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Why are we refighting Vietnam?

By MICHAEL BOYLAN

If you turn on the news at night and attempt to follow the 2004 campaign for president, you’d think it was the late 1960s or early 1970s again. All the talk is about Vietnam, Vietnam, Vietnam.

The Vietnam War is over, right? We ended up leaving the country and “being done” with it around 1975. There was no decisive victory and even if America had “won,” we would have lost. If you don’t believe me there’s a wall in Washington, D.C. you should check out.

Thousands upon thousands of young men and women died or were captured and held as prisoners of war in Vietnam. If they were lucky to make it back to the states alive, they still have scars, both mental and physical. These scars will be with them forever.

Vietnam was a terrible war (most are) and there was really no good reason to be there or as heavily involved as we were. What started as a police action ended up being a quagmire that we couldn’t find our way out of.

Soldiers went over to fight, either because they believed in our country and the reasons for having to be at war, or they were drafted, which meant they went and fought whether they believed in the war or not.

Some of those soldiers fought on one or more tours of duty and when they came back they spoke out against the war, which is their right.

Maybe they spoke out against it because they saw no reason for U.S. soldiers to be there and give their lives and maybe they spoke out against atrocities they witnessed.

Atrocities did occur in Vietnam. It was called the My Lai Massacre, not the My Lai tea party.

In any case, the war is over. Yet, it appears that Vietnam and service in Vietnam is the most pressing issue affecting America today. It is apparently much more important than homeland security, health care, the economy or education. It is almost as important as gay marriage.

John Kerry is running for president and, like every presidential candidate who has ever served in the military, he cites his military record.

Kerry served two tours in the Vietnam War; first on the USS Gridley starting in February 1968 and then on a swift boat starting in November of 1968. That is longer than four months, despite what is being paraded out by conservative pundits on talk radio or Fox News.

But who cares? It was 36 years ago. It has little bearing on life today. Other than looking at it and saying, “Yep, he served, volunteered to serve and, according to medals and commendations, served admirably,” there is no point in dragging this out over and over again.

Bob Dole has gotten in on the act recently, appearing on CNN’s Late Edition “One day he’s saying that we were shooting civilians, cutting off their ears, cutting off their heads, throwing away his medals or his ribbons,” Dole said of Kerry. “The next day he’s standing there, ‘I want to be president because I’m a Vietnam veteran.”

O.K., first off, it wasn’t one day and then the next day. There was over 30 years between those days. If you are older than 30, I’ll bet you could say that you are a lot different now than you were 30 years ago. Kerry has said that he would soften the language he used on “Meet the Press” so many years ago.

Now the two camps are debating whether or not the Bush campaign is financing or supporting the Swift Boat Veteran ads that attack Kerry. Bush and his people state they are proud of Kerry’s service and would never use smear tactics about his service.

Yet, in 2000, rumors circulated around John McCain during his campaign that time spent as a POW made him crazy.

I guess it’s O.K. to have people who support you throw mud as long as your hands stay clean. It goes both ways though. Politics is filthy all around. The question is whether or not the people in charge know, support and finance the mud slinging and those answers, especially about Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, have yet to come in.

Some people who served on other swift boats refute Kerry’s claims of taking fire, but they weren’t on his boat and one of the critics received a medal for events on the same day and the same location, with a citation saying he took fire as well.

A doctor says one of Kerry’s wounds that earned him a purple heart was not deserving of a purple heart, yet the doctor’s name is not on any of Kerry’s military medical records. With having to treat serious wounds and fatalities day in and day out, how can one honestly remember someone with a superficial wound?

Most, if not all of Kerry’s military records have been made available to the press too, unlike President Bush’s military records, which earlier this summer were “inadvertently destroyed.” As the Church Lady would say, “How convenient.”

But Bush’s military record doesn’t matter that much either. Today is today. It is 2004, not 1969. There aren’t even any hippies anymore. They are all getting jobs now that Phish broke up.

Americans need to look at the issues affecting America today. Is the economy really “turning a corner?” Does the current administration have a good plan to get Iraq on its feet and get us out of there? Do they have a good idea on how to make us safer from terrorism? Is Bush truly a uniter and will he work to get our allies back?

Vietnam was a disaster and I feel really bad for people who fought over there and even worse for people who lost loved ones over there.

If we are to take any lesson from Vietnam though, it’s that the U.S. should truly weigh all options before taking any military action and there should always be a good exit strategy.

Those lessons would have come in handy for our current war.