Dripping Life

Today, with all of our focus on the Middle East, most people forget the formative effect the Vietnam War had on our country, our politics, and our culture. Many young people are only dimly aware of the conflict, and what they know comes mostly through movies or the popular culture. With that in mind, I thought I would share some basic information of the war, and some of my personal thoughts.

When:1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975 (The Fall of Saigon)

Where:Vietnam, Cambodia & Laos 

Who: The Communist government of North Vietnam vs. South Vietnam & the United States, its principal ally.

Why:To fulfill President Eisenhower’s promise to offer comfort and support of Vietnam by the U.S. The war in Vietnam also was fought to stem the spread of Communism into the rest of the world.

How Much:The U.S. Department of Defense reported spending in Vietnam totaled $168 billion (More than $950 billion in today’s money), and according to the Indochina Newsletter of the Asia Resource Center, the U.S. spent anywhere from $350 billion to $900 billion in total, including veteran’s benefits and interest.

Casualties:As of 12 October 2018:

• 58,318 KIA or non-combat deaths (including the missing and deaths in captivity) PTSD has claimed other lives as well.

• According to a Veterans Administration survey, some 500,000 of the 3 million American troops sent to Vietnam suffered from PTSD.

• 153,303 WIA (excluding 150,332 persons not requiring hospital care) 

• 1,592 MIA (originally 2,646) 

• 766–778 POW (652–662 freed/escaped* and 114–116 died in captivity) 

Note: *One escapee died of wounds sustained during his rescue 15 days later. 

During the Vietnam War, 30 percent of wounded service members died of their wounds. 30-35 percent of American deaths in the war were non-combat or friendly fire deaths; the largest causes of death in the U.S. armed forces were small arms fire (31.8 percent), booby traps including mines and frags (27.4 percent), and aircraft crashes (14.7 percent).

The Draft and the War with Vietnam: Most U.S. soldiers drafted for the war in Vietnam were from poor and working-class families – the least politically-powerful. American forces in Vietnam were made up of 25 percent poor, 55 percent working class and 20 percent middle-class men, but few were from affluent families. Many U.S. soldiers in Vietnam came from rural America.

Even though the draft was abolished in 1973, after going to a lottery-style of selection, men of draft age (18-25) still have to register with the Selective Service System within 30 days of their 18th birthday, so a draft can be readily and easily resumed, if needed.

Vietnamese Refugees: Under the Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act passed in 1975, an aggregate of $450 million was spent on this initiative. More than a million refugees found asylum in the U.S.

My Memories of War:They say, “Timing is everything.” In my own experience, there is more than a modicum of truth in this idea. Like most high school students, I must have been in my own little coma about the war in Vietnam although we saw reports from the war zone on the nightly news. School and social life were total distractions. Then, getting into the college of my choosing. Then making the transition from high school to life at college, so not until I saw a high school friend at the airport in the fall of 1965, did I learn about the casualties of war from our graduating class. 

That got my attention…at the beginning of my sophomore year in college. Early that semester, I was playing bridge in the student union when a guy sat down with his coffee. Strange, he had a saucer under his cup. Nobody used a saucer. But then I noticed his hand shaking every time he took a sip, sloshing a little of his coffee into the saucer. Later, someone told me, “He’s just back from Vietnam. It’s bad over there.”

I wrote to my cousin, Walter. He sometimes included pictures of him and his buddies and the interior of their “hooch” – what they called their rustic lodgings. The walls and ceilings were decorated with pictures of pin-ups –mostly Playboy centerfolds. He made it back alive, but he was never the same. 

As a college student, the infrequent newspapers I saw carried photos of protesters, carrying signs, damning or pleading with the government to stop the war.

This was the era of “make love, not war,” but there were few demonstrations on the campus of the church-sponsored university I attended. I, honestly, didn’t know enough to have a strong opinion…until I saw newspaper photographs of people burning and trampling the American flag. That, once again, captured my attention as did the memorial list read at my 10th high school reunion, when I heard the names of so many great kids I had known in school…now dead. Others, critically wounded.

From that long-ago weekend to now, I’ve tried to educate myself about the war in Vietnam, the politicians who could have ended the war sooner – and didn’t and impact of the war that continues to emerge around me and my generation.

I also have friends, immigrants from Vietnam, who have been kind enough to share their wartime experiences, like not knowing exactly the birthdate of their son because the chaos of war dictated other priorities. They were “boat people,” who escaped the communists and spent two hard years, getting to America…and from them, I’ve learned to never take our freedoms and the price paid for those freedoms for granted.

To the boys and men who fought for us and to the families of those who died for us, I can only say, “Thank you for giving of yourselves to sustain the wonderful quality of life we all enjoy today. We are blessed to live and work among you and truly appreciate your sacrifice to save our democracy. We will always be grateful.