With Memorial Day ap proaching, I am recalling a visit to Viet Nam last fall on which two U.S. Navy veterans of the war in Viet Nam were among my companions. As we visited city and countryside, we met Vietnamese veterans on street corners and in rice fields. Amazingly, bygones seemed to be bygones among veterans on both sides. Though the war is keenly remembered — particularly by those who have been affected by the Agent Orange that we dropped in the war — stoic acceptance appeared to be the norm.
In the nearly 10 years that one Island war memorial has been mothballed in the artist’s backyard, tens of thousands of American soldiers have been killed or wounded in controversial wars being fought far away. Veterans hospitals have been overrun, new names have been given to the traumas of those returning from foreign fronts, protest groups have formed, a President was elected promising to bring troops home, promising hope and healing. And still the memorial has stayed away from the Vineyard public.
Having been a female reporter in Vietnam, Denby Fawcett said, "We belong to an exclusive club that can accept no new members.
It’s been more than a generation since this country sent its soldiers to battle in the jungles of a small country called Vietnam, and there are m
Nothing was simple about the war in Viet Nam.
They came nearly 20-strong out of the gathering dusk of Tuesday evening and into the American Legion Hall in Edgartown.