Vietnam Revisited
As one who served in Vietnam (1970-71, as a Red Cross hospital worker stationed at the 24th Evacuation Hospital in Long Binh) and later served as a commissioner with the Illinois Agent Orange Study Commission, I found your article on Vietnam of great interest (“The Vietnam Question,” April 19). One of the main differences between the two wars is the nation’s attitude toward those who serve in combat. During the Vietnam era, the antiwar movement often equated “the warrior with the war” and turned on a generation of young Americans who served so honorably in Southeast Asia. With Iraq, there is a deliberate effort to show support for those who serve in our now all-volunteer military. The nation has learned the hard lesson that it is possible to see those who serve in the armed forces as honorable while still questioning the war in which they serve. Despite the difference, there is one common reality: those who serve in the U.S. military are the better part of their generation. Joan M. Maiman Chicago, Ill.
As a vet and survivor of the Vietnam era, I would like to cheer the writers of “The Vietnam Question” for so clearly expressing a perspective on what we should have learned from that war. We are not tyrannical imperialists but people who thoughtfully commit our men and women to defend freedom. Dissent is not traitorous but a valuable part of that freedom. It is our obligation as a part of a free and democratic society to express our doubts about the decisions of our leaders and to deeply examine the purpose of committing young men and women to war. John Glenn Knoxville, Tenn.
Evan Thomas calls the comparison of Iraq to Vietnam “a stretch,” and instead makes the comparison to Israel’s invasion of Lebanon. Perhaps a more apt comparison would be to the Soviet Union’s disastrous invasion of Afghanistan. Like the United States now, the Soviet Union, in a fit of misguided and ultimately fatal imperialistic misadventure, invaded Afghanistan in 1979. Ten years later it would withdraw, counting more than 10,000 dead. The United States is in a similar situation. Some defense officials predict we could be in Iraq for 10 years. By then our casualties could equal or even surpass those of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. And the situation could prove to be just as costly economically and politically. It is unfortunate that President Bush is not a student of history. Kevin E. Green Dallas, Texas
The first thing to learn from the Vietnam War is that the terrorism stopped once we got out. The second thing is that once we got out, the communists didn’t take over the world. The problem with Bush’s foreign policy is the belief that democracy is an end in itself. It’s not–it is the means to an end: self-determination. There will be rebellion, insurgency and terrorism as long as there are those who impose their will on others, no matter how noble their intentions may be. Edward Pontacoloni Windsor, Conn.
Evan Thomas asserts, “measured objectively, the comparison to Vietnam is something of a stretch. That war dragged on for more than a decade and cost 50,000 lives… A year in, the death toll in Iraq stands at 458 soldiers killed in action.” The combat death toll in the first three years of combat involvement in Vietnam, 1962 through 1964, totaled 392. From 1956 to 1961, U.S. deaths from military operations totaled 25. What will the Iraq death toll be if we still have troops stationed there five or more years from now? It is premature to refer to the comparison as a stretch when we have barely begun what may well be a protracted involvement. J. Wistar Huey III Ellicott City, Md.
Ghosts of Vietnam? Not unless you consider that the government and president lied to get congressional and public approval of the war; we had no reasonable plan for the war’s aftermath; we had no good understanding of the culture we were trying to “save”; our troops did not have a well-defined and identifiable enemy; so many of our troops and innocent civilians have been tragically lost; billions of dollars have been squandered; and our leaders and military brass keep assuring us that everything is on schedule. David Patrykus Wisconsin Rapids, Wis.
Every picture of our soldiers in Iraq breaks my heart, but the picture of the beautiful wounded Marine was devastating (“A Quagmire… in the Making?”). He so closely resembles one of my grandsons that it made his expression of pain and anguish all the more gut-wrenching for me. An equally moving aspect of the picture was the obvious strength and tenderness evidenced by his fellow Marines as they comforted him. My 21-year-old nephew returned this week from one year in Fallujah with the 82d Airborne, and we are so relieved and grateful for his safe return. Patricia Deverell Las Vegas, Nev.
