Vietnam Portfolio / Protest — E. Kenneth Hoffman
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Former Vietcong talks about her love for Uncle Ho
Comments left at the original Vietnam Interactive Portfolio blog 1995-2004
Thanks from the next generation
The 58,000 killed in action, to the hundreds of thousands who served and those who were wounded: all honor to their names. I was in diapers for part of the war, but the respect and thanks I feel toward Vietnam veterans can not be put into words. I have bitterness for many of the protesters who, when the draft calls dwindled in the early 1970’s, suddenly disappeared and forgot about the war. I feel many claimed that the war was immoral, but actually just did not feel like going. Many just cared about themselves, not morality. I feel America had a contract with those who fought: serve your country and the country will serve you. But the contract was broken. Wounded veterans returned from Vietnam and saw those who stayed had advanced in their jobs, had cars and houses. They could brag about their actions, while many veterans were forced to feel ashamed. I have noticed times have changed for the better and I am glad.
Agreement
I must say I agree with the protests. The armed forces never should have gone and should have been returned to their families. They were treated badly when they arrived home. I have heard the stories from my family and my family’s friends. If I would have been in that era, I too would have been in the streets, at the capital, and anywhere else I could have gone to protest the safety and the return of our troops.
Hi Kelly
Thanks to you and those Vietnam war protesters that had helped stop the war. Thanks to you that hundreds of thousands of south Vietnamese boat people(600,000 estimated by UNHCR) had died on the open sea trying to escape from their beloved land since the collapse of Saigon(1975). Thanks to you that thousands of south Vietnamese officers have been vanishing from the concentration camps in the jungles. Thanks to you that the boat people–were once fought bravely along side with your countrymen against the communists–are being sent (against their will) back to the communist paradise….I’ve heard some people like you saying that The US has nothing to do with VN, so why send troops there!!?? why die for those people !!??…Sounds logical…but people never impose this same question to other countries: Tell me Kelly, What does the US have to do with Thailand, Singapore, Philippines, Korea, Japan, U.K, Germany…etc..?? Why is that VN a special case??!!! Kelly, go take the streets, go to the capital to protest the safety and the return of your troops from Korea, Thailand, Japan, Singapore, U.K, Germany …(you got the idea) because you know that your troops are not on vacation in those countries. If war breaks out, they just die just like they did in VN. I was born, grew up and lived through the war. I’m myself also a boat person who left behind all the loved ones to find a place to live. I knowwhatitistobealoserinawar. Iknowwhatitisto be betrayed by your friends who sell you out to the enemy. To you Americans, the war was over and that your troops went home safely, but to us the South Vietnamese people, the war is still here with us and back home in Vietnam. We haven’t stopped fighting yet for a Vietnamwithfreedomanddemocracy. AndI’mproudof those who served as well as who died in Vietnam. God bless America.
Teen-age rebellion, without understanding the damage!
I am now 46 years, married to a Vietnam vet suffering from PTSD. As I look back at my involvement in the anti-war movement, one reality strikes me. That I used the whole “give peace a chance” mindset as nothing more than a platform to be different from the older generation, it was basically a game, a part to act out. A means of teen-age rebellion. I really never gave that much thought to our young men battling in the jungles of Vietnam. In spite of the fact that we were supposedly desiring social change, what we were really doing was trying to grow up in an era of unrest and uncertainty, during an age where the values and morals of our parents and grandparents were being rejected. Perhaps many of the young people really understood what they were protesting, I did not!
To all of you who fought for what was noble {the belief that you were protecting your homeland and freedom} I thank-you, it will never be enough, it will always be too late, but I thank-you!
Re: T een-age rebellion, without understanding the damage!
As a Vietnam vet suffering form PTSD, I want to thank you for your thoughtful comments on your own experience with protest, and I want you to know that I undertook a similar soul-searching journey to try and understand. I appreciate your candor and your compassion.
I would have voted for Uncle Ho
I would have voted for Ho Chi Minh. I was Viet Cong. I wanted my country together. When the peace was made at Geneva in 1954 it was promised that fair elections would be held and my country would be unified. This did not happen because of the United States intervention. I grew up resenting the United States…I now live in America…Only now since the Soviet union has collapsed can American officials look back and say “the Viet Nam War was a mistake.” I have heard the Viet Cong referred to as “dickless bastards” and “f–king slant eyes.” After the war by people who did not realize I was one of them (of course one half of the first insult is true; I am female). The resentment is still there. Let me say this : I fought for a noble cause. The methods of the Viet Cong may have been unsavory at times, but so were the methods of the Republicans and the Americans (Need I mention My Lai?). I have killed, yet I could just as easily have been killed. To say that either side was inherently good or evil is wrong. We both did what we felt necessary at the time…For many people in Viet Nam and in the United States the war continues every day of their lives. It is fought with their minds and with their hearts. Let us end it. Now. Until this can happen our whole country is a Prisoner of War, a victim. It is time for us to stop being the victims and become the victors.