Breaking the Vietnam truce

IN THE NEWS
For those too young to have known not just the Vietnam War, but also the post-Vietnam debates, let me say that the war was divisive in a way that's hard to depict. Describing the venom-spitting, apoplectic ragefests that lasted through the Eighties was "debates" is perhaps inaccurate. For a long time--too long--Americans could not have a rational discussion about the Vietnam War. Whether the setting was one of those painful occasions when the thorns and spines of political opponents became snagged, or even when people of the same opinion worked themselves into a mutual froth, the Vietnam War raked its talons across the American psyche for decades. It had long-term effects, not just on public discourse, but also on US foreign policy (the famous "Vietnam syndrome") and US military strategy (the equally famous Weinberger/Powell doctrine, an Aquinian set of conditions for the justified use of force.)

The productive conversations about the lessons of Vietnam happened quietly, often in places that were rather obscure to the general public (the US Army War College, the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, etc.). It's always hard to get an accurate picture of what happened in any conflict; it's even harder, once the facts are assembled, to reach a plausible conclusion. These matters take time, and because Vietnam divided the nation along multiple fracture lines, the post mortem on Vietnam has taken a very long time indeed. (For a contemporary example of why you should never leap to conclusions about what really happened in battle, see this article about how the Army has reversed itself on the first attempted cowardice prosecution since Vietnam.)

Meanwhile, a larger public consensus about the national Vietnam dissonance formed. Americans, with their nation's interests at hear, both fought in Vietnam and fled to Canada to avoid the draft. They protested at the Lincoln Memorial, to support or denounce the war. Some voted for Nixon to end the war, or to defeat the communists, or perhaps both at the same time. The situation was so muddled, thorny, confused, and bloodily real that it was impossible to reach or impose some right answer, like, "We needed to fight the Nazis, and it's a damn shame we didn't get started sooner." This nod to ending the war over the War extended up and down the social strata, from people eating at the same lunch counter to opponents in the same congressional race.

It's a bit shocking, then, when someone breaks this truce. The Bush campaign's allies, the Swift Boat Veterans for the Truth, has been trying to turn Kerry's Vietnam service into a campaign issue. One might say that's fair, since Kerry himself often cites his Vietnam service and decorations (as well as his later protests against the war) as pillars of his political resume. However, the Swift Boat Veterans are proceeding on the nastiest track possible: funded clearly by one political faction, they are picking apart the after action reports of many operations in which Kerry played a role. Worse, they have hired a private detective to "dig up the dirt" on Kerry from those who served with him.

To say that this kind of attack is slimy, particularly given Bush's non-service during the same conflict, is an understatement. The attack has ripple effects through the brown waters of Vietnam memories, though, that go beyond the Kerry-Bush race. Criticizing someone's judgement about a particular firefight opens far too many other discussions about what a soldier might or should have done on a particular day in Vietnam. How many other politicians deserve the same treatment? How many other Americans also need to have their AARs scrutinized for potential mistakes, often by people with no military experience, with questionable motivations? How many of these people have mentally and morally re-visited these days on the Mekong Delta, or at Khe Sanh, or in the highlands, thousands of times already? Even if Kerry didn't deserve one of his medals, how many other Americans received honors they didn't deserve, or failed to get the recognition they earned at risk to life, limb, and sanity? And what, really, is the point of the exercise?

Having spent my adult life trying to have a rational discussion about Vietnam with other people, I don't see the good in this effort. We need to re-visit the Vietnam War to learn what we can that applies to present or future conflicts. The Swift Boat Veterans, however, are not going to help steer the boat in that direction.

Comments

[Oscar]

"particularly given Bush's non-service during the same conflict" - Like the majority of people who served during those years, Bush did not go to Nam. So what? Or do you think his reserve status is a lie?

As to the Swift Boat vets, they loathe Kerry. Again, so what? I loathe Kerry for entirely different reasons, and lots of folks loathe Bush. Get over it.

