I can only guess what people who read this may think. Most likely have many different thoughts depending on the type of person and their character, experiences in life and if they actually know about reality, or think everything should be a fairy tale land with unicorns in rainbow colors.

I recently watched a television show where some college girl told a Vietnam veteran that she was doing her thesis on the Vietnam War, how it was an immoral war and asking the veteran how it felt to have the blood of babies, women and children on his hands. It would have been better for her to ask the veteran what it was really like there rather than make assumptions that what she had been told by people who had never been there was true. After all, she was by her own admission doing a thesis on the war, one that she had prejudged without facts. Why do research? That would be hard work. Better to just cherry pick the information or opinions she liked. Another favorite of the pampered college kids was saying how could we support a government in Vietnam that was so corrupt. Try to find a government anywhere that doesn’t have corrupt politicians, often so wide spread it would make the devil proud. Let alone, many of these countries were not facing anything like the problems in Vietnam of the communist north breathing down their neck doing their best to bring the South Vietnamese government crashing down. Is it possible the communists may be responsible for any corruption, real or just perceived?


The thesis that college girl was going to write was going to be a complete sham, yet some professor sympathetic to the communist ideology would give her high praise and the best possible grade even though her research, if there was much, was totally one sided, ignoring any truth or facts. Oh yeah, that one was going to be a huge benefit to society. I don’t know if any war in this world ever had so many falsehoods and outright lies added to its history than that of the Vietnam War. Just look at some of the Hollywood fiction movies put out as what the war was really supposedly like. So much of it was so far off that it’s hard to believe anyone accepted them as real, but that was because of all the lies spread by the media and protesters.

There were more atrocities in WWII than in Vietnam, which was a longer war with younger troops. The atrocities that I am very well aware of is the way the protesters treated Vietnam veterans. Delighted to be filmed for television news reports showing them waving Viet Cong flags and placards claiming the worst lies they could think of about the veterans. Much of the problems with PTSD can be attributed to veterans coming home to a country where the protesters did everything they could to make them feel like unwanted heathens. I hesitate to mention it because some of them still haven’t changed and are proud of it.

It was obvious this girl came from a well to do family, her life was pretty much rainbow colored unicorns or something very similar. A free ride through college on mommy and daddy’s money. Probably had a new car with all the bells and whistles that she said she just had to have. The only problem she may have faced in her life, and it was one that made her so mad, was that daddy hadn’t listened and got the car in the wrong color. That would be enough to make anyone have a temper tantrum.

There were a lot of college kids during the time of the Vietnam War, some maybe weren’t so well off and hadn’t had it so easy but were willingly swept into the mantra that all Vietnam veterans were bloodthirsty killers. They were just in college for the parties and having a good time. The chance to protest the war and make our military men and women feel like they were murdering trash was just a bonus. Many of these kids would graduate from college having attended class only when they had to and managed somehow to squeak by cheating on tests to get grades just high enough to get that diploma. A diploma that would most likely get them a good job even though they had learned very little other than how to score some drugs and find the wildest parties. I bet a lot of employers were very disappointed and wondered what the hell was wrong with our colleges to put out kids who couldn’t read above a sixth grade level.

Once they were over the high of making themselves feel morally superior and intellectually far above those serving in Vietnam, they promptly lost interest in anything to do with the war. Unless the boys were still eligible for the draft and then they would continue on with the protesting and some would run to Canada or where ever to avoid serving their country. Some of them might have given thought, but I bet most didn’t, due to the fact that someone else would have to go in their place. Also, many units in Vietnam were under strength for not being able to get enough men, making it that much harder on those fighting the war. I saw somewhere once that it was something like 16 million young men that had dodged the draft.

Amazingly there are those who consider those kids protesting the war and giving the enemy the support they needed to keep on fighting as heroes for stopping the war. Since our politicians were busy making the war into a stalemate at best, making rules of engagement that guaranteed American deaths and passing the buck for the blame of not winning the war on the troops, there may have been some justice in stopping the war. The only heroes I saw were those who served their country, investing their life, the future of their families, and sometimes making the ultimate sacrifice.

Just imagine, carefully without bias, what may have happened if Americans had shown full support for our troops and winning the war. The only thing else needed was for our politicians to let the military fight the war the way they needed to win it and be willing to pay the price to win. Yes, I believe the war could have been won, if America was wiling to pay that price. Not only in money, but where winning the war could have led, a possible war with Russia or China. Look at Korea and how the Chinese were willing to do more than supply money and weapons but commit combat troops. That’s why America should never enter a war unless they are prepared to go all the way to win it. If we aren’t willing to pay the costs, in blood, money and what the world will think of our country, then it isn’t worth it.

There is an old saying, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. That’s what I think about those college kids and the protesters. A small group that made enough noise to get what they wanted at the expense of so many. They claimed to be so dedicated to trying to end the war and save lives, yet when the war was over, even though more people continued to die after America pulled out of the war, there was not a sound from those dedicated to peace and saving lives, as they had claimed.

If I had to do it all over again, would I go to Vietnam knowing what I do now? Yes, and for the same reasons. Freedom has a price tag. Some get to enjoy it with no cost, but that’s because someone else pays the price. I love my God, my family and my country. Does my country sometimes makes mistakes? Yes, just like any other country. However, America does more to help the world than any other country and America doesn’t take over countries with the intention of taking them over indefinitely. Talk to Russia about that. I could never understand the college students with their claims of American imperialism. If it were true there would be a lot more than 50 states. It would bother me greatly that someone else had to go in my place. Others had no problem with that, at the same time calling Vietnam veterans killers. Well, since someone had to go in their place and they may have died because of it, they should be careful who they call a killer.

What is the future like for Americans and our country? If we continue to accept and make the same mistakes, listening to the self serving liars, we don’t stand a chance.