The following post is the first blog entry I ever made on another blog I had started before setting up shop here. I am reposting it because of it's relation to an email I received and will post next.
I was twelve in 1969. My uncles and a much older brother had tattoos. They were admirable men who served from the Pacific to Korea and Vietnam and came home to drink beer and work as steel workers, plumbers and businessmen. They were my heroes, somewhat mystical, a cross between John Wayne and my Father and I loved and respected them for who they were and for what they had accomplished. But something went horribly wrong somewhere and I lost a part of them and, consequently, a part of me ... for a time.
A precocious child, I already watched the news at 10 yrs of age - 1967, for perspective. War stopped being about tattoos and far away islands. It took on the color of body bags and was discussed in the context of body counts, illegal incursions, massacres and atrocities. I could have dealt with that, in fact, I did. Looking back, I see nothing wrong with any of us coming to understand that war is not romantic, it is brutal; more than adventurous, it is deadly. But I do see harm in discovering such things without possessing the maturity and understanding to know that unfortunately war is also, at times, necessary. That said, for this first entry I want to leave the 60's and the war behind and talk about something currently more important: the 70's and veterans.
Looking back, I believe the left, and, yes, John Kerry abhorred war. That's an honorable position. But to invalidate war they did more than condemn war, they also condemned those who should be America's most beloved sons (and uncles and brothers btw) - our veterans. In doing so, they devastated a proud piece of American culture and history, justifying any means to affect an end to a war with which they disagreed. That was not and is not a defensible action. And it is why the SwiftVet controversy must stay in the limelight during this year's presidential campaign season.
I salute John McCain and am truly glad as I believe he has found his peace with Vietnam. Given his experience, I don't know as I could have. In my mind, that he has done that only adds to the nobility of character the man must possess for enduring so much. But it is not his province to assume that the nation has reached the same peace with Vietnam and its veterans as he. That simply isn't the case. The fact is because of what we came to think and believe in the 70's, in part at least because of John Kerry and his allies, the Vietnam Veteran still suffers irreparably in society today.
Can anyone in non-military sectors honestly say that they haven't seen or heard reference to a Vietnam vet or vets as wide-eyed baby killers, long-haired and slovenly, off living in a remote location as a result of their inability to mainstream back into society. It's a caricature, a stereotype, for sure, but denying its continued existence in our nation's subconscious doesn't make it untrue. The fact is the country has never really, with depth of heart, re-embraced our noble sons who carried the flag in Vietnam. And, ultimately, our now doing that is the one good and important thing that can come from the current Swiftvet controversy. I think it needs to happen. I think it would be just.
Were Kerry a true leader and not just a pocket full of ambition, he may be the one man, today, who could really make that happen in a true and expedient manner. Were there atrocities in Vietnam? Most certainly there were. With a now mature perspective, I doubt that there has ever been any war, nor will there ever be one wherein atrocities have not or will not be committed: Abu Ghraib only confirms that. Thank God the left has as yet not been able to get Abu Ghraib to fully characterize the current war, which they would surely do if they could. Thereby repeating the sins of the Vietnam anti-war movement.
War is, by nature, atrocious. But, as I said, it is also all too often necessary. We can mourn that, we can hate it, but if we once again omit its necessity in discussion of its costs and even crimes, we would doom ourselves to the weakness and inability to act in our national interests we experienced in the mid to late seventies.
What I mean to say is that Kerry needs to own the manipulation he was party to in the 70's and acknowledge that, as a whole, Vietnam Veterans were not baby killers and madmen - they were soldiers and they acted as nobly and honorably as any soldiers have in any war at any time in history. Until he does that he is not a leader but only a continual manipulator.
John Kerry and the left threw the babies out with the bath water in the early seventies to get us out of Vietnam. Those babies were America's children, her favorite sons. Because of his leading role in the anti-war movement and the cultural catastrophe his very words in testimony effected, the burden is on John Kerry’s shoulders to stand up and finally put things right. It is that one act that would elevate him to statesman. I fear it only because I don’t think he’s truly got that depth of character. I’d likely question his true motivations at this late point in time. Of course, his campaign advisors will never agree anyway. So, while it may well be the one thing he could do to get himself elected, it is likely the one thing he will never do - a bit Shakespearean is it not?
The left didn’t get it in the 70’s, they don’t get it now – and they won’t get the Presidency in November as a result. I’m just glad that I grew enough to come to fully understand what I saw on the nightly news every night as a child – its ugliness, as well as its necessity. It’s that perspective that ultimately gave me my heroes, my Uncles and my brother back. Yet, I still mourn the heroes, be they uncles, fathers, brothers, or children who everyday walk among us – too many as yet, I fear unclaimed and misunderstood.
Kerry went to Vietnam in the eighties, I believe, to “Bring Them Home.” We need to call on him today to stand up in America and, with a pure heart, do the very same by taking responsibility for his treasonous acts upon returning from Vietnam. Shame on him if he can’t or won’t. And “Unfit For Command,” would certainly apply.
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