Everyone i always very wise about the last war. Look, cant we be wise about the next one?
9
To this day I still feel Henry Kissinger should be tried- then jailed as a war criminal..
14
Takes me back to some American poetry . . .
I can see by your coat, my friend
You're from the other side
There's just one thing I got to know
Can you tell me please, who won?
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Horror grips us as we watch you die
All we can do is echo your anguished cries
Stare as all human feelings die
We are leaving, you don't need us
I can see by your coat, my friend
You're from the other side
There's just one thing I got to know
Can you tell me please, who won?
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Horror grips us as we watch you die
All we can do is echo your anguished cries
Stare as all human feelings die
We are leaving, you don't need us
8
A beautiful essay. Thank you.
13
Absent the draft, warmongers like Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Joe Biden, and Chuck Schumer are now free to monger without fear that even a distant third cousin will be sent to battle.
5
As I expected, the comments focus on the evil that is America.
And one commenter talks of ameirica's luck.
Yeah that e plains it all.
Evil plus luck.
Narcisstic morons. Everything is but a morality play for them.
Life is beyond narcissists. America inexcusably had a war on false pretenses in Iraq, but in real life that strategic disaster for America, which no duopoly party has yet faced up to after making it happen, has yielded an Iraq run by majority Shia Arabs. Those Iraqi Shia are just, oh what is the word?... Ah. lucky.
And one commenter talks of ameirica's luck.
Yeah that e plains it all.
Evil plus luck.
Narcisstic morons. Everything is but a morality play for them.
Life is beyond narcissists. America inexcusably had a war on false pretenses in Iraq, but in real life that strategic disaster for America, which no duopoly party has yet faced up to after making it happen, has yielded an Iraq run by majority Shia Arabs. Those Iraqi Shia are just, oh what is the word?... Ah. lucky.
4
One more thing. Look at all those bombs dropping out of those planes and remember every time those planes emptied their load a cash register rang in America.
13
The war on terror means the USA will be at war forever.
4
Do we have the same closeness with and friendly regard for the Sri Lankans or Burmese? Why not? Because we did not make war on them? Madness.
3
In 1966-67 I spent a year in Vietnam. Picked up a Purple Heart. As I was in the Air Force I didn't have much contact with the Vietnamese. I always remember wanting to go back to the world. When we finally left Danang Airbase at 3:00 AM all of us went berserk. I was afraid we would crash the plane. After we calmed down I remember sitting in the seat feeling just a warm glow on my way back home. It was absolutely wonderful
6
"Are we doomed to repeat the same mistakes?" Only if we doom ourselves. We seem to be on an excellent glide path toward that end.
3
Bao Ninh's recollections should put to rest the notion that the US fought an inferior enemy who won because of dumb luck and the failure of Americans to buy into the war.
He recalls experiences that mirror many of those Americans encountered. His reactions to exposure to multiple forms of massive firepower that the US fet gave it a strategic advantage shows that the Vietnamese were more like us than different.
Bao's reaction to the foreign invader was quite similar to how Americans would if we were similarly invaded. It should be no surprise that the Vietnamese were determined and stubborn in resisting the invader. We'd expect no less of our own young men and women. American defeat was seeded by the delusion that we were militarily superior. It takes very little hubris to grease the slippery slope of a defeat we should have seen coming - and should have expected nothing less from those we fought as invaders on their country's soil.
He recalls experiences that mirror many of those Americans encountered. His reactions to exposure to multiple forms of massive firepower that the US fet gave it a strategic advantage shows that the Vietnamese were more like us than different.
Bao's reaction to the foreign invader was quite similar to how Americans would if we were similarly invaded. It should be no surprise that the Vietnamese were determined and stubborn in resisting the invader. We'd expect no less of our own young men and women. American defeat was seeded by the delusion that we were militarily superior. It takes very little hubris to grease the slippery slope of a defeat we should have seen coming - and should have expected nothing less from those we fought as invaders on their country's soil.
15
This was wonderful in a way I wish wasn't necessary. If anyone has a DVD of The Quiet American, the extras include an excellent timeline about the genesis of Vietnam and details about Ho Chi Minh's time in the U.S., where he came to study our democracy first hand, believing that he could count on our support. We failed before the war began.
8
This thoughtful and provocative essay is as powerful a testament against needless warfare as "All Quiet On The Western Front" -- thank you...
11
I was in the Air Force in Vietnam from March 71 to March 72. I was a photo interpreter working for a section that monitored and proposed targets for Arc Light missions against the Ho Chi Minh Trail (actually a road network that looked like logging roads). I am glad that Bao Ninh survived to tell his tale because I came away from my experience with the conviction that even the terror and destruction that the Arc Light raids inflicted could not defeat a people who had little to lose and everything to gain. Our bombing never really stopped the North's infiltration and resupply of its forces in the South. The roads were repaired right away, and I never saw evidence that the Vietnamese used anything other than hand tools to do the work.
7
Thank you sir for your kind and insightful essay. I was there flying missions out of An Khe in ’69 and would have tried to kill you given the opportunity. But even then my actions would have been solely out of my sense of duty, an obligation to an oath I’d sworn. Few of the soldiers I knew in those days believed in the war. By 1969 most of us understood we were only there to save face while our negotiators tried to find a way out with some semblance of honor. We mourn for the thousands of names on that wall in Washington DC, but some of us also mourn for the vastly larger number of Vietnamese dead our actions caused. You, sir, had the advantage of fighting for a cause you could believe in. Now in my 70’s I have come to terms with my memories. My country has never truly acknowledged that our war in Viet Nam was a mistake. The United States will probably never apologize for its bad decisions and the unnecessary destruction we caused. But some of us who served started apologizing while we were still in country, I apologized then and I apologize again now. Peace.
49
As the President of the United States and his advisors contemplate war with another Asian country, North Korea, I can't help thinking that all the sacrifices and misery of the Indochina Wars were a waste. We have learned nothing, and over the years just repeat the same mistakes over and over again.
15
I read this moving article early this morning. All day today I keep thinking about the radio operator kicking the can down the trail.Did I know him in high school or college or when I served in the Army (not in Nam)in the early 70s? I am glad the author survived and pray that young American soldier also made it back home.
15
This is a fine and moving essay about reconciliation between the North Vietnamese and Americans. But my guess is that the author is holding back a lot. He does not mention Communist ideology, which was preached to all North Vietnamese soldiers. He does not mention the fact that vastly more Vietnamese, including civilians, were killed by the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong, than by the Americans. He does not mention the brutal treatment of hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese civilians and veterans after the war. Certainly he must have witnessed at least some of these historically documented facts. Where is the total truth, the reconciliation of Vietnamese with Vietnamese after so many years of atrocities?
6
The point that most Americans miss (due to our own propaganda), is that to the average Vietnamese this wasn't about advancing communism. This was about independence from 1000 years of oppression by an imperial power -- be it China, France, or the US. When the US turned our back on their independence movement in favor of the French retaining power, the Vietnamese leaders had no option but to ask the Russians for help.
3
Based on what a Vietnamese tour guide told us on a 19-day trip we took in 2013 in which we visited several cities from Hanoi down to Saigon, Vietnamese in their 30s or older today are all too aware of the tribulations you mention. The Vietnamese government these days is seen as more of an entitled annoyance than a sinister force, though. Vietnam is a happy, prosperous country these days. Significantly happier and more prosperous than we are. So much of the economy is, believe it or not, based on family-owned small business.
7
I'm a Vietnam-era veteran, a former Sergeant in the USMC. The writer, David N., talks about Communist ideology--and that may be true--but where does he acknowledge the lies, and nationalist propaganda ALL Americans were fed? The fact is that almost everything we were told about Vietnam, about the war, why the US was there, was a CONSCIOUS lie by our elected officials and much of our media. This solider was defending and fighting for his homeland: why were American boys sent to Vietnam? There were internationally-accepted elections which were to be held in 1956--to which the US agreed--that were intended to allow the Vietnamese people to decide peacefully whether they wanted to live in one unified country under Ho Chi Minh or wanted to remain two separate countries, North and South. The Diem government in the South (supported by the US) cancelled the elections, and the US agreed. President Eisenhower reported the reason in his memoirs: something like all US intelligence showed at the time said that had a clean and fair election been held, Ho Chi Minh would have won 80% of the vote. So, we allowed the vote to be canceled, killed 3.8 million Vietnamese, wounded another 5.7 million, 58,000 Americans killed, thousands of hospitals and schools destroyed, tons of Agent Orange dropped on the countryside, many in Vietnam and the US still suffering from that, and someone's still repeating those lies, just because we opposed honest elections. Makes me real proud: not!
21
You remind us, Bao Ninh, of the beauty of friendship. I hear a man from Dong Hoi who shares what is in his heart, and I imagine many seeds of destruction to wither.
We could imagine many, many friends of Bao Ninh who wish to know a Town of Roses, so flower-filled that the seeds of destruction can never grow. But those inspiring ideas may wither without writers, like Bao Ninh, who work hard to share their hearts' songs. More Missoula workshops, please.
We could imagine many, many friends of Bao Ninh who wish to know a Town of Roses, so flower-filled that the seeds of destruction can never grow. But those inspiring ideas may wither without writers, like Bao Ninh, who work hard to share their hearts' songs. More Missoula workshops, please.
6
I don't think we have learned anything in this country. We repeated the mistakes of Vietnam in Iraq. We fail again and again to be introspective and to fully admit how seriously wrong we are and how terribly we have behaved. I was in junior high and high school during the Vietnam war. We had huge fights about it at our house: my parents supporting the war, my brother and I against it. I recently asked my 92 year old father if he recognized now that he was wrong. He said: (apparently speaking for much of America) "I've never thought about it."
13
Julie you say "We" when you mean to name individuals who had the authority to make choices and the duty to consider the best options. The mistakes in Iraq were different, of the same breed maybe but different. Your father is human and human beings dissociate from uncomfortable things they do not wish to or do not have to face.