While I do sympathize with those who have lost family members in Iraq, I believe we must continue to support our president, his administration and our troops as they continue to ensure that Iraq does not become a land crawling with terrorists eager to annihilate the Western world. Goals cannot be accomplished without some sacrifice; if we abandon our goals now, we will leave the Iraqis helpless, and Iraq will become a haunting image of Vietnam. Erin Bender Shippensburg, Pa.
My family sat by the TV daily last year hoping to find out any information about my brother, a Marine stationed in Iraq. He came home after his tour, but now he has to go back. I am wondering, for what? He will go proudly where our president sends him to serve our country, but what will the cost be? Will he come home? No matter–I will sit online until dawn waiting, once again, for his e-mails telling me he’s all right. And once again I will have the TV on all the time to make sure he’s all right. I will cry, as I always do, every time one of our soldiers gets hurt or killed. I will pray nightly for my brother’s safe return. My children will ask if he is OK and if I am OK. My father will also wonder when his son will come home and if he will have the same nightmares my father did after he returned from Vietnam. My mother and my brother’s new wife will also wait. We will all lose sleep. But my brother is a United States Marine, and he will serve his country again. Maybe every politician, including President Bush, should go along with him to truly see what this war is about and what it is costing us. Maybe then things will be different. Danielle DuPont Grand Rapids, Mich.
Vietnam and Iraq share the fundamental fact that they were both basically a bad idea. In Iraq it is very unlikely that we are going to be able to win the peace unless we have U.N. backing. It took Vietnam architect Robert McNamara about 35 years to admit that that war was a mistake, a conclusion many of us reached and tried to tell him in the early 1960s, before 50,000 Americans had died. How long will it take our current leadership to figure this out? Michael Selmanoff Baltimore, Md.
Evan Thomas says, “there is only one group of Americans who have had to bear the true burden: the servicemen and -women… and their families.” Why do casualty lists from a supposedly objective news magazine not include the relief workers, missionaries, construction workers, journalists, security guards and multitudes of other nonmilitary personnel? What about the pain and suffering and restricted freedoms endured by other Americans as a result of this war? What about our Coalition partners and U.N. personnel? And the age-old question in any war: are the lives of Iraqis less important than American lives? Paul Tiffany Woodland Hills, Calif.
Recently the United States thoroughly trained some Iraqi police forces that later refused to fight against Iraqi insurgents. It brings to mind the South Vietnamese forces that we trained, only to have them perform poorly or not at all. How is it that those with little or no training are able to intimidate or defeat well-trained forces? There is a second uncomfortable resemblance: in Vietnam the pro-American leaders were always disreputable crooks with little backing from the Vietnamese populace. We have the same situation in Iraq. (Think Ahmad Chalabi.) Ralph Ekwall Omaha, Neb.
Playing the Admissions Game
As a high-school senior in the midst of “fat-or-thin envelope season,” I found that Hannah Friedman’s My Turn essay really hit home (“When Your Friends Become the Enemy,” April 19). At exactly 5 p.m. on March 30, my first-choice school posted its admissions decisions. I was competing in a track meet at the time and ran home right after I crossed the finish line of the 1,600-meter race to learn my fate. Almost at the point of hyperventilation by the time the page finally loaded, I felt a swift blow to my stomach to read the words “We have no choice but to place you on the alternate list.” For the past three weeks my parents have been trying to tell me that this wasn’t the defining moment of my life, but all I felt was failure. It took fellow senior Friedman’s eloquent reiteration of this point to make me believe it. The college-admissions process is often referred to as the “admissions game.” A person’s self-worth and future are never determined by winning or losing a game. It’s what you learn and accomplish in life that really counts. Lisa Taylor Cashmere, Wash.
I am blessed with a son who teaches high school and is studying to go to law school, and a daughter who is pursuing a doctoral degree at the University of Chicago. Both chose to go to the local state university as undergraduates, though they were both honor students and could have gone to other, more “prestigious” schools. Neither of them regrets the decision. With the much lower tuition and scholarship they received, they do not carry a mountain of debt and are without the scars of going through the horrifying experiences that Hannah Friedman described in her essay. There is a wonderful life outside of Harvard and Yale, and it could be right in your own backyard. Christina Chