Vietnam Promise – It Was to be Our Last | Veterans Today

Let The Killing Begin With The Guilty This Time

By Gordon Duff, Senior Editor

I served as a Marine infantryman in Vietnam. Raised on war propaganda, political claptrap and only mildly suspicious that America had been overthrown in the Coup de Etat on November 22, 1963, I was going to do my part. The idea of someone else fighting and dying in my place sickened me.

Little did I know the vast majority of Americans, hawks, “chickenhawks,” so many I find myself amazed, looked on my way of thinking as insane.

In 2004, I participated in the “Run for the Wall,” going to Washington with the “central group” of motorcyclists. My wife, a nurse, drove a chase vehicle and I rode alongside a friend who served in Vietnam as a combat medic. At a gathering in Chillothothe, Ohio, at the local Eagles, I got to meet all involved, as Henry, Carol and I went from table to table and met everyone involved and I asked them about their Vietnam service.

I had spent years leading a study group on Vietnam, and genuinely wanted to meet more vets in person, as I had met and interviewed over 1000 online.

When I was done for the evening, we found 3 Vietnam veterans in a building filled to capacity. Henry and I were two of them. All wore combat medals, many were too young, some served “elsewhere” and only one had been in Vietnam.

For years I had been meeting them, Vietnam veterans who were phonies, talked about secret operations, mysterious documents. I thought the war was stupid, most of my friends died, I was severely ill for a long time, still am, and the rationale for the war was obviously wrong, we had installed an oppressive fascist government in violation of international law for profit, a war fought by the stupid and poor, meaning idiots like me.

After returning home, I was mildly involved in anti-war activities. It was easy at a big state university and there were NO “pro-war” vets, not combat vets anyway. There were mouthy fatass senior NCOs who spent their tours drunk and hiding, there were officers (speaking only of the Marine Corps during my time there) who went into the field for a 2 hour walk, awarded themselves a medal and spent the next 40 plus years lying.

In fact, Vietnam was a lie. Nobody had ever fought in a war, we had few World War II or Korean War vets. We were led by peacetime “Gomer Pyle” types, phonies, stuffed shirts and empty hats. There was only one Dave Hackworth, one Ted Guy and thousands of Ollie Norths.

Da Nang, Vietnam. A young Marine private waits on the beach during the Marine landing, August 3, 1965. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Our biggest mistake was…..

EXCERPT

via Vietnam Promise – It Was to be Our Last | Veterans Today.

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