If we could all use the language better we'd be able to name the individuals we are thinking of when we generalize and we'd be better able to handle mendacious people like Trump and we'd probably spend more time behaving like adults and trying to be better people instead of desperately trying to survive and ensure our futures against a cabal of crooks who have rigged the system seeking to undermine the best of us to better exploit our human weaknesses for profit.
The war in Vietnam was in aid of Churchill's desire to recapture the Empire. We, our government, wanted to give independence to all of the European colonies in Asia. It was Churchill who objected and used his influence to get us to help the French fight in Vietnam instead of negotiating peace and independence as we had planned. The rest was very similar to how the corruption of an open checkbook at the Pentagon worked in Iraq to obscure proper thinking and decision making.
If we could all use the language better we'd be able to name the individuals we are thinking of when we generalize and we'd be better able to handle mendacious people like Trump and we'd probably spend more time behaving like adults and trying to be better people instead of desperately trying to survive and ensure our futures against a cabal of crooks who have rigged the system seeking to undermine the best of us to better exploit our human weaknesses for profit.
The war in Vietnam was in aid of Churchill's desire to recapture the Empire. We, our government, wanted to give independence to all of the European colonies in Asia. It was Churchill who objected and used his influence to get us to help the French fight in Vietnam instead of negotiating peace and independence as we had planned. The rest was very similar to how the corruption of an open checkbook at the Pentagon worked in Iraq to obscure proper thinking and decision making.
2
I applaud you ( Julie ) for your sharing of such a powerful and personal family history. My father saw me on television with other Vietnam veterans, and Secretary Kerry, demonstrating in Washington in April 1971. He never spoke to me again.
2
Thank you for this essay. It reminds me of what I have been contemplating all day since Trump ended the "Dreamers" program: a lot of who I am is contingent on where I was born, i.e. my lottery of birth.
8
Beautiful essay, Mr. Ninh. I was born in 1954 and was among the millions protesting the USA's war against your nation. Now however I am happy that so many Vietnamese are U.S. citizens. They've brought many wonderful things here, including the cuisine. Here in Oklahoma City we have an Asian District that's mostly Vietnamese. It's one of my favorite places to visit.
11
dough hill.
Thank you for your welcome view of the Vietnamese Americans. I'm one of them and NOT one of Mr Ninh's. Perhaps most of the Vietnamese Americans in OK are also like me? One of the statistics that Mr Ninh left out was the number of South Vietnamese killed BY people like Mr Ninh and their zeal to "reunite" the country. That number DWARFS all other numbers of dead Vietnamese in that war.
Thank you for your welcome view of the Vietnamese Americans. I'm one of them and NOT one of Mr Ninh's. Perhaps most of the Vietnamese Americans in OK are also like me? One of the statistics that Mr Ninh left out was the number of South Vietnamese killed BY people like Mr Ninh and their zeal to "reunite" the country. That number DWARFS all other numbers of dead Vietnamese in that war.
2
I was a self-absorbed teenager in 1967, dimly aware of a war far away. My greatest concern was that boys I liked might get a bad lottery number and be drafted.
Reading this article reminds me of how spoiled we Americans have been, usurping this planet with our greedy habits like there is no tomorrow. But the threat of violence right here is growing closer - from hurricanes, North Korea, biological warfare or whatever else may be conjured by those seeking revenge. It is likely that we will experience first hand what Bo Ninh describes, and then - maybe - we will become a wiser nation.
Reading this article reminds me of how spoiled we Americans have been, usurping this planet with our greedy habits like there is no tomorrow. But the threat of violence right here is growing closer - from hurricanes, North Korea, biological warfare or whatever else may be conjured by those seeking revenge. It is likely that we will experience first hand what Bo Ninh describes, and then - maybe - we will become a wiser nation.
17
Beautiful essay, eloquently written, that revealsA universal truth about the nature of war. Fighting men and women on all sides of the battle lines, share more in common with their fellow soldiers, both friend and foe, then a do with the leaders of their respective countries who have sent them to war. My awareness of this universe human truth came after my Vietnam wartime experience, and may have been triggered by my first reading of "All Quiet On the Western Front."
USMC Viet Vet (July – December, 1965
USMC Viet Vet (July – December, 1965
22
Hindsight is 20/20.
Our leaders in the mid-1960's were haunted by Munich, 1938.
It's so so easy to second guess them.
Also, for the life of me I can't figure out why the Korean War isn't considered a "good war."
If not for our intervention in Korea, the entire peninsula would currently be a dystopian nightmare.
Our leaders in the mid-1960's were haunted by Munich, 1938.
It's so so easy to second guess them.
Also, for the life of me I can't figure out why the Korean War isn't considered a "good war."
If not for our intervention in Korea, the entire peninsula would currently be a dystopian nightmare.
11
War. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing! 20/20 that.
Freddy, The Korean War was not a good war; as Ben Franklin said, "There never was a good war, nor a bad peace." But it was a necessary war, meaning that it was important to the vital interests of the United States. This was not the case with Viet Nam, which was essentially a civil war among Vietnamese, in which we had no business joining. (And we sadly joined the side that had a corrupt government.) Korea (which had previously been a colony of Japan) was divided into north and south after WWII by formal agreement between the countries backing each of the 2 sides, as part of the machinations of the cold war. When the North invaded the South to break this agreement, it was necessary to fight against this attack would have emboldened communist governments in other divided countries (like Germany) to break standing agreements by invading their neighbor.
1
I don't believe our reasons for getting into the Vietnam war in the 60's had anything to do 1938 Munich. It was fear of Communism and "domino theory". And after we were in it, we were too proud to get out even when it was known to be an unwinnable war.
3
To my fellow veterans who fought in Vietnam: if you have not yet read Bao Ninh's novel, read it. He eloquently captures the universal realities of surviving the brutalities of ground combat.
16
Why is it too much to ask that we not forget the major lesson of the Vietnam war? We never again should join a war of choice, fueled by leaders' comic-book fantasies about the persuasiveness of "fire and fury". But it is too easy to place all the blame on chicken-hawk leaders. Why are we as a people so willing to believe those fantasies? So unwilling to stand up en masse and say NO to those that would take us there again? Can only witnesses such as myself in 1969 and Bao Ninh for much longer know that war is real, with immense consequences? The power to wage war is not just another "deal" to win.
32
Eloquent writing or the translation does not a truthful picture paint...
This war as the one before it on Korean peninsula was perpetrated on peaceful South Vietnam by the North's Communists enabled by their paymasters from Russia and China who wanted nothing less than to establish another Communist dictatorship at any cost... no matter how many Vietnamese die for it Author, being far from naive but rather deliberately "softly" peddling the party line of "reunification & liberation", completely ignores fate of South Vietnamese who just like South Koreans were not willing to be duped into Communist slavery and were rather much happier being defended by the US...
Unfortunately, unlike the Korean war, Vietnam war was prosecuted atrociously badly allowing US casualties to climb without any visible peace prospect... And as it was expected, the paper peace that Communists never honor was just thrown out by them in new and final invasion that we had no guts to counter to defend freedom of South Vietnamese, many of whom were tortured & killed by the regime supported and enabled by the author.
We are friends now but we should not forget those who had to flee their land or those who were victims of another brutal dictatorship that made a concentration camp of a country not unlike the one still existing in No. Korea.
This war as the one before it on Korean peninsula was perpetrated on peaceful South Vietnam by the North's Communists enabled by their paymasters from Russia and China who wanted nothing less than to establish another Communist dictatorship at any cost... no matter how many Vietnamese die for it Author, being far from naive but rather deliberately "softly" peddling the party line of "reunification & liberation", completely ignores fate of South Vietnamese who just like South Koreans were not willing to be duped into Communist slavery and were rather much happier being defended by the US...
Unfortunately, unlike the Korean war, Vietnam war was prosecuted atrociously badly allowing US casualties to climb without any visible peace prospect... And as it was expected, the paper peace that Communists never honor was just thrown out by them in new and final invasion that we had no guts to counter to defend freedom of South Vietnamese, many of whom were tortured & killed by the regime supported and enabled by the author.
We are friends now but we should not forget those who had to flee their land or those who were victims of another brutal dictatorship that made a concentration camp of a country not unlike the one still existing in No. Korea.
13
Or were we trying to support a failed French colony, in the name of fighting communism? I still haven't answered that question, nor do I think I ever will.
15
Here we go again. South Vietnam was NOT an invention of the US or a "failed French colony." South Vietnam had 12 million people in 1954 and most of them just wanted to left alone by the communist. It's a fact that over 800,000 north Vietnamese left their homes and land to go south and only 80,000 of the southerners went north. South Vietnam couldn't stand alone against the communist's aim of conquests. Mr Ninh's people couldn't have done it without the Soviets and Chinese's aids. We couldn't win because we were forced by our "ally" to fight a "limited" war while they fought a unlimited, total war against us, civilians included as targets. Oh but wait, history is usually written by the winner or the powerful. Forgive my, my bad.
2
As Springsteen put it in "Born In The U S A", we were "sent to kill the yellow man". We were told it was to prevent Communism from enveloping Indo-China. We continued where the French colonialists left off. We like Great Britain in India were going to "civilize" you folks, make you hate Communism and love US. And of course like true imperialists if you did not go along we'd bomb you back to the Stone Age as Curtis LeMay so psychotically put it.
Since the United State of post World War II, when we have become the policeman of the world, we have mismanaged our role. Like Trump, we have become the bully. When some small country does not do what we say we have no qualms about going to war with them.
But somehow when faced with an actual foe, like the Soviets in '62, or North Korea, we hold our powder. You know, the more I think it over, as crazy as NK's Kim may be, he is has got a real run for the money with Trump, who has told his advisors he, being the smartest person on the room, thinks Kim is bluffing. Trump learned this from all the fabulous deal-making he's done. Sweet Jesus, can you believe Americans actually elected this idiot?
So with that perspective, maybe NK has the right idea. If you join the nuclear club, all the bravado of demagogues like Trump will make them pause in their bluster. Thanks to Trump I imagine many other foreign dictators are now thinking the same thing.
