Just Fuck Viet Nam

I'm so tired of that damn war and what it did to us...to all of us...the things it took away...the things we lost....and the people, always the people, it took away or tried to ruin (and often did)........

We were a generation raised by parents who fought in WWII and who did what they believed. We were taught to do the same....what we believed. We'd grown up with Pearl Harbor, Iwo Jima, Ira Hayes........Even Davy Crockett through Walt Disney said, "A man's gotta' do what he thinks is right." When VietNam came along we were asked to do what was right, but the world had changed and as we moved onto the playing board, all the sqaures which had always been black or white were varying shades of gray that kept on changing. We moved about the board as pawns in someone elses game, but we moved by the best lights we could muster at the time. These many years later, we are all in our 50's and wondering what the hell it was about. Some never came back either physically or mentally, some are living in personal hells, some have moved on after great turmoil and soul searching, some question the government that would then or now ask their young people to make the decisions we made for the reasons they gave.

For many of us it was a signal event and our lives are forever colored by what we did and what we believed. It was not WWII and the areas of doubt affected us all. Read the responses in the threads we run and you'll see some are overtly proud, some are still confused, some are in denial, some are looking for peace.................We owe it to the children we have not to let that happen again. Yet the best we can offer is the same our parents gave us and that is for the strength to have the courage of their convictions.

For those who fought and died in that war or any other, they have my respect and I honor their memory and what they did. I also honor those who came back from wars and were never able to reclaim even the slightest of their former selves. They too are the fallen.

Matriot, you say that your family was conscripts and "Conscripts go fight wars because they fear the consequences of not complying with the law, and what their government will do to them for non-compliance." I'd say that would have a telling effect on my attitude.....if not theirs. We all did what we believed and it's easier to live if we live our convictions. These many years later we can each try and reconcile our lives and knowing the choices we made were the ones we did choose helps us to understand each other a little better. I wish you and yours and the rest of the world the peace it so rightly deserves.

Spaw