by bbontemps » Mon Apr 04, 2016 10:12 am
A great read for a Monday morning. As an addition to "The Uniform and the Garbage Can" in this memoir, here is an article I clipped from our local newspaper years ago. I've always kept a copy close at hand.
"TO A VIETNAM VET"
You've been on my mind a lot lately. Whenever I see the heroes' welcome our gulf troops are receiving, I cringe a little, wondering how all this is affecting you. Don't get me wrong - they deserve it! But so did you! I know that you, too, were surely hugged by your loved ones as you came back. But television crews? Bands and banners? Flags and yellow ribbons?
While I did come to be against the war in Vietnam, I was never against the troops. My disgust was against the powers-that-be who kept sending you there. My objection was to the commitment of more and more of you in a war that was never declared.
Know this: You're a hero, too!
Please don't be bitter about that time we were so ignorant. One reason we're behind the troops to such an extent now is the realization of how we treated you. We made an awful mistake. We're more sorry that we can say. Can you forgive us?