Vietnam Service

Vietnam Service
Vietnam Service

Saturday, April 30, 2005

VIETNAM REMEMBERANCE

Yesterday marked the 30th anniversary of Saigon's fall and my reaction was one of saddness and memories. I was happy the war was over completely for this nation, but more so for the people of Vietnam what had endured almost 35 straight years of warfare initially with the French and then culminating with the Americans.

There was hope for peace in 1968, but it was also an election year. One of the same gentlemen who launched us into Vietnam initially, Richard M. Nixon, then Vice-President under President Dwight Eisenhower, feared being elected President in 1968 only to lose the war. He did not desire to become in his mind "the only president to lose a war." This wasn't quite true historically, but it was lodged dogmatically into Nixon's psyche forcing him to employ the same type of dirty tricks earlier.

President Johnson had successfully engaged the North Vietnamese in a series of meetings in Paris and was now approaching President Thieu, South Vietnam, to enter the negotiations to find a common basis for peace. Nixon, reacting strongly to this, immediately contacted Anna M. Chennault, wife of former General Clare Chennault of China Flying Tiger flame, and directed her to begin whirlwind negotiations with President Thieu to dissuade him from attending the talks thus prolonging the war. She was to convince Thieu he would get a better deal overall from Nixon after his election that from the democratic challenger, Hubert Humphrey, and would be assured of much. Thieu considered the offer over time and met with Mrs. Chennault several times for reassurance. There is also some speculation Mrs. Chennault traveled to Hanoi as well, but little substantiation can be found for this.

Efforts to dissuade Thieu were successful and the Paris Peace Talks fell through allowing the war to continue. Nixon's actions, as a civilian, were highly illegal and could be construed as acts of treason since private citizens cannot negotiate with foreign heads of state. President Johnson became aware of Nixon's overtures and had Nixon's political career in his hands if he had chosen to make the public aware of it. Further, he could have ordered the Federal Bureau of Investigation to investigate and DOJ to indict the Californian. Yet, for some reason, he chose not to.

The end result was the continuation of the war for 4 more years at a sizeable cost of lives on all sides. In addition, the war was carried over to Cambodia, Laos and Southern China until Congress rebelled at the lies and cost. Outrage in America was enormous and demonstrations resulted in student killings at Kent State and serious injuries at others.

Nixon eventually was impeached, but resigned in lieu of full impeachment in August, 1974. Further, President Gerry Ford pardoned him for any past crimes committed such as command and control of the Watergate breakin; illegally entering Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office; accepting campaign contributions from foreign powers covertly; and a multitude of other crimes which the average citizen is not aware of.

The end result: Nixon went on to "rehabilitate" himself into a elder statesmen of sorts, but many historians, such as myself, were fully aware of his many failures in foreign policy, the area he prided himself on most. Henry Kissinger went back into private business becoming a solicitor and broker for many foreign countries which he refuses to name. Kissinger became a pariah after leaving federal service and is looked upon as the one who really should have been indicted for crimes.

America is still recuperating from the aftereffects of Vietnam. Not only the physical/mental trauma our GIs experienced, but the highly visible war lost us many friends throughout the world. Many gains had been made since 1975, but the Iraq invasion opened up the Vietnam wound again exposing many of the same mistakes and governmental faces appearing again to give questional reassurances and answers.

Most of all, Vietnam was our period in darkness, a Jungian concept, from which we have not truly came back. Our period in darkness frightened this nation almost to the point of utter rebellion. Explosions racked financial institutions, prison rebellions, nearly a million veterans marching on Washington DC and secretive actions to spy among American citizens using the Armed Forces, CIA, and many other groups. It was almost unheard of in our nation, but Nixon unleased the full brunt of it to stymy what he perceived falsely as a potential communist takeover of the government.

It was a very frightening historical period which perhaps even the current one overshadows. You must remember, however, the system worked then and can again regardless of machinations by those within the White House.

Keep a sense of humor and remember the Nixon rally cry among Vietnam Vets in 1972:
Don't change Dicks in the middle of a screw; Vote for Nixon in 72.

On a sadder note, I lost a lot of good friends in Vietnam including some from my home town area. Please bear with me.....Rest in peace Dick Westberg, Harvey Gilbert, Darwin Judge, Darryl Bittner and those who I knew of, but had not the honor of meeting. Give em hell wherever you're at!
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Apparently, one of my cousins read my last blog and brought back a memory for me. During Halloween of my 17th year we were pariticpating in a time honored custom of tipping over outhouses. One was found that was particularly well based and great effort had to be expended. I was on one side pushing with all my might when the house went over quickly causing me to lose my balance thus falling into the deep dark hole of Calcutta. Now understanding, my cousins are wonderful people, but enjoy a good laugh before offering any type of substantial help. In this case, I was in dire need of a rope, nose plugs and probably a good hose job before going to the Caribbean to escape. I was tossed a rope and began my rather crappy trek towards the top, but found very few relativess when arriving.

My smell had preceded me and there was no way a spot was going to be given in their car nor even in the trunk. Consequently, I walk approximately 3 miles to our farm, grabbed some old clothers from an outer building and then plunged into a cold horse tank. Though it helped somewhat, my Grandparents and Mother handed me various items of clothing, vinegar, tomato juice, etc,. while stifling a great amount of laughter. I bathed myself again outside with these fluids and then entered the house to take a nice long hot shower.

The next day found my cousins coming by to touch me--that is to make sure I hadn't melted away during my abortive trip. They really are wonderful people!!
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MY SOLUTION FOR WORLD PEACE: Air drop 7 grandmothers into any belligerent country and I guarantee that leader will do anything to have those fine ladies removed as soon as possible. Its all in Abuelita Power; Grandmother Power-there's no force on earth that can match it.

Thursday, April 28, 2005

THE UNSINKABLE UNSHAKEABLE INITIAL POST

Its only been years in the making and finally the time is here to create the blog. I'm grateful to Blogspot for the opportunity; my producer (Mom now deceased); and for my arse not getting shot off in the military.

There's a great shortage of common sense in this nation right now. Seemingly, most would rather listen to the blatherings of Scott McClellan, Tom DeLay, Ann Coulter, and television commericals rather than question? How did it get to this point you ask? Simplicity and apathy is favored instead of complexity. Wow, was that profound, but how true...

Let me give you an example. I grew up on a farm in Iowa and we were all dependent on the soil for our livelihood. One day our neighbor, Clell, came by to talk with my Grandfather, Jim, about the current state of affairs in their same age span. Their conversations were always animated, colorful and not completely devoid of expletive deletives.

Clell's grandson came driving a tractor pulling a loaded grainwagon with one side seriously listing into our barnyard. The front left tire was breathing the last of a series of gasps and begged of serious attention to the grandson who was more content to wave. Clell yelled in that commanding tone always heard from parental figures combining love with the fear of god. Gaining the youngster's attention, Clell told him to do something about that damn tire which the youth immediate sprung up and set to work.

Our attention was drawn elsewhere, but something nagged at me. Easiest way to reinject lefe into a tire those days was removing a spark plug from the tractor engine and then reinsert a another plug inflation device connected to a hose which, in turn, screwed onto the other tire stem. Sounds complicated, but it was not a difficult process.

Well, the grandson was not asking about location of an inflation device or anything out of the ordinary. He was, instead, walking around letting air out of the other three tires to equalize the wagon. I smiled and wondered to myself.

Clell noticed this, got a big smile on his face, scratched the back of his head and said only he just had to talk to that boy some day.

Seems we are all having difficulty talking with our elected representatives in the White House and Congress. Well, remember this, just gotta talk to them one day!
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Speaking of common sense, there was another time when my age was about 16. It was July 4th and a group of my cousins conviced me to use my car to spread patriotic fervor by tossing firecrackers, et. al., from the windows. Sounded like a good idea to me and all joined in the festivities until the one thing happened.

I was so overcome with patriotism I lit a Silver Salute (comparable to an M-80) and threw the match out the window. Oddly enough, there was a combined deep gasp and you would thought a Sea Captain had yelled the order to abandon ship. I have never seen 5 people evacuate a Chevy so masterfully in my life. Of couse, the fuse was continuing to burn low so it was tossed out the window at the last possible moment and I merrily continued down the road.

I did turn around and slowly picked up the acrobatic cracker tossers who advised me on the lacking characterisitics of my actions and suggested I place another Silver Salute in a certain part of my anatomy. Too painful and I suggested we just go home, drink some cold soda and chill out. Case closed.
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There was another time my cousin Jerry came to visit and he was a really wonderful guy. Now Jeryy had a good mind and would often wonder about some of the things told him. It was good characteristic and of course, we, as wonderful cousins, would never josh him about anything. He was a hard one to pin down until the subject of flatulation was brought up. Now, it was carefully explained to him that flatulent gas was highly inflammable and was collected in certain parts of Europe as a natural fuel. Jerry scoffed at this and mentioned he had never heard such a tall tale before. Natural he was dared to build up flatulence and place flame to the appropriate spot to prove the theory. He did not succumb to our antics until cousin Gary gave him the odious triple dog dare with crossed finger. It was getting dark when Jerry stood with all the resolution of a great athlete, walked out onto the gravel road, dropped his drawers and placed a lighter to that particular spot. The flatulation arrived, the bic was clicked and all we saw was a blue flame racing down the road, into our barnyard and headfirst into the water trough.

Jerry had successfully proven the theory, but walked rather gingerly for the next few days. His mother didn't think much about it, buy Uncle Clyde, Jerry's Dad, gave him some udder salve as a present and encouraged him to use it. Jerry never brought up the subject again, bu he will always be remembered as the blue flame among the lightning bugs on that warm summer evening.
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Words Of Wisdom: He and my Grandmother were married for 61 years. The followiing response was given when she was asked about the secret of their success: "Well, our marriage was a democracy. I would always listen to his opinion, give it some thought; and then tell him my opinion. Then do it my way!"