DD
Manhattan
Since the United State of post World War II, when we have become the policeman of the world, we have mismanaged our role. Like Trump, we have become the bully. When some small country does not do what we say we have no qualms about going to war with them.
But somehow when faced with an actual foe, like the Soviets in '62, or North Korea, we hold our powder. You know, the more I think it over, as crazy as NK's Kim may be, he is has got a real run for the money with Trump, who has told his advisors he, being the smartest person on the room, thinks Kim is bluffing. Trump learned this from all the fabulous deal-making he's done. Sweet Jesus, can you believe Americans actually elected this idiot?
So with that perspective, maybe NK has the right idea. If you join the nuclear club, all the bravado of demagogues like Trump will make them pause in their bluster. Thanks to Trump I imagine many other foreign dictators are now thinking the same thing.
DD
Manhattan
20
At the end of Faulkner's last novel, "The Reivers", a boy who has stolen grandpa's car and met gamblers, thieves, murderers, prostitutes, and adventurers galore, returns and faces his punishment in the cold cellar of his home. Will it be a whipping, new chores, loss of love? No, he is condemned to what is far more fearsome, to remember it all, every good moment and every bad.
That is how all who remember war make us richer, grant us hope and time to ponder.
Bao Ninh has given us a moving and beautifully expressed paean, not to hatred and war, but to memory, reminding me Faulkner's one good metaphor in poetry, at which he was not adept: "an old sorrow, sharp as woodsmoke on the air." War and peace; summer, autumn, winter, and then, if we remember and hope and are lucky, spring will come. Woodsmoke, like bomb smoke, will clear.
That is how all who remember war make us richer, grant us hope and time to ponder.
Bao Ninh has given us a moving and beautifully expressed paean, not to hatred and war, but to memory, reminding me Faulkner's one good metaphor in poetry, at which he was not adept: "an old sorrow, sharp as woodsmoke on the air." War and peace; summer, autumn, winter, and then, if we remember and hope and are lucky, spring will come. Woodsmoke, like bomb smoke, will clear.
13
The first shock I got in Vietnam was the realization that these people were mainly farmers. They were just like the farmers in the Town of Clay, Onondaga County where I grew up.Their loyalties were almost identical to the farmers back home, their families and their lands. These people weren't interested in world domination, or the domino theory. They just wanted to make a good crop and we were killing them for our own political reasons.
Make your own conclusions. I've made mine.
Make your own conclusions. I've made mine.
72
goognoff thank you so much for this comment!
3
In '95 I began a 3 month bicycle ride from Saigon (Ho Chi Minh city) to Hanoi. This was before normalization of relations between the US and Vietnam so I had to fly indirectly from Bangkok to Saigon. My first morning in the busy tropical city I was wandering with the help of a small tourist map I found somewhere. On it was marked a museum nearby, the American War Crimes Museum. It was very close and a small unassuming place with a couple of broken wartime helicopters sagging near the entrance. Inside were many blown up photos of atrocities committed by US forces, pushing prisoners from flying choppers, executions, etc. I was greeted immediately by a young museum guard who asked the question I would be asked a hundred times as I cycled north, "Where are you from?" I hesitated of course but finally said "America". I was very surprised by his response which was without any anger, animosity, or hate as he warmly welcomed me to Vietnam.
24
I visited Hanoi in 2001-2 - while Americans may call it the Vietnam War, guess what - the Vietnamese call it the American War. They hold no animosity - they won !
They also hold no great distinction to it - it's just one of a long list of invasions over hundreds of years including France before America - their proudest may be against China - when they placed submerged spikes under Halong Bay, and enticed the bigger Chinese fleet onto them to sink - that was a great victory they like to remember.
The American War - just one of many aggressions they have successfully repelled - and will continue to do. Nothing special. They survived and will continue to do so.
They also hold no great distinction to it - it's just one of a long list of invasions over hundreds of years including France before America - their proudest may be against China - when they placed submerged spikes under Halong Bay, and enticed the bigger Chinese fleet onto them to sink - that was a great victory they like to remember.
The American War - just one of many aggressions they have successfully repelled - and will continue to do. Nothing special. They survived and will continue to do so.
The lesson for the US was to get rid of the draft, start a volunteer military. These "new warriors" could be sent to wars like Iraq and Afghanistan without worrying about the cost. We are probably somewhere close to $5 trillion in direct and indirect costs for America along with almost 10,000 dead and another 76,000 wounded. We'll spend close to $200 billion this year to keep the farce alive. What a waste. Does anyone think we would be there today if there was a draft versus volunteer military.
24
In calculating the costs, please don't forget the 20-some vets who kill themselves each day, or the tremendous ongoing healthcare costs incurred by the wounded, and the social costs suffered by their families and friends as they try to deal with the mental and physical damage vets come home with.
15
Dean, I'm not sure it would be any different if there were a draft. Con artists like Bush the Younger and Donald the Big Mouth would still have gotten out of it. Presidents who had known the horrors of war, like Bush the Elder and Eisenhower, were much more cautious about going to war.
1
What is the use, the utility of wars? At the cost of millions dead, what do the wars achieve? We seem so stupid, we human beings!
13
War is the state terrorism by means of the armed army and at the expense of taxpayers. And what it differs from any other act of terrorism of ultra radicals, Just the same destructions and numerous death, for achievement of goals of intimidation of the survived people, one part of the population in other population.
3
What is the utility of wars ? - profits for big businesses.
large businesses that profit from the sale of weapons - remember Dick Cheney and Haliburton ? A Bush grandfather banking for the Nazis ? - 'for some people, war can be a profitable business' -
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar
large businesses that profit from the sale of weapons - remember Dick Cheney and Haliburton ? A Bush grandfather banking for the Nazis ? - 'for some people, war can be a profitable business' -
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar
2
What a superb article.
I'm sure there were stories such as this decades after WW1, WW2, Korea... how is it that men (and perhaps a few women) keep going back to this horrible response in search of a solution? I'm sure that money is behind most of it, but we, the masses, have failed to display enough resistance to those whose first reaction to almost everything is "WAR." Distorted emotions needs to be left outside the voting booth.
I'm sure there were stories such as this decades after WW1, WW2, Korea... how is it that men (and perhaps a few women) keep going back to this horrible response in search of a solution? I'm sure that money is behind most of it, but we, the masses, have failed to display enough resistance to those whose first reaction to almost everything is "WAR." Distorted emotions needs to be left outside the voting booth.
9
Sorry about the war, but someone had to pay for the mansions of the owners of the military industrial complex. Unfortunately that was you. They always need more mansions so duck.
16
It will always be surreal and intriguing to me to read essays like this, written by my former 'enemy.' As a helicopter pilot in Vietnam for the U.S. Army in 1970-71, I may have flown over this fellow, and been in his weapon's cross-hairs, or in the sights of his binoculars. Reading such pieces, I'm more and more convinced that people like Mr. Bao and myself are the only ones who can end the human addiction to war. Thank you for this fine piece, my friend, and warm wishes to you and your people.
127
Roger that Byron my friend.
I wish more folks would take the time to read Bao Ninh's "Sorrow of War"
I wish more folks would take the time to read Bao Ninh's "Sorrow of War"
9
'people like Mr. Bao and myself are the only ones who can end the human addiction to war'
nice thought - but unfortunately people like you don't start wars - that's typically done by 'leaders' with vested interests - nudged by large businesses seeking larger profits.
'War Is Merely the Continuation of Policy by Other Means' - https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Carl_von_Clausewitz
nice thought - but unfortunately people like you don't start wars - that's typically done by 'leaders' with vested interests - nudged by large businesses seeking larger profits.
'War Is Merely the Continuation of Policy by Other Means' - https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Carl_von_Clausewitz
1
As a college student, I did what I could to stop that war. I am still ashamed of that war. What it did to you, and what it did to us. I am glad you felt welcome, here, but I can't imagine why you came, after what you, and your family, experienced. I still believe that our soldiers died for nothing. What a waste.
12
This essay really, really, got to me. It reminded me that I should be grateful to be able to get up every morning and have a quiet coffee and breakfast without living in dread of arial bombing as this author did. And as my parents did. And as a whole bunch of people in the world still do. Civilization is such a fragile thing; we should’t forget how lucky we are to be on an Island of calm.
12
I'll wager that if you traveled 5 or 10 miles to the nearest low-income neighborhood, and spoke to the residents, you would realize how small a fraction of those of us who live in so-called first world countries actually feel that we live on an island of calm.
5
Yeah, I’ve been to San Fransisco where you are and seen how many people live on the street in the middle of wealth. That’s an appalling a social problem for which there is a fix if there was the will. Although the Blue Angles were flying overhead during my last visit there, I didn’t notice any bombs raining down. That would be a different category of problem.
Thank you for your work, thank you for your wisdom and compassion. I was a member of that Seventh Fleet from 1971 through the 1972 Easter Offensive, on to the closing act at Vung Tau in April 1975. I have the same feeling that you do; that those who fought thereby become brothers.
10
That's the paradox we live in. How can people seemingly so nice, generous, hospitable and educated also be capable of heaping great harm and injustice to others? Why, for example, did we fabricate such lies like the Gulf of Tonkin incident, WMDs in Iraq, Qadhafi in Libya? What good has come out of occupying Guantanamo? What good has come of our presence in South Korea armed to the teeth and ready for waging thermonuclear war? Could we not for a minute try to understand why North Korea might truly feel threatened based on history?
19
Congratulations on your survival, and thank you for your work.
6
The Times had an article a few days ago, speculating on the North Korean regime's motivations. I read an interesting article in a Sri Lankan newspaper a few weeks ago, where the author was describing the carnage we inflicted on the North Korean population. Apparently 20% was killed in the war. The article went on to explain the psyche of the North Koreans, ensuring it never happens again. The author was making a case for North Korea's primary motive being deterrence. This article supports that thought.
6
There is a tragic flaw in your reasoning. Yes, many people in North Korea see nuclear weapons as a way of warding off the American invasion that they are constantly told is imminent (and have so been told for 60+ years). The problem is that the leadership of North Korea knows that peace - disarmament and neutralization - would lead to the swift collapse of their paranoid, dictatorial state. Open four gates through the DMZ and allow any and all to pass at will, and North Korea would melt away in weeks.
The utter failure of North Korea's ideology of total self-reliance (autarky), and the hunger and misery of the masses, compared to the flourishing South (no paradise, but functioning health care, transit and housing) makes for an explosive situation. North Korea needs -- can only exist -- in a state of confrontation and threat of war. It is utterly unlike Vietnam in 1975. The mistake made may have been intervening in 1950, but it can't be unmade now.
The utter failure of North Korea's ideology of total self-reliance (autarky), and the hunger and misery of the masses, compared to the flourishing South (no paradise, but functioning health care, transit and housing) makes for an explosive situation. North Korea needs -- can only exist -- in a state of confrontation and threat of war. It is utterly unlike Vietnam in 1975. The mistake made may have been intervening in 1950, but it can't be unmade now.
10
If the North had not attacked summarily they would have had no casualties. Actions have consequences.
3
(North Korea needs -- can only exist -- in a state of confrontation and threat of war.) Most likely it belongs to the USA, but not to Northern Korea. She never attacked America, unlike the USA.
Thank you, Bao Ninh, for this thoughtful essay. It brings to mind a poem by Thomas Hardy, The Man He Killed, which we literature majors read at Gonzaga University back in the 60's. The poem stayed with me and influenced my attitude toward the cruel absurdity of war, one of the greatest moral failures of all human existence. It came to me again when we learned in November of 1969 that my handsome, darling cousin was MIA in Vietnam. He had been a fighter pilot shot down over the Ho Chi Minh trail and his remains weren't found until much later. We celebrated his life at a memorial service in July, 2013. On that day, I celebrated the lives of all who died during the war, all victims on any side, all victims of any war in history. Thank you again. Let's pray for the dead and the living that we may experience a flowering that comes from thinking thoughts of mercy.
8
Bao Ninh's book "The Sorrow of War" is written in the same strangely beautiful writing as this essay. It didn't just stay with me, it became a part of me.
6
"....are we doomed to repeat the same mistakes?" This writer asks at the end of his essay.
Yes. I am about the same age as the writer and first became aware of war in the 1960s. The Vietnam War. But since then, and before then through all of human history, when has there been a moment without war somewhere in this world?
The politicians talk of peace, either soon or in the future, and all the time are preparing for war. America produces and sells the most military weaponry of all nations, by far. Are we a peaceful nation?
Now we have the beast which we created, nuclear weapons, pointed back at us by North Korea - not forgetting the ones that have been pointed at us by the Russians for the past 60 years. I wonder how that will work out. Does anyone think the U.S. will give up without a war?
Yes. I am about the same age as the writer and first became aware of war in the 1960s. The Vietnam War. But since then, and before then through all of human history, when has there been a moment without war somewhere in this world?
The politicians talk of peace, either soon or in the future, and all the time are preparing for war. America produces and sells the most military weaponry of all nations, by far. Are we a peaceful nation?
Now we have the beast which we created, nuclear weapons, pointed back at us by North Korea - not forgetting the ones that have been pointed at us by the Russians for the past 60 years. I wonder how that will work out. Does anyone think the U.S. will give up without a war?
2
'I am about the same age as the writer' - he seems to be one year older than me - the same age difference with a friend meant that he was conscripted, I just missed out. We saw the damage it did to him - changing a gentle beautiful soul into a hard dark person.
Agent Orange was a toxic mix including 2, 4-D and dioxin.
2,4-D is a well known and still widely used on farms as a herbicide. But "the production and use of dioxins was banned by the Stockholm Convention in 2001." It has no common uses--except to poison animals--human or other, like the Ukrainian president Yushchenko.
"Dioxins have been considered highly toxic and able to cause reproductive and developmental problems, damage the immune system, interfere with hormones and also cause cancer....The suspected effects in adults are liver damage, and alterations in heme metabolism, serum lipid levels, thyroid functions, as well as diabetes and immunological effects" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dioxins_and_dioxin-like_compounds
Americans still self righteously rail against those using chemical weapons--"on their own people." Evidently it's OK to use them on "not their own people"--especially non American people. It's OK as long as it's NIMBY (see Krugman).
The ancient Greeks distinguished Greeks and Barbarians--non Greek speaking--sounding like "bar, bar bar"--as if to say--"it's all Greek to me."
But "barbarians" were also relatively uncivilized. American use of dioxin was barbarian in this sense.
In the "global village." All people are "our people"--Earthlings.. Politics is not a sport--with blind team loyalties and cheerleaders. "Fan" is a back-formation of "fanatic"--as in mind numbing patriots--which the 1% love to give medals to.
2,4-D is a well known and still widely used on farms as a herbicide. But "the production and use of dioxins was banned by the Stockholm Convention in 2001." It has no common uses--except to poison animals--human or other, like the Ukrainian president Yushchenko.
"Dioxins have been considered highly toxic and able to cause reproductive and developmental problems, damage the immune system, interfere with hormones and also cause cancer....The suspected effects in adults are liver damage, and alterations in heme metabolism, serum lipid levels, thyroid functions, as well as diabetes and immunological effects" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dioxins_and_dioxin-like_compounds
Americans still self righteously rail against those using chemical weapons--"on their own people." Evidently it's OK to use them on "not their own people"--especially non American people. It's OK as long as it's NIMBY (see Krugman).
The ancient Greeks distinguished Greeks and Barbarians--non Greek speaking--sounding like "bar, bar bar"--as if to say--"it's all Greek to me."
But "barbarians" were also relatively uncivilized. American use of dioxin was barbarian in this sense.
In the "global village." All people are "our people"--Earthlings.. Politics is not a sport--with blind team loyalties and cheerleaders. "Fan" is a back-formation of "fanatic"--as in mind numbing patriots--which the 1% love to give medals to.
3
So beautifully written. In our American bluster and arrogance, we rarely think of the people below our bombs -- whether in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen... the list seems to go on and on.
5
Wars are almost always prosecuted by those with the least to lose, and paid for with the lives of those who truly have been given no choice, either by compulsory draft or shame and guilt. Let those who vote for war, send their sons and daughters, and nephews and nieces to the killing fields. Even more to the point, let those voters go first.
7
Beautiful, eloquent, moving. The best kind of writing: using simple words to evoke deep emotions. Thank you, Bao Ninh. The Vietnamese War dominated my youth, too, though certainly not as desperately as it did those young men, Vietnamese and Americans, who were in harm's way. But for my first six years after college it shaped my life: dictating my career choice (teaching in the inner city to get a military deferment) and sending me into the ranks of protestors who spent a lot of their time working and marching against the war. Again, I am not equating my experience to those on both sides who daily faced death but, as Mr. Ninh says, that war still "spreads its wings" over my life. I've been thinking a lot about those years since the dangerous lunatic who is now our president took power. It seems to me that one of the grave failures that led to his election is a failure to educate -- particularly to inculcate a sense of history. Nobody whose memory of the Vietnam War remains keen could tolerate for minute the idiotic saber rattling we now hear emanating from the White House.
4
'idiotic saber rattling we now hear emanating from the White House'
yes - those who have suffered war feel deeply that we must never go there again.
Those who avoided it or have never been there can imagine 'great' things - picture themselves as a 'hero' - 'heaped with glory'
current sabre rattler being a classic case in point - big hat, no cattle - big talk, small mind - big on selfish narcissism, small on caring for anyone else.
yes - those who have suffered war feel deeply that we must never go there again.
Those who avoided it or have never been there can imagine 'great' things - picture themselves as a 'hero' - 'heaped with glory'
current sabre rattler being a classic case in point - big hat, no cattle - big talk, small mind - big on selfish narcissism, small on caring for anyone else.
1
there must be some mistake.
the usa would never invade a country that had done them no harm nor would they gin up a fictitious reason--the gulf of tonkin--to invade and kill and maim hundreds of thousands of people who had done them no harm.
not part of american values and the usa has never done it since because they always learn from their mistakes.
just kidding.
the usa would never invade a country that had done them no harm nor would they gin up a fictitious reason--the gulf of tonkin--to invade and kill and maim hundreds of thousands of people who had done them no harm.
not part of american values and the usa has never done it since because they always learn from their mistakes.
just kidding.
7
Excellent writing. I avoided fighting because I was 2 years too young to be drafted. I clearly recall my cowardice and the shame I felt for feeling afraid to go to battle. I got over that because we all must move on.
I also recall my father and I watching the news of the Vietnam War on TV. My dad was a purple heart Korean War veteran. He would not speak about his experiences in Korea. But he watched the Vietnam War news. I recall seeing tears in my dad's eyes while watching body bags on the TV screen.
Lastly, the American problem is one of poor leadership. We do NOT have the best and brightest running for the presidency. Congress is the same. Wars are started by dim witted men who share that feeling of cowardice I felt in 1975. But they have the power to start bloody, unnecessary wars from the comfort of an easy chair and a cushy pension. We must learn. Germany and France have learned.
I also recall my father and I watching the news of the Vietnam War on TV. My dad was a purple heart Korean War veteran. He would not speak about his experiences in Korea. But he watched the Vietnam War news. I recall seeing tears in my dad's eyes while watching body bags on the TV screen.
Lastly, the American problem is one of poor leadership. We do NOT have the best and brightest running for the presidency. Congress is the same. Wars are started by dim witted men who share that feeling of cowardice I felt in 1975. But they have the power to start bloody, unnecessary wars from the comfort of an easy chair and a cushy pension. We must learn. Germany and France have learned.
5
During the Cold War I comforted myself with the knowledge of how very much the Russian people had suffered in WWII. Those people would never chose to go back into war, I thought. Now those generations are gone and I worry.
I have never been to war, but if I think of Houston and multiply it by everywhere, I can conjure up a pretty good misery index. Of course that doesn't include the indiscriminate death. That I cannot conjure. Maybe that's the problem, only a few of us truly know war.
I have know several PTSD sufferers - veterans of the Battle of the Bulge, Guadalcanal, the Inchon Landing, the Chosin Reservoir, and Vietnam. I've seen their suffering but I didn't really know it. I didn't know it in the gut like they did. They were forever marked and apart from the rest of us. One thing I did learn, in the gut, I don't ever want to know what they so clearly know.
It's a very hard lesson that never seems to end.
I have never been to war, but if I think of Houston and multiply it by everywhere, I can conjure up a pretty good misery index. Of course that doesn't include the indiscriminate death. That I cannot conjure. Maybe that's the problem, only a few of us truly know war.
I have know several PTSD sufferers - veterans of the Battle of the Bulge, Guadalcanal, the Inchon Landing, the Chosin Reservoir, and Vietnam. I've seen their suffering but I didn't really know it. I didn't know it in the gut like they did. They were forever marked and apart from the rest of us. One thing I did learn, in the gut, I don't ever want to know what they so clearly know.
It's a very hard lesson that never seems to end.
2
Since I was a child and my mother tried to explain how Russia was our enemy and then our ally in WWII, along with all our other enmities and alliances in past history, I have wondered at how we could go to war and then ally with those we had previously warred against. The wars seem so ridiculous when a truce is hammered out and we are once again allies of our enemies. It is surreal!
5
The great Bob Dylan song, "With God On Our Side" is about that question and should be heard more often.
3
What a moving moving and beautiful article about a mean and amoral war. I have many times wondered how the Vietnam people could ever forgive the US and its people for what was done to their nation and their people.
It was a war started and perpetuated by politics. I'm so glad he was able to meet and interact with just a portion of the American public who never supported the war. Even though some served, many felt the inhumanity of what was done.
How fortunate for us to be the recipient of his lyrical writing today.
It was a war started and perpetuated by politics. I'm so glad he was able to meet and interact with just a portion of the American public who never supported the war. Even though some served, many felt the inhumanity of what was done.
How fortunate for us to be the recipient of his lyrical writing today.
38
And how can the "collateral damage" victims of American drones forgive us? Or the indigenous people on this continent and the African-Americans and other black people for the genocide we committed? Or the many governments we subverted and despots we helped install? It's time this country stopped beating its chest and bullying the world and started practicing more humility. We've allowed the profit motive crush our humanity.
3
Dear Mr. Bao Ninh. Thank you for your telling of such a pained time in your young life and that of your family and schoolmates. During that most vile war, the words of another writer were being sung by Americans here at home. Pete Seeger asked, 'Where have all the flowers gone?'; those flowers grown from fields of graves across battlegrounds everywhere. His song asked, ' When will they ever learn?". I don't know that we ever will learn, human consciousness being what it is. I really don't know who we are as a species except that power born of fear drives us to to field generations of battlegrounds with wild flowers. God, if there is a god, has her own recreation.
4
Thank you, Bao Ninh, for an important and evocative essay. I was a little older than you when I went to war in Vietnam, but not much older. Unlike you, I had no deep connection with the purpose that brought me there. To this day, when I am questioned about the war an those I served with must have suffered. My response is and has been for some time that whatever suffering we endured was nothing compared with that suffered by the Vietnamese whom the U.S. attempted to "bomb into the darks ages."
Just to clarify one small point, the C-123 was not a Caribou. The Caribou was an entirely different plane.
Just to clarify one small point, the C-123 was not a Caribou. The Caribou was an entirely different plane.
2
I read somewhere that the first recorded war was about 3,000 years B.C.
The issues they went to war over are long forgotten, as are the warriors, but it makes one think of the long history of this manner of problem solving.
How many wars were there before that? How many since that we don't have records of? How many millions - billions of deaths and injuries - over lands that were taken and lost repeatedly, over greed and corruption, over passion and insanity? How many trillions of dollars or yen or whatever wasted, how much expertise and technology and manpower dedicated to killing that was wasted to service to improve society?
When I was teaching high school I would tell my kids about the countries we used to be enemies with and then friends and sometimes back and forth over history - Germany, Russia, Japan and of course - Vietnam.
That war is not that long ago and yet the social memories are fading already- deadly enemies who shot and blasted and bombed and tortured each other now embrace as friends.
Be very careful, I told them, about what wars you are willing to fight in, to kill and to die in, the issues worth those sacrifices. After all the killing and maiming is done you may later be embracing your "enemy" as friends - it just depends on the decade.
Americans don't take a very long look down history, we are an immediate culture, we want what we want and we want it now, like children.
But, like children, we can make rash decisions we later regret.
The issues they went to war over are long forgotten, as are the warriors, but it makes one think of the long history of this manner of problem solving.
How many wars were there before that? How many since that we don't have records of? How many millions - billions of deaths and injuries - over lands that were taken and lost repeatedly, over greed and corruption, over passion and insanity? How many trillions of dollars or yen or whatever wasted, how much expertise and technology and manpower dedicated to killing that was wasted to service to improve society?
When I was teaching high school I would tell my kids about the countries we used to be enemies with and then friends and sometimes back and forth over history - Germany, Russia, Japan and of course - Vietnam.
That war is not that long ago and yet the social memories are fading already- deadly enemies who shot and blasted and bombed and tortured each other now embrace as friends.
Be very careful, I told them, about what wars you are willing to fight in, to kill and to die in, the issues worth those sacrifices. After all the killing and maiming is done you may later be embracing your "enemy" as friends - it just depends on the decade.
Americans don't take a very long look down history, we are an immediate culture, we want what we want and we want it now, like children.
But, like children, we can make rash decisions we later regret.
4
THE VIETNAMESE Writer of this piece has somehow maintained his humanity and optimism in spite of everything. His lament at the end about the bones of those killed being the seeds of future wars was disturbing. It was Karl Marx who, with great prescience, observed that Communism sows the seeds of its destruction. The fact is that many human activities sow the seeds of their own destruction. Santana put it another way writing that one who does not know the lessons of history is bound to repeat its mistakes.
2
Children are taught to hate by adults. I rejected the adults who tried to teach me to hate Vietnamese, Russians, Turks, communists and socialists. My coworkers and neighbors came from all over the planet, some are Vietnamese. Individually we are all the same, people who just want to live their lives in peace. I just don't think our species is capable of avoiding self induced extinction. I'm just glad the draft ended before my 18th birthday, although I would have fled to Canada in a heart beat. Peace to you Bao.
1
Bao Ninh is wrong to think that the shadow of Vietnam doesn't fall on Americans today. Anyone who lives through war is inexorably affected -- as long as they live. But as with PTSD the scars of that wound are invisible yet very much present.
In the US they have resulted in emotional pain and sorrow, but they have not brought wisdom because that "war" was more like a bar brawl with no good cause for the US to fight for other than too much testosterone driven bravado. When such a fight is over, nothing is "learned" and only the pain of lost loved ones remains. Bao is luckier than we: he has his nation won to take refuge in while the American psyche has seemingly been poisoned into fighting for nothing everywhere.
In the US they have resulted in emotional pain and sorrow, but they have not brought wisdom because that "war" was more like a bar brawl with no good cause for the US to fight for other than too much testosterone driven bravado. When such a fight is over, nothing is "learned" and only the pain of lost loved ones remains. Bao is luckier than we: he has his nation won to take refuge in while the American psyche has seemingly been poisoned into fighting for nothing everywhere.
25
A moving opinion piece, Mr. Bao Ninh. I hope while in America you also learned that not all Americans are blue-eyed blondes! I'm afraid younger generations easily dismiss lessons of the past. Viet Nam divides us still.
Strange. Beautiful writing. The Vietnamese suffered more because the war took place in their land. I am a woman who came of age in the 60's and knew the anxiety and fear it caused my male friends. As seniors in college we spent many a night plotting ways that would keep them out of the war. Most did not go, just like the Cheney's of the world. Al Gore and John Kerry were newer cheered for going to Vietnam; John Kerry was pilloried unlike those who served in WWII. For the Vietnamese the war al least unified them, for Americans it tore us apart. And no we learned nothing. We are still at war and peace does not prevail the world.
7
a fascinating essay. all through th war a lot of americans struggled to understand what was happening to the vietnamese and how we could make it better. we were pretty ineffectual. the spirit and courage of this man explains why north vietnam won the war.
3
I am amazed at how little we seem to learn from all this post-hoc empathy between former enemies.
In my home town, a former fighter pilot returned to Vietnam and located the North Vietnamese pilot he had shot down, thinking he had survived as he saw his open parachute. He visited his Vietnamese family, and the North Vietnamese pilot visited here. The American pilot wrote a book about his new friendship with his former enemy.
But listening to them speak at a local forum, it seemed clear that the American pilot would go do it again if commanded to do so. He would not now join me in the ranks of those who protested against the Vietnam war at the time, nor in protest against later misguided American wars that added so much to both the American and "enemy" death tolls.
Unless all this post-hoc empathy for former enemies makes us more reflective and cautious, more willing to question the merits of the next war, it is morally useless. It might make us feel good, but it has no redemptive merit.
In my home town, a former fighter pilot returned to Vietnam and located the North Vietnamese pilot he had shot down, thinking he had survived as he saw his open parachute. He visited his Vietnamese family, and the North Vietnamese pilot visited here. The American pilot wrote a book about his new friendship with his former enemy.
But listening to them speak at a local forum, it seemed clear that the American pilot would go do it again if commanded to do so. He would not now join me in the ranks of those who protested against the Vietnam war at the time, nor in protest against later misguided American wars that added so much to both the American and "enemy" death tolls.
Unless all this post-hoc empathy for former enemies makes us more reflective and cautious, more willing to question the merits of the next war, it is morally useless. It might make us feel good, but it has no redemptive merit.
14
Sam,
Militaries are run top-down. Soldiers are trained to unquestionably obey orders. It's a rare soldier who forms a personal moral decision and courage to disobey. He may be shot if he doesn't follow orders. More likely, he believes in the mission.
