SwiftVets.com

[LewWaters]

1. I know something that a lot of people wonder, or want to comment
on, is how they were treated when they came home.

I didn’t receive much of the treatment several of my brothers did, never was physically spit on. However, I have had several refer to me a warmonger, baby killer, murderer and such. I’ve also had many WW2 vets waste no time letting me know I wasn’t a real veteran, that Viet Nam wasn’t even a war and that most of us were nothing more than support troops. Funny, even those most of my time was spent in Helicopter Maintenance, “Charlie” didn’t seem to make that distinction during rocket, mortar or sapper attacks.

2. What do they think of "The Wall" in Wash, DC?

I’ve never visited the wall yet; I have mixed emotions about it. I did visit a mini-wall in Olympia Washington several years ago and had to walk away. I can’t explain it, I just felt odd and seeing the names made me feel like they were wasted lives, since our country forced us to tuck tail and run from a war we had actually won in 1968.

3. Did you ever see atrocities when you were serving in VN?

No.

4. Do you think that we should have been involved there?

Yes. Communism is a horrible system that oppresses its citizens. Witness to that are the killing fields of Cambodia and the boat people of the 70’s that risked their lives and actually lost several in their attempts to flee.

Colonel Bui Tin, the ranking officer that accepted the surrender of Saigon in 1975 also can attest to it. He became so disillusioned with Vietnamese Communism he defected and now lives in Paris France, where he has spoken out against the Communists and even the American anti-war left.

5. Why do you think we didn't win that war?

Like I pointed out above and in the words of General Vo Nuygen Giap, Commanding General of the North Vietnamese Army and Colonel Bui Tin both have written that the anti-war left in America were essential to their victory. After his defeat in the Tet of 68 Offensive, Giap was ready to negotiate surrender, but saw the build up of the anti-war crowds and saw them as our weak link. After that, he just hung on, regardless of lives lost, and fed the anti-war crowd. This includes people like John F. Kerry and Hanoi Jane Fonda as well as several others.

6. How did the anti-war/anti-military movement make you feel as you
served?

While I appreciate the right to dissent and freely express your opinion, they made me feel as if I were risking my life for nothing. Even the most educated among them were totally ignorant as to what was really happening in Viet Nam and why we were actually there.

7. I don't know that I would ask them if they thought we should have
been there, because I think you'll get as many answers as there
are soldiers. (I'm posting the question anyway)

As far as I’m concerned, yes! President Kennedy vowed we would pay any price to help preserve freedom around the world. We are the only nation willing to stand up and do what’s right, then and today as well.

8. I'd probably ask them if they see any parallels between the Vietnam
War and the War in Iraq,

The main parallels I see are the lefts misreporting of it and their endless misrepresentations in their effort to allow people to remain enslaved to a brutal dictator.

9. What they think about how the current situation is being handled.

There is no such thing as perfectly handled war. 20/20 hindsight is always illuminating and things could always have been handled better. Even WW2, one that even the left brags about, was nearly a fiasco that easily could have gone the other way, had the troops given up and retreated, as they made us do in Viet Nam.

Given that, I think the guys and girls on the ground are doing fantastic. As wars go, the deaths have been relatively small; we lost many, many more on D-Day alone in WW2.
_________________
Clark County Conservative

[Stevie]

Navy Wife,
I remember the name Letson from posts here / Kerry. I'll check that out.
Think I'm gonna have to make me a 'Swiftboat Vet and POW' scrapbook.
That's probably one of my better ideas lately.... so much info (and pic of Lew!) to put in it and pass down to my grandkids, etc.

gee ya'll, I can't believe this post ended up on p 3! guess so much going
on this past week - with JF and Kerry spouting off etc !

jump in you Vets and respond to the questions a few posts back.....
and I'll post 'em over at the site the girls are at. Some of those 'girls' came up with some good questions. I could tell they put some thought into them.
lots of civilians over there waiting to read the answers.... the site gets thousands of posters/lurkers a day. been a few hot threads about Fonda and the spitting incident.

I'm gonna have to be here alot the next few days catching up on pages 1-3 !

thanks for the responses Lew!
_________________
Stevie
Congressmen who willfully take actions during wartime that damage
morale and undermine the military are saboteurs and should
be arrested, exiled or hanged.

[Essayons]

1.I know something that a lot of people wonder, or want to comment on, is how they were treated when they came home.

The first 20 or so years I buried my Vietnam service. There were minor incidents that amounted to nothing other than me realizing that Vietnam service was a taboo subject during polite conversation. Of course the press was having a field day reporting on massive protests, My Lai and Kent State. John Kerry was bringing the Senate up to date about soldiers in Vietnam committing atrocities on a daily basis – including him. And who can forget Hanoi Jane. It was not until the early Hollywood films about Vietnam, most of which were ridiculously inaccurate, did I start to speak out. Dan Rather’s totally bogus TV segment “The Wall Within” in 1988 and the CNN “Tailwind’ episode finally got me over my “shy” period. I had served honorably and came home to stone silence and a press and TV that painted a black picture of me and my fellow vets – we were losers, pot heads, homeless bums, baby killers, deranged killing machines – thanks a lot. No longer would I be silent when someone spouted the old lies about us.