On the topic of rational discussions of Nam, you are right. You can't even get agreement on whether we won or lost: lots of Dems think we lost, I think we won, but then the Dems screwed the RVN's by not living up to our supply agreements, and Jerry Pournelle, among others, thinks we won period, because we bled the Russian economy worse than our own.

[ali]

One thing that surprises me in the US is the lack of respect for military service. Perhaps this is because we have the Vietnam generation in power now. It was dubious war, and many shirked service; some people just don’t like to be reminded of that.

Kerry saw combat at close quarters, was in command, and his command survived. I’ve read the negative accounts and you still have a man keeping his head under direct fire. In almost any army that is what you get tin for, and rightly so, operatic valor gets men killed needlessly. Combat is a hard test and Kerry past it. There is not much more about the man to recommend him, but that is no small thing

[Kingdaddy]

Bush's non-service amounts to...

(1) Getting a coveted slot in the National Guard, leaping ahead of more qualified candidates for the same position. The assignment lowered his chances of going to Vietnam to practically nil.
(2) Failing to complete his service in the Texas Air National Guard.
(3) Using an inaccurate, misleading, and self-serving account of his National Guard service in his political biography and campaign speeches.
(4) Not being honest about why he did #'s 1 and 2.

As I said, I don't begrudge people's widely varying opinions about the Vietnam War. I have no problem with people who, feeling the war was a mistake, fled to Canada, burned their draft cards, or otherwise took action. I have zero respect, however, for someone who skirts their service and then doesn't even repeat the facts accurately, let alone acknowledge why he avoided the risk of death or injury that others faced.

Others, whether they served or didn't, faced the consequences of their choices. Bush didn't--but a man who didn't get his slot in the Texas Air National Guard did. Some--most famously, writers like Tim O'Brien, Philip Caputo, James Webb, and others--went to Vietnam, did things they weren't proud of doing, but were willing to discuss them in the open court of public opinion. Others got student deferments, Unitarian ordinations, a bus ticket to Toronto--anything, as they admitted, to stay out of a war they felt was wrong.

Like many Republicans, I, too, believe in personal responsibility. That's why I don't think that Bush can claim to have served honorably, or even fully, in the National Guard. I also think it's why Cheney's non-answer about his student deferment--he had "other priorities," he said--is sufficient. If you want to run on your resume, then dammit, explain how your draft status fit your beliefs about the war. Or keep the truce about Vietnam, and shut up about Kerry's service.

[Oscar]

What you say up the last sentence seems completely correct. However, GWB has NOT been going after Kerry's military record, probably for the reasons you suggest, it is other people (like me) who do. But I am down on his record in the reserve, which is even less noble than GWB's in the NG: Bush did not lie under oath, support others who lied under oath, and have discussions with a country we were at war with WHILE IN THE MILITARY. Kerry always skates this one, and the bios I have seen do not point out that all that stuff happened while he was in the reserves.

[Kingdaddy]

I hold Bush responsible for what the Swift Boat Veterans are doing, for the following reasons:

(1) He doesn't discourage them. A statesman-like person might gently but firmly tell them to shut the hell up.
(2) He should know about them. With people as politically attuned as Rove in his Administration, there's no excuse for not knowing. (Much like Trent Lott and Bob Barr had no grounds for saying they didn't know what the CCC stood for.)
(3) His campaigns, in the past, have also encouraged or turned a blind eye to similar attacks--including one on Senator McCain. In that ugly case, a whispering campaign in South Carolina tried to depict McCain as a deranged survivor of North Vietnamese torture. (Plus, according to the whisperers from the campaign, McCain supposedly had a mulatto love child--when in fact, he and his wife adopted an Bangladeshi orphan.)

I can't think of anything worse for Vietnam veterans than encouraging the perception of them as dangerously traumatized psychos. But that's exactly what Bush's campaign did--and Bush himself never disavowed. Just as he and his subordinates are not doing anything about the Swift Boat Veterans now.

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