Posted on Jan 18, 2019
If you served in Viet Nam, have your feelings about US involvement changed or evolved? If so, how? What’s changed for you, or what hasn’t?
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I returned home in 1972. Though I remained in the service, I also reengaged civilian life. I went to college and faced many of the negative pressures that society, in general, exhibited back then towards the country’s military. No one said “Thank You” until 1983. I didn’t visit “The Wall” until 1997. And I did not become anti-involvement until the ousting of Hussein in 1991, became the Southwest Asian outhouse quagmire that it now is today. What a fucking mess that is.
When I think of Viet Nam, I will always think that we bottom-of-the-ladder people did our best and tried to help some of the people a lot of the time. I know today that we were lied to by the highest brass and the top leadership in Washington. Politics and politicians got a lot of good boys killed in Southeast Asia for the sake of politics, and reelection potential, or “to save face.” Goddamn those people to Hell for what they did. I lost several friends in that war, and I will never forgive the people ultimately responsible for their deaths.
Today, it’s Southwest Asia, and we are engaged in another, mainly, political quagmire. Thousands more American men and, this time around, several women have been killed, and for what? Are we any closer to an end, political or military? I don’t know whom to believe, whom to trust? I know one thing about these two conflicts that is uncannily alike: our enemy in Viet Nam dressed and looked just like those we were trying to help. In Southwest Asia, the exact same issue has gotten more American lives lost in similar fashion.
Like a lot teenagers in their day, I, too, had all the answers when I was eighteen. Today, staring my seventies in the face, I realize I’ve never been as smart as I’ve been just opinionated.
Back to the point, have you changed your thoughts about or your opinions of your service in Viet Nam?
When I think of Viet Nam, I will always think that we bottom-of-the-ladder people did our best and tried to help some of the people a lot of the time. I know today that we were lied to by the highest brass and the top leadership in Washington. Politics and politicians got a lot of good boys killed in Southeast Asia for the sake of politics, and reelection potential, or “to save face.” Goddamn those people to Hell for what they did. I lost several friends in that war, and I will never forgive the people ultimately responsible for their deaths.
Today, it’s Southwest Asia, and we are engaged in another, mainly, political quagmire. Thousands more American men and, this time around, several women have been killed, and for what? Are we any closer to an end, political or military? I don’t know whom to believe, whom to trust? I know one thing about these two conflicts that is uncannily alike: our enemy in Viet Nam dressed and looked just like those we were trying to help. In Southwest Asia, the exact same issue has gotten more American lives lost in similar fashion.
Like a lot teenagers in their day, I, too, had all the answers when I was eighteen. Today, staring my seventies in the face, I realize I’ve never been as smart as I’ve been just opinionated.
Back to the point, have you changed your thoughts about or your opinions of your service in Viet Nam?
Posted in these groups: 
Vietnam War
Selective Service (the Draft)
Military HistoryVietnam Veterans of America
Vietnam War Selective Service (the Draft) Military HistoryVietnam Veterans of America
Edited 6 y ago
Posted 6 y ago
Responses: 19
SCPO (Join to see) I believed that aiding South Vietnam was a just cause, and still feel that way. My feelings of serving have not changed, as I am proud of serving my country. I came back from Vietnam in 1970 to a country that I did not recognize. My best friend was killed the day after I left country, so I was not in a good frame of mind to have to be confronted by maggots at LAX. To this day, I still have the same feelings about protestors. I fault our government for abandoning South Vietnam. In addition to American deaths, our government was responsible for the South Vietnamese that were killed in re-education camps.
If we are going to war, let the military do the job without meddling from our government.
https://thevietnamwar.info/vietnamese-re-education-camps/
If we are going to war, let the military do the job without meddling from our government.
https://thevietnamwar.info/vietnamese-re-education-camps/
Vietnamese Re-education Camps - The Vietnam War
Following the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975, Vietnamese Communist government began to open hundreds of “re-education” camps throughout the country. Those camps, as Hanoi officially claimed, were places where individuals could “learn about the ways of the new government” through education and socially constructive labor. In 1975, it was estimated that around 1 … Continue reading Vietnamese Re-education Camps
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Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen
CPT Jack Durish Sad that the term Communism has faded from use. Countries like China and Russia still have the same goals but now its called spreading influence or some similar balderdash. I sometimes think the whole political mess we have in our country now started when Republicans no longer had their staunch stopping the spread of Communism goal.
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SSgt Terry P.
Sgt (Join to see) Excellent statement,Ted,i am in complete agreement. I also returned in !970 to a situation i couldn't phantom.
Semper Fi
Semper Fi
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It saddens me when I hear or read Vietnam Vets complaining that our war was a political sham or that we lost. They've bought into the excuses invented by those who simply feared going to war. All Vietnam Vets should be proud of their service, their sacrifices, and their accomplishments. They shouldn't buy into the propaganda that is still oft repeated today.
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Sgt (Join to see)
CPT Jack Durish Well said. I have had more than one discussion with folks that say we lost the war. The bombing was hurting North Vietnam, but our government sold us out by giving up. I am proud of my service, and would do it again.
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SCPO (Join to see)
I am proud of my service there, Jack. I am not a fan of the LBJ and/or RMN administrations, nor a few 4-stars who ran the show over there.
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SFC William Farrell
Sgt (Join to see) - WE DID NOT LOSE Ted. The politicians and the American public lost that war, not us soldiers.
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I served in Vietnam during the early years 1966-67 ,My feelings on US involvement haven’t changed,my feelings about the Government have ,the misuse of the Military in these endless wars in the Mideast,the constant failure of the VA system to treat our Veterans,what’s changed for me is the American public’s favorable view of the current Service members ,what hasn’t is the honor and pride I have for the people that served in Vietnam,Welcome Home Brothers.
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CPT Jack Durish
The government that sent us to Vietnam was no paragon of virtue, that's for damn sure. But it was a helluva lot better than the ones that bungled the Middle East, beginning with President Carter
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