2. What do they think of "The Wall" in Wash, DC?

It is very personal. Possibly the following will help explain. About a year ago I I had a personal issue that was bothering me and I chose to visit the Wall to see some friends. Whether it was visiting the Wall or just the hours of driving, I do not know but things worked themselves out in my mind.

3. Did you ever see atrocities when you were serving in VN?

Yes, I saw the results of one atrocity. For a short period of time we would move through a village to get to/from one of the Fire Support Bases. A young (pre teen) girl would talk with us as we passed through as kids would often do. We gave them food and candy which they seemed to appreciate. One day, as we again passed through the village, she was off in the distance on crutches missing the lower part of her one leg. We later learned that she was the daughter of the village chief. Evidently her father was not as cooperative as the VC wanted him to be so they cut his daughter’s leg off.

4. Do you think that we should have been involved there?

Yes. The South Vietnamese were about to be over taken by the VC who were supplied arms by the Chinese through the North Vietnam. We were a member of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) which guaranteed protection to the member nations which included South Vietnam. The War Powers Act in 1964 gave President Johnson the power to go to war as he saw fit. Congress gave him that power. The Gulf of Tonkin incident (real or not) was not needed for Johnson to deploy troops to South Vietnam. It was another proxy war just like Korea where either China or the Soviet Union (or both as was the case in Vietnam) was attempting to expand communism by taking over third world countries by proxy. The domino theory at the time predicted the loss to communism of Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia should South Vietnam fall to communism. Only Thailand and Malaysia remained non-communist.

5. Why do you think we didn't win that war?

Because we weren’t there in April 1975 when Saigon fell. All US ground combat troops had departed Vietnam in March 1973. By act of Congress, all US air support ceased in 1974 as did our supplying the South Vietnamese with war materiel. By late 1974 our US Congress had totally pulled the plug on South Vietnam. We abandoned them unlike China and the Soviet Union that continued to supply North Vietnam.

6. How did the anti-war/anti-military movement make you feel as you served?

Sick to my stomach. I would suspect that most protestors fit in one of three categories and two of the three have nothing to do with the Vietnam War. It is best that I not define the categories.

I would ask the question of where were the protestors when the communists were reeducating and killing the South Vietnamese post 4/1975? The Laotians? The Cambodians?

7. I don't know that I would ask them if they thought we should have been there, because I think you'll get as many answers as there are soldiers. (I'm posting the question anyway)

This question is redundant. See #4 above.

8. I'd probably ask them if they see any parallels between the Vietnam War and the War in Iraq,

There is absolutely no comparison. I would ask the person who forwarded it why they proposed it as a question?

9. what they think about how the current situation is being handled.

What happened in Iraq 1/30/2005? What did Libya recently renounce? Why have the Syrians recently pulled out of Lebanon? Did I hear that the Saudi’s and Egyptian’s recently held elections –just for show but why bother unless they were feeling some pressure?

Regards,
Dick
_________________
Essayons - Let us try - the code of the Army Engineer. Sappers First, the code of the Combat Engineer.

[rbshirley]

[Essayons]

Stevie,

I have been mulling over in my mind about asking some questions of your “young liberal females” on the board you visit.

Based on my personal experience of the many people I talk with, they always have a story about a Vietnam vet they knew and almost universally that vet is a nut case. They become flabbergasted when they learn I served in Vietnam and will usually add “but you weren’t in combat were you?” as though my seeming normalcy is counter to their perception of a Vietnam combat veteran.

Also, I find that almost all have no real understanding about the Vietnam War. Most believe we vets (US military) lost the war. The myths and sometimes outright lies that the newspapers, TV and Hollywood have perpetrated on us is inexcusable. But it is the foundation of their beliefs.

While I am not an erudite college professor – many of whom don’t have a clue but none the less continue to spout the old lies and myths about us – I am willing to take on anyone who has the opinion that Vietnam was the wrong war, that we vets lost the war, that we were baby killers… Well you get the idea.

So here goes:

1. What is your perception of Vietnam vets? How did you arrive at this conclusion?
2. What do you know about the Vietnam War. Where did you get this information?
3. What do think about Vietnam era Draft Dodgers? What do you think about WW II Draft Dodgers? Why?
4. What is your opinion of the Vietnam War protestors? Why?
5. Do you believe that President Carter was correct in giving full amnesty to Vietnam era Draft Dodgers? Why?
6. What is your opinion about John Kerry’s 1971 presentation to the US Senate that atrocities were committed on a daily basis by Vietnam vets with full knowledge of their superiors? What is the basis for his accusations? Did he include himself as committing atrocities?
7. What is your opinion of Jane Fonda’s trip to North Vietnam in 1972? Did she lie about the condition of our prisoners of war then being held in North Vietnam?
8. What is your opinion about the current US actions in Afghanistan, Iraq and its effect on the other countries in SW Asia?

Well, that’s about all for now.

