or 4th grade I placed sticky notes to mark all the photographs of any person or equipment with anything related to armies, navies, soldiers or wars in our stacks of old magazines. There were many. I had a picture book about World War II, I got more from my grandfather. I watched a lot of movies and even cartoons about past conflicts, Paul Revere in the American Independence, Indian Wars in the US, MASH on network television... I would check out books from the school and local libraries about warriors, past and present.
Of course, I was at a precocious age where such topics as Vietnam were probably considered too much for young ears. But, despite my ignorance of this US military campaign, I think there was a specific national shame about Vietnam. People did not want to talk about it. However, I was very much aware of World War II, the Korean Conflict, the First World War, the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. Those were the battles and images I would use to play countless hours outside while watching films about them in the home. And regardless of the pain and horror of them, they were battles and wars that we eventually won.
Vietnam? Not so fast.
There were many losers in Southeast Asia by the 1970s. And we had lost a lot. Some would argue it was all a waste. A debate for another post, I posit.
But all these years during and since, now in 2016, we still have problems defining it as a war.
It was not a war, it was just a conflict. We killed perhaps a million enemy in 15 years of countless shelling and bombs and firefights and sorties, and we lost the equivalent of thirty army brigades, if each brigade were composed of 2,000 soldiers. Only 30. Over 15 years? That would only be 6 months of the Second World War.
Pshaw, not a war.
Think again. It was war. It was awful. It certainly was a war.
And while many may not think it amounted to much success, with the Vietcong overtaking the south and being lost to Viet Communism, it may have saved other millions, other countries like Thailand. We may never know for sure if it was worth all the death and trauma.
But one thing I believe I can declare: it was a war. Some conflicts deserve that appellation.
Our presence in Southeast Asia from 1960 to 1975 deserves that.
Our numbers of casualties come nowhere close to those in Afghanistan and Iraq combined, from 2001 until now.
And we all know these are and were wars in our 21st century. No question.
Wars are not fun for the winners, or the losers. But they change who we are. And how we think. And how we talk. And how we operate and act, and progress or digress economically.
There are reasons to be ashamed of things; wars fall into those categories. For those who gave their lives and souls to that war, who came home missing limbs or parts of your conscience, I wish you all peaceful dreams and memories knowing that this was a war that saved a few. Hard to say how many, but you did something.
Like the Vietnam War. If you were part of it, you were ordered to go, you did your duty.
And this many years later the US and Vietnam are friends. Long live the peace. May all wars teach us lessons of how to avoid worse errors.
Of course, I was at a precocious age where such topics as Vietnam were probably considered too much for young ears. But, despite my ignorance of this US military campaign, I think there was a specific national shame about Vietnam. People did not want to talk about it. However, I was very much aware of World War II, the Korean Conflict, the First World War, the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. Those were the battles and images I would use to play countless hours outside while watching films about them in the home. And regardless of the pain and horror of them, they were battles and wars that we eventually won.
Vietnam? Not so fast.
There were many losers in Southeast Asia by the 1970s. And we had lost a lot. Some would argue it was all a waste. A debate for another post, I posit.
But all these years during and since, now in 2016, we still have problems defining it as a war.
It was not a war, it was just a conflict. We killed perhaps a million enemy in 15 years of countless shelling and bombs and firefights and sorties, and we lost the equivalent of thirty army brigades, if each brigade were composed of 2,000 soldiers. Only 30. Over 15 years? That would only be 6 months of the Second World War.
Pshaw, not a war.
Think again. It was war. It was awful. It certainly was a war.
And while many may not think it amounted to much success, with the Vietcong overtaking the south and being lost to Viet Communism, it may have saved other millions, other countries like Thailand. We may never know for sure if it was worth all the death and trauma.
But one thing I believe I can declare: it was a war. Some conflicts deserve that appellation.
Our presence in Southeast Asia from 1960 to 1975 deserves that.
Our numbers of casualties come nowhere close to those in Afghanistan and Iraq combined, from 2001 until now.
And we all know these are and were wars in our 21st century. No question.
Wars are not fun for the winners, or the losers. But they change who we are. And how we think. And how we talk. And how we operate and act, and progress or digress economically.
There are reasons to be ashamed of things; wars fall into those categories. For those who gave their lives and souls to that war, who came home missing limbs or parts of your conscience, I wish you all peaceful dreams and memories knowing that this was a war that saved a few. Hard to say how many, but you did something.
Like the Vietnam War. If you were part of it, you were ordered to go, you did your duty.
And this many years later the US and Vietnam are friends. Long live the peace. May all wars teach us lessons of how to avoid worse errors.
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