The soldiers and protestors of the Viet Nam era are also my contemporaries. Some enlisted or were drafted while others founds ways to foil the draft and avoid the conundrum of undeclared war. Those who considered it an unjust and foolish conflict were called cowards for their stance. You probably recall there were the "my country right or wrong" folks and "hell no, I won't go" factions, et al, and later confusion and anger after discovering the lies. The polarization was as bad or worse than today.
As belligerent leaders in North Korea and the U.S. trade taunts and flex their missile muscles, average citizens in all countries want things to cool down. It's always average people who pay the price in war. Once war begins, soldiers lined up on their respective sides start following orders to kill the "enemy." It takes time, propaganda and patriotic rhetoric to cultivate enough hate for the enemy to start a war, although that changes quickly if a country is attacked, like 9/11 or Pearl Harbor.
As you noted, when it's over, former enemies often become friends. Seeking peaceful solutions is important but, in my opinion, sometimes bad actors (Hitler obviously) make war inevitable. Megalomaniacs love war.
Militaries are run top-down. Soldiers are trained to unquestionably obey orders. It's a rare soldier who forms a personal moral decision and courage to disobey. He may be shot if he doesn't follow orders. More likely, he believes in the mission.
The soldiers and protestors of the Viet Nam era are also my contemporaries. Some enlisted or were drafted while others founds ways to foil the draft and avoid the conundrum of undeclared war. Those who considered it an unjust and foolish conflict were called cowards for their stance. You probably recall there were the "my country right or wrong" folks and "hell no, I won't go" factions, et al, and later confusion and anger after discovering the lies. The polarization was as bad or worse than today.
As belligerent leaders in North Korea and the U.S. trade taunts and flex their missile muscles, average citizens in all countries want things to cool down. It's always average people who pay the price in war. Once war begins, soldiers lined up on their respective sides start following orders to kill the "enemy." It takes time, propaganda and patriotic rhetoric to cultivate enough hate for the enemy to start a war, although that changes quickly if a country is attacked, like 9/11 or Pearl Harbor.
As you noted, when it's over, former enemies often become friends. Seeking peaceful solutions is important but, in my opinion, sometimes bad actors (Hitler obviously) make war inevitable. Megalomaniacs love war.
3
When there is some enforceable international rule that forces the leaders of countries threatening war to do the fighting themselves, there might be change. When Bush-Cheney and Rumsfield have to go to a field of battle against their enemies, there might be change. Those three never faced that kind of trauma themselves, nor did their sons or daughters. Same with LBJ. Same with Bill Clinton who liked to bomb Iraq when things got too hot for him here at home. Jimmy Carter may be the only President who did not do any war-making, tried to make peace, in fact, and he is derided by those who are most happy when sabers rattle. Reagan who confused his war movies with reality liked to rattle sabers, using other people's sons and daughters to do the rattling. There is something to be said for dueling: let those who want to make war take up a weapon and go to a field and have at it. Leave everybody else out of it.
5
In advance of its appearing, I strongly recommend David Winter's new book, Roots of War, due out this fall by Oxford University Press. As a fellow political psychologist, I was asked to review the manuscript. I wish I could get all leaders in a position to decide on war to read it, as it would make them much more reflective, less bombastic, less likely to do those things that lead us down the path toward war.
1
I was in Vietnam when the first Gulf War started. I expected to feel some hostility directed against me as an American representative of another foray into foreign lands with murky motives and a sky-full of bombs.
And indeed, there was some criticism directed my way--from a few fellow tourists from France and Germany. From the Vietnamese and Hmong people, though, there was only hospitality. To this day, Vietnamese villagers light incense and say prayers at the sites where people died, both Vietnamese and American, and people who fought for the North live and work peaceably alongside those who fought for the South. Their national reconciliation is not fully complete, but they seem to have gotten further along in it in a few decades than we have done in over a century.
And indeed, there was some criticism directed my way--from a few fellow tourists from France and Germany. From the Vietnamese and Hmong people, though, there was only hospitality. To this day, Vietnamese villagers light incense and say prayers at the sites where people died, both Vietnamese and American, and people who fought for the North live and work peaceably alongside those who fought for the South. Their national reconciliation is not fully complete, but they seem to have gotten further along in it in a few decades than we have done in over a century.
9
Yes, we are doomed to make the same mistakes mistakes, commit the same crimes, repeat the same disasters, spread the same sorrows.
Because each generation has to learn the folly of war for themselves. At least up until now, the human race has refused to learn much from the past when it comes to war.
If war was just the result of human evil, it would be more likely shunned. But war isn't just caused by the worst in human nature - hubris, greed, bigotry, the will to dominance, the violent aspects of our natures; sometimes it is fueled by the best in us- courage, loyalty, the desire to protect, to defend, to help, to right wrongs.
Add to that the many limits of human imagination and empathy, the belief that "this time it will be different," that "our way is the only way," the power of fear to overcome our reason and good sense, our capacity to romanticize "the good fight" and demonize "the enemy," etc., and we are a species that keeps forgetting, time after time, that the supposed 'necessity' of waging war is almost always just an illusion.
The deaths, the atrocities, the suffering of innocents, the hatreds, the trauma, the ongoing devastation unleashed by war - they are the reality. The reality that always ends up being blotted out in our minds by the same old illusion of the need to go to war, every time a new conflict arises.
Will we ever wise up? Not any time soon.
We ever
Because each generation has to learn the folly of war for themselves. At least up until now, the human race has refused to learn much from the past when it comes to war.
If war was just the result of human evil, it would be more likely shunned. But war isn't just caused by the worst in human nature - hubris, greed, bigotry, the will to dominance, the violent aspects of our natures; sometimes it is fueled by the best in us- courage, loyalty, the desire to protect, to defend, to help, to right wrongs.
Add to that the many limits of human imagination and empathy, the belief that "this time it will be different," that "our way is the only way," the power of fear to overcome our reason and good sense, our capacity to romanticize "the good fight" and demonize "the enemy," etc., and we are a species that keeps forgetting, time after time, that the supposed 'necessity' of waging war is almost always just an illusion.
The deaths, the atrocities, the suffering of innocents, the hatreds, the trauma, the ongoing devastation unleashed by war - they are the reality. The reality that always ends up being blotted out in our minds by the same old illusion of the need to go to war, every time a new conflict arises.
Will we ever wise up? Not any time soon.
We ever
2
Why does it have to cost so many lives before peace and understanding can come into a heart? Why does human devastation become the most common platform on which to build relationships? If an enemy can become a friend after a war, why not before?
Thank you for an excellent poignant article. I wish you peace.
Thank you for an excellent poignant article. I wish you peace.
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Very well written. Thank you.
One measure of how well we remember the hard lessons of US involvement in Vietnam is how perceptions have changed. I was someone who was stridently anti-war during the 60s and 70s. Part of this was the fear of being conscripted. Part of it was because dying in Vietnam to stop socialism seemed a waste. Luckily I avoided the war.
During the war, many in the anti war movement saw returning soldiers as evil doers that enabled the carnage in Vietnam. In truth they too were victims. After the war, there was a need to somehow alter the national memory of the war. As in previous wars this involved memorializing the fighters.
I can't imagine what it would feel like to have fought in Vietnam, and all these years later to have the furniture in my living room imported from communist Vietnam.
There are lessons here. How many years will it take before the veterans of our current wars will be buying Persian rugs from Iraq and Afghanistan, with nothing really gained by the United States?
One measure of how well we remember the hard lessons of US involvement in Vietnam is how perceptions have changed. I was someone who was stridently anti-war during the 60s and 70s. Part of this was the fear of being conscripted. Part of it was because dying in Vietnam to stop socialism seemed a waste. Luckily I avoided the war.
During the war, many in the anti war movement saw returning soldiers as evil doers that enabled the carnage in Vietnam. In truth they too were victims. After the war, there was a need to somehow alter the national memory of the war. As in previous wars this involved memorializing the fighters.
I can't imagine what it would feel like to have fought in Vietnam, and all these years later to have the furniture in my living room imported from communist Vietnam.
There are lessons here. How many years will it take before the veterans of our current wars will be buying Persian rugs from Iraq and Afghanistan, with nothing really gained by the United States?
6
CT Guy, The people of any country today are not the ones from before. it's a new generation. Regarding Viet nam, the domino theory was (mistakenly) believed. Consider the Germans. The Germans of today (most) are not for sending Jews or Poles or the mentally ill to their deaths. They are peaceful and sorry. Many, not all, US Southerners now recognize that the Civil War was about slavery and have recognized that as an evil and racist. If you ask many Viet Nam vets they'll tell you that war was a mistake or at least a horror but don't see a personal conflict having something made in Viet Nam in their house. The furniture makers are not the leaders. That the Vietnamese now make furniture instead of war is a good thing. Most of today's Vietnamese only remember that war as history, as we do WWII. My point is sometimes things are gained. If Hitler had won WWII, what kind of world would we have today? The wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria do seem mostly pointless, agreed, but the rugs? I hope peaceful days are ahead and that the weaving of many beautiful rugs resumes…no matter what the reasons or mistakes of the wars.
Migrated to the US at 14 and witnessing both nations up close with dozens of long, involved trips to Vietnam, the past 3 decades: Vietnam has learned and America has not!
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The author writes eloquently of meeting Americans in 1998 in a peaceful environment so different from the horrors he experienced in the lethal surroundings of wartime Vietnam. The American veterans he met would undoubtedly have confirmed the surreal nature of the encounter.
But in one respect the feelings of the two groups surely differed sharply. Mr. Dinh had fought in a war which he believed would determine the future of his country. Some Americans may also have considered any communist regime an existential threat to the West, but most probably viewed the conflict as a war fought for geopolitical reasons beyond their understanding. Except in the fiery cauldron of battle, itself, when their lives and those of their friends hung in the balance, they probably felt little hatred for the enemy they confronted.
The American government went to considerable lengths to depict the Vietnamese communists as deadly threats, but the muted reaction to defeat in 1975 suggests they convinced few Americans, in or out of uniform. The friendliness of Bao Dinh's American hosts, therefore, requires little explanation. But the open attitude of the Vietnamese veterans, meeting men whose government sought to conquer their country, impresses me as a remarkable tribute to the capacity of the human spirit to shed anger and hatred, so that the wounds inflicted by war can begin to heal.
But in one respect the feelings of the two groups surely differed sharply. Mr. Dinh had fought in a war which he believed would determine the future of his country. Some Americans may also have considered any communist regime an existential threat to the West, but most probably viewed the conflict as a war fought for geopolitical reasons beyond their understanding. Except in the fiery cauldron of battle, itself, when their lives and those of their friends hung in the balance, they probably felt little hatred for the enemy they confronted.
The American government went to considerable lengths to depict the Vietnamese communists as deadly threats, but the muted reaction to defeat in 1975 suggests they convinced few Americans, in or out of uniform. The friendliness of Bao Dinh's American hosts, therefore, requires little explanation. But the open attitude of the Vietnamese veterans, meeting men whose government sought to conquer their country, impresses me as a remarkable tribute to the capacity of the human spirit to shed anger and hatred, so that the wounds inflicted by war can begin to heal.
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Carnage, carnage, carnage in the name of self-defense. Go fight them in their country before they come in ours. One day, as retribution from the past, they will come in our land, uninvited.
Mr. Bao Ninh is telling us how it looks from their perspective.
Eventually, after having developed more and more radical ways of killing others (and eventually ourselves), we will come to hopefully be one people, a contentious one - no doubt, on this planet.
Will we be steep in "conflict resolution" without the usage of weapons of mass destruction.
It is only when we will have respect and empathy for all, rather than for the few who look like us, that perhaps we may be able to aspire to nobler endeavors.
Still, everything seems to be running according to the Law of Evolution, its "survival of the fittest" core and the ability of the human mind to form "cliques".
Is this part of our make-up or is it something that we will eventually discard?
To think that an external God is going to do it for us is pure fantasy unless you are thinking about supernova incineration.
At least, in the mean time, all an individual can strive to do is -> live ethically.
Mr. Bao Ninh is telling us how it looks from their perspective.
Eventually, after having developed more and more radical ways of killing others (and eventually ourselves), we will come to hopefully be one people, a contentious one - no doubt, on this planet.
Will we be steep in "conflict resolution" without the usage of weapons of mass destruction.
It is only when we will have respect and empathy for all, rather than for the few who look like us, that perhaps we may be able to aspire to nobler endeavors.
Still, everything seems to be running according to the Law of Evolution, its "survival of the fittest" core and the ability of the human mind to form "cliques".
Is this part of our make-up or is it something that we will eventually discard?
To think that an external God is going to do it for us is pure fantasy unless you are thinking about supernova incineration.
At least, in the mean time, all an individual can strive to do is -> live ethically.
9
We won't have to wait for super novas, with men like Trump and Kim Jung Un we'll be happy and selfish and nuts enough to have them do it for us while the rest of the world watches and expects to escape the worst of it.
I've recently been to Vietnam and saw that to this day the savages of war are on display there, as in miles of cemetery areas with the war's dead, often larger than the nearby villages. It would be so educational if all citizens, on both sides, just as the author of this essay, could see the countries of their former or current adversaries, to bring real humanism to the abstract. Unfortunately our current "leader" has no appreciation of it, or of history, or of consequences of bad policies and we're becoming increasingly vulnerable to the horrors of possible new wars.
9
Here is the world history that Our So-Called POTUS Donald Trump aka Rupert Pupkin will never know all the while he denigrates the service of some of our genuinely real heros such as Senator John McCain "...because he got captured . . . I admire those who don't get captured." Good Luck and Good Night once and forever, may we fervently hope, and hang down your head on the way out Donald John Trump . . .
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It is time to outlaw war as a means of settling disputes.
The only armed force on the planet should be one tasked with keeping the peace and disarming.
Lets pound our swords into solar panels and wind turbines. Let's task our former naval forces with cleaning the trash from our oceans.
There are more important tasks at hand than our real estate and religious disputes.
The only armed force on the planet should be one tasked with keeping the peace and disarming.
Lets pound our swords into solar panels and wind turbines. Let's task our former naval forces with cleaning the trash from our oceans.
There are more important tasks at hand than our real estate and religious disputes.
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You're a wonderfully idealistic optimist. I'm going to try to emulate your attitude in myself today. Really. I've become too cynical in my old age. Thank you for these thoughts, El Jamon.
How blind we become when the truth is in our own words, hidden from us. The author speaks only of American aggression, yet tells us how he traveled hundreds of miles to kill South Vietnamese troops in his war of conquest. We hear of his family's losses, but not of 3,000 murdered in Hue by his army, buried in mass graves. Sorry, selective memory is self-serving and self-deceptive. He hasn't learned a thing yet, it seems.
3
They were defending their country. What were we doing there? We have no business going to war in other countries but we are still doing it.
4
Vietnam was one country until the United Nations, with no input from the Vietnamese, cut it in two, creating North ans South Vietnam. The "North" Vietnamese were fighting to reunite their country. The did not "invade" the south. It was a war of reunification, not conquest.
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Beautifully written.
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Bao Ninh tells a tragic story. The uknown fate of that young radio man is particularly haunting as is Ninh's description of the destuction of the forest canopy and all that lived within it. Weaving throughout all Ninh's reminiscences, however, are ordnance/munitions and the devices that deliver them - helicopters and planes etc... Therefore, to truly fully tell the tale of the Vietnam War the NYT has to name and discuss the companies that manufactured these ordnance and the obscene profits they made from this war and its unnecessary continuation. A true retrospective would need to discuss the relationship these companies had and still have with the Pentagon and the inexcusable revolving door between the top military brass on one side and the cozy well paid executive jobs selling weapons and weapons systems back to their old buddies in procurement on other. It would also examine the influence this corruptive relationship has on military strategy and policy making. Tackle that thorny subject and you will have a very fitting final piece for this otherwise excellent retrospective. You will also have started a discussion that very much needs to had today.
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Someday, hopefully, the peaceful people of the world will overthrow their ignorant warring leaders and unite in peace. When and how will this happen?
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It is useful to read this while our nation has a president who seems oblivious to the risks of his word play with an equally oblivious man from North Korea.
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There is only one thing I can say on this: you Americans are incredibly lucky. Despite the large-scale atrocities inflicted by US forces on Vietnamese civilians, you are met by this man, and other Vietnamese people, in a spirit of friendship and reconciliation. You never publicly, officially, apologized for the US atrocities against the Vietnamese people. Your memorials are to your own dead troops only, not to the Vietnamese civilians upon whom they rained death and destruction. There are no minutes of silence in congress, no expressions of immeasurable shame from leading politicians, no high profile events to show humility and respect for the quite deliberately killed Vietnamese civilians. Your school children are not taught that the U.S. should "never again" do what was done in Vietnam. You did not prove, need to prove, or attempt to prove, that "you have changed", and that a new generation of Americans will never again do what their forbears did.
Yet, you are met in a spirit of friendship, despite remaining nightmares of a now peaceful veteran, no lingering distrust in view of past brutality, and, despite very troubling military aggression in this century, no suspicion that "maybe you are really haven't changed and are just pretending to be so peaceful".
Yes, you are lucky. Somehow, history just sort of rolls off of you, at least those parts that involve atrocities committed outside the U.S, by Americans.
Yet, you are met in a spirit of friendship, despite remaining nightmares of a now peaceful veteran, no lingering distrust in view of past brutality, and, despite very troubling military aggression in this century, no suspicion that "maybe you are really haven't changed and are just pretending to be so peaceful".
Yes, you are lucky. Somehow, history just sort of rolls off of you, at least those parts that involve atrocities committed outside the U.S, by Americans.
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To Andreas in Germany: there is plenty of blame to go around. It is very likely that the Vietnam War never would have occurred had it not been for the barbaric war launched by your country in 1939. The tragedies of Korea, Vietnam and Cambodia were direct results of the brutal alliance between Germany and Japan. Whatever the United States did in Southeast Asia pales by comparison with the crimes committed by Germany and its allies.
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No Andreas, history does not roll off of us, any more than it rolled off of your country. You simply did a better job of trying to come to terms with your atrocities. We have not And therefore, as Spencer put it, we are doomed to repeat it. That's what we have done to ourselves with another needless war, Iraq, and now Afghanistan in which blood and money will continue to be wasted while our own society is riven and our economy supports only the few resulting in a nation polarized and so divided by its failure to come to terms with history that we are at the doorstep of civil war.
5
I am trying very earnestly to read your comments without a heart full of rancor. I find it difficult to want to listen to anything any German says about war, peace, immigrants, economies, anything at all. The devastation caused by Germany around the world is still reverberating today, and yet Germany prospers and pontificates about world affairs. The effects of Germany's war-making throughout much of the 20th century are seen and felt in almost all of the world's problems in the here and now. It troubles me that Germany is so prosperous and is considered the "leader" of the EU while countries they virtually destroyed, twice, struggle. So Andreas, you may make worthy points, but frankly, my mind just recoils at any "lecture" from any German.
2
I bought Bao Ninh's book "The Sorrow of War" at the Vietnam War Museum in Saigon. It is a classic of War Literature right up there with All Quiet on the Western Front" and the "Red Badge of Courage."
Though I did not read the author bio until I reached the end of this article, I could tell early on that it was written by the same author.
Though I did not read the author bio until I reached the end of this article, I could tell early on that it was written by the same author.
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Me too.
I was born the same year as Mr. Bao Ninh, but saw the war on TV when he enlisted. I was drafted into the Army, but was not sent to Vietnam. Reading the "1967" series in the Times is to me like watching the PBS series back in the '80's. Given the horror of war, how could anyone commit others to its prosecution. Our leaders now, like then, are mostly men devoid of the humility and intelligence to guide us into a peaceful and prosperous future. Witness the response of people of Huston who have lost worldly possessions striking out to help others. Our leaders don't tap the generous spirit of Americans. They use it to bring attention to themselves while they spawn the seeds of hate, mistrust, cynicism and bigotry. I would like to say it is all politicians who do this, but it is inescapable not to conclude that it has been mastered by Republicans. Shame.
16
Thanks for this thoughtful essay exposing the terrible fallacy of the Vietnam War, what a tragedy!!!
11
No lessons learned at the Pentagon, except how to over the 'Vietnam syndrome' and land more wars on their docket & line their pockets.
No lesson learned by Trump & his ilk except how to avoid military service, yet still cash in on war.
The American way. Amnesia pays.
No lesson learned by Trump & his ilk except how to avoid military service, yet still cash in on war.
The American way. Amnesia pays.
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The sorrow of war, indeed.
3
We know President Trump doesn't read much of anything -- let alone what he calls "the failing New York Times." He should read this piece because it's so relevant to the fire and brimstone he's threatening in Korea, which like Vietnam once was, is split between our "friends" in the South and our "enemies" in the North. Another Asian war would bring disaster to both. Too bad our president didn't serve in Vietnam due to a bone spur, which luckily doesn't affect his golf game.
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Yes. Doomed. What gives one reason to believe otherwise?
In America you become a soldier or become a bomb maker. There are many Americans who count on War Inc. for their living, and for them, War is good business.
In America you become a soldier or become a bomb maker. There are many Americans who count on War Inc. for their living, and for them, War is good business.
12
Perhaps the writer should dwell a bit more on the selfless contribution the Americans made in his country fighting the red tide of fascism that was determined to consume the rest of Asia and eventually the rest of the world. It's not easy to admit that one served on the wrong side in a war but the north vietnamese were the wrong side and its soldiers were every much the stooges the SS were in WWII.
3
Seriously? He should THANK us?
4
What constitutes the "wrong side?" China is gradually taking over the U.S. in unrelenting, inexorable, insidious ways whether it's the purchase of the Chicago Stock Exchange or the Midwestern agribusiness genetic industry like Syngenta or space exploration or real estate or - you name it. Meanwhile, Americans elected totalitarianism, fascism, lunacy. Kindly define and describe the "sides" that constitute "wrong side" and "right side." It used to seem very clear. We used to seem to stand for something. Didn't we?
Do you think there will be a writer from North Korea writing a similar piece 5o years from now?
5
This is a heartbreaking & thoughtful essay. The scars of Vietnam are on every U.S. citizen regardless of our role. I'm glad you have hope to see an end to wars but I do not. I still see the same testosterone-fueled mistakes being made over & over. I am so ashamed for what we did to your country, just as I am in what we are doing in the Middle East. We never learn.
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... and the unimaginable pain we are inflicting on our own citizens / families caught in the crosshairs of an immovable, ignorant congress.
1
Broken hearts never heal.
The America that existed when the Vietnam war started is not the same country that exists today, and trying to speak to the hearts and minds of the American people to awaken a spirit of peace is a waste of time.
I trusted my leaders in 1969 when I enlisted, in lieu of being drafted. I trusted my leaders when I was that young Marine infantryman west of DaNang in July, 1968, but today I know better. Your leaders had the understanding they had to fight to stop colonialism, but our leaders had the understanding...
I somehow lived, but will never trust that the leaders of America even have minds capable of understanding your article.
But thanks for giving us the benefit of your thoughts and experiences. I wish you well. Grunts understand the stupidity that is war and the miserable incompetences of our leaders who get us into wars.
Hugh Massengill, Eugene Oregon
The America that existed when the Vietnam war started is not the same country that exists today, and trying to speak to the hearts and minds of the American people to awaken a spirit of peace is a waste of time.
I trusted my leaders in 1969 when I enlisted, in lieu of being drafted. I trusted my leaders when I was that young Marine infantryman west of DaNang in July, 1968, but today I know better. Your leaders had the understanding they had to fight to stop colonialism, but our leaders had the understanding...
I somehow lived, but will never trust that the leaders of America even have minds capable of understanding your article.
But thanks for giving us the benefit of your thoughts and experiences. I wish you well. Grunts understand the stupidity that is war and the miserable incompetences of our leaders who get us into wars.
Hugh Massengill, Eugene Oregon
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I live north of you with a view of Puget Sound. Your comments always give me hope that there are good people here and there.
A beautiful essay by a beautiful man.
A poignant depiction of America's myopia, darkness and violence.
Sad and deeply disturbing.
Thank you for sharing.
A poignant depiction of America's myopia, darkness and violence.
Sad and deeply disturbing.
Thank you for sharing.
41
The American belief that socialism is evil and must be stopped at all costs remains, as does our belief that we can nation build. We unfortunately seem not to have the same strength of belief in self-determination when other nations are involved.
This country means well, but it must start realizing that military intervention is a last resort, not to be utilized lightly. Our interventions and support need to be political and financial.
This country means well, but it must start realizing that military intervention is a last resort, not to be utilized lightly. Our interventions and support need to be political and financial.
28
Very beautiful and moving. Thank you for your raw honesty, compassion, and forgiveness, Mr. Ninh. I have shared this my three children with the hope their generation will learn from history and refuse to use war as a failed means to solve problems. I'm so sorry our country has more power than wisdom, but know there are millions of us deeply committed to peace.
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A poignant essay. Thank you.
The waging of war will stop when we recognize that all life is sacred. The soldier taking up arms against a so-called enemy realizes the minute he takes another life that he has been sold a bill of goods by his government, and nothing can justify killing another human being.
That is the reason for all the cases of post-traumatic stress in those who return from war. Governments do this to their young and idealistic citizens by repeated lying to them.
It's our job to vote into power those who promise that war will be waged only as a last resort. Hold firm to that ideal.
Bernie promised to take that stance during a televised debate, while Hillary called Henry Kissinger, one of the Vietnam era's war criminals, her friend and mentor. Listen to what the politicians say. Do not hand power over to those who wage war for monetary and/or political gain.
By the way, at age 93, Kissinger is still actively engaged in "mentoring."
The waging of war will stop when we recognize that all life is sacred. The soldier taking up arms against a so-called enemy realizes the minute he takes another life that he has been sold a bill of goods by his government, and nothing can justify killing another human being.
That is the reason for all the cases of post-traumatic stress in those who return from war. Governments do this to their young and idealistic citizens by repeated lying to them.
It's our job to vote into power those who promise that war will be waged only as a last resort. Hold firm to that ideal.
Bernie promised to take that stance during a televised debate, while Hillary called Henry Kissinger, one of the Vietnam era's war criminals, her friend and mentor. Listen to what the politicians say. Do not hand power over to those who wage war for monetary and/or political gain.
By the way, at age 93, Kissinger is still actively engaged in "mentoring."
33
I wish the NYT and other mainstream news outlets had given Bernie adequate coverage and had spelled out Hillary's relationship with corporations that gain obscene profits from war. After reading the article by a Vietnamese writer and veteran in today's Opinion section, we should be reminded of Henry Kissinger's role in the Vietnam war and the fact that he serves as Hillary's mentor. We have to wake up to what has been happening and to the relationship between corporate profits and the horrors of war. I was so grateful for Nicholas Kristoff's piece on photos the United States and Saudi Arabia don't want us to see. Why can't the media do more to connect the dots between Trump's sword dance celebrating a multi million dollar weapons deal and the capacity of the United States backed Saudi coalition's continuous bombing of Yemen and other areas where whole populations are starving and dying. Is the military-industrial complex in bed with the mainstream press?
7
As a young adult in America with just a scant knowledge of the history of Vietnam I knew the war was a tragic mistake.
Vietnam was no threat to our national security. The war was.
I doubt if I will be able to watch the Burns documentary.
This is a wonderful essay.
Vietnam was no threat to our national security. The war was.
I doubt if I will be able to watch the Burns documentary.
This is a wonderful essay.
18
Thank you for this eloquent piece. I am a college professor (historian) in the U.S., very close in age to the author, and I would like to promise Bao Ninh that I have been doing all I can and will continue to do all I can to ensure that future generations do not lose these lessons of history.
46
What a beautiful essay, and what a farce that we have learned nothing from the experience of Vietnam. Bao Ninh writes, "underneath the beautiful green meadows of peace are mountains of bones and ashes from previous wars and, most awful to contemplate, the seeds of future wars."
All I can think about is the devastation of the present wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Will it be 50 years before my kids read about the truth of these wars?
All I can think about is the devastation of the present wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Will it be 50 years before my kids read about the truth of these wars?
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Bo Ninh's account of "The First Time I Met An American" is deeply moving, eloquent, beautiful and tragic. Horrific facts of the reality and life of Americans and Vietnamese in the lost war of the 1960s when we were defeated. When our cause was not just. As our cause is not just in the Middle East. In years to come, there will be an Afghani or Iraqi or other Arab who will write as poignant and sad account of their lives in the Americans' wars in their countries as Bo Ninh has written of his life during and after the Vietnamese War. We - who were born before WWII, Korea, Vietnam, the Middle Eastern Catastrophe - weep for the lost, for the young and old lives lost. For our ignorance of history which is leading us to the loss of our democracy today.
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I look forward to viewing Ken Burn's documentary on the Vietnam War and hope that it will be shown in public schools across the United States of America. Our country must restore the teaching of history and critical thinking in public schools. I am the beneficiary of excellence in public school education. After the Holocaust and WWII many Americans realized that we could not continue to educate as we had in the past and were inspired to do things differently. We as a nation are at a similar juncture - will we accept the challenge?
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Onward. Now onward.
Ninety-year old Vietnamese poet and peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh talks about giving back to the earth with steps of peace.
"Peace in every step.
The shining red sun is my heart.
Each flower smiles with me.
How green, how fresh all that grows.
How cool the wind blows.
Peace is every step.
It turns the endless path to joy."
Ninety-year old Vietnamese poet and peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh talks about giving back to the earth with steps of peace.
"Peace in every step.
The shining red sun is my heart.
Each flower smiles with me.
How green, how fresh all that grows.
How cool the wind blows.
Peace is every step.
It turns the endless path to joy."
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