Regards,
Dick
_________________
Essayons - Let us try - the code of the Army Engineer. Sappers First, the code of the Combat Engineer.

[Stevie]

Dick,
What a great idea!!!!
Turn abouts fair play, right?
I LOOOVE it!
I'm gonna post it over there tonight!
I've been having a bit of a problem there (and here) tonight,
but hopefully, I'll be able to get it posted there yet tonight.

and yep, I'll copy over the q & a to here - well, think
I'll start a new thread for their answers!
so watch for it! I'll give 'em a few days, as sometimes
( a lot of young moms over there) are busier on the
weekends (kids home from school) so I'll want
to give them into at least Tuesday.
If ANY of these young people can hear a smidgen of
truth about Vietnam thru the Vets here, I'll be a happy
person! They are also influencing their kids - so it'll
just keep going with the untruth otherwise.
_________________
Stevie
Congressmen who willfully take actions during wartime that damage
morale and undermine the military are saboteurs and should
be arrested, exiled or hanged.

[Navy wife]

I want to thank Bob Shirley for posting those incredible photos of the sites where Dr. Louis Letson was stationed! They really made the story real in my view!!

We have all been focused on what happened to our vets upon their return and those memories are very important. Also-- I would dearly love to hear some of their memories of the actions they were involved in--including good things that happened like Dr. Letson described.

Perhaps some of you were involved in the actions written up in the spot reports or daily summaries that we posted on www.Swiftboatarchives.com. To see if your boat was included, click on "Archives list" and scroll down until you see a date when you were there. Then click on the record and you can pull it up. The records are arranged by timeperiod, not topic for the most part although I noticed that many titles that were words are interspersed with the numerical titles!

Read the documents that pertain to your service and post your recollections here. While the documents only include the John Kerry timeperiod; if you want to see your own records posted, write me a pm and let me know the timeperiod, name of your command, and the boat number. We would be happy to return to the Navy Yard and pull more records next month for you and post them on the website and then link them to your recollections posted here.

Navy Wife

[Stevie]

another comment from one of the girls....

post your comments back on it....

I appreciate that the veterans took the time to answer questions. But I've got to say the inclusion of Cambodia and all the horror that has happened there as justification for us being in Vietnam in the first place does not sit well with me.

The Killing Fields could not have happened without the US involvement in southeast asia. It all started with our illegal bombing of this neutral country in 1970 when nearly a million villagers were killed in a war they were not involved in, when we tried to institute a puppet regime in the country, and then when we completely ignored the subsequent murder of millions of Cambodians.

I just really can't stomach using Cambodia as a justification for why we should have been in that war.

Jennifer
_________________
Stevie
Congressmen who willfully take actions during wartime that damage
morale and undermine the military are saboteurs and should
be arrested, exiled or hanged.

[LewWaters]

To Jennifer;

Thanks for your comments. However, I do not see mention of what happened in Cambodia as our justification for being there. When I mention it, it is to indicate what happened after we were forced to abandon the area and it fell to the Communist.

What happened there doesn't set well with me either, nor does the enslavement and subsequent deaths of escaping Vietnamese that only wanted to live their lives free of the enslavement of Communism.

A lot of people didn't like that we invaded Cambodia in 1970, but believe me, it was necessary and long overdue. Necessary because often, the Viet Cong and NVA would strike our positions then run across the border to rest up and resupply. The infamous Ho Chi Minh trail also ran through a portion of Cambodia and was their main supply route.

All of it would have been totally unnecessary, though. Had the North Vietnamese not seen the anti-war effort in the US and turned their attentions, with the help of the Soviet KGB to feeding propaganda to the anti-war protesters, the North was on the brink of negotiating a surrender after their resounding defeat in Tet of 68. This has been borne out by writings of both General Vo Nguyen Giap, Commander of all North Vietnamese forces and Colonel Bui Tin, the ranking officer that accepted the surrender of Saigon in April of 1975. Tin has since become disillussioned with Vietnamese Commuism and defected and now lives in Paris France.

Don't let yourself be fooled by the claim that is was just a Civil War, it wasn't. This was proved by the failure of the South Vietnamese to rise up and join the NVA and VC during Tet of 68.

But please, don't think mentions of the Killing Fields of Cambodia are a justification of our being there. It's the history of what happened after we abandoned it.

One final question. Since you feel the invasion of Cambodia was illegal, what is your view of the invasion and subsequent conquering of South Vietnam by the North Vietnamese, fully supported and resupplied by the Soviet Union, in 1975, after they signed and agreed to a cease fire that was a promise not to invade the south, in the Paris Peace Accords?
_________________
Clark County Conservative

[Bob51]

Here's a piece from today's paper that the young ladies might like to ponder:

[Bob51]

It's not just Japan that omits inconvenient history from textbooks. More worrying for America is the general global tendency to assume American bombs must have been the cause of problems. There is an excuse in Kampuchea where the textbooks say nothing and Internet connections are hard to find. What is the excuse for ignorance in parts of the world where any required information is a click or two away?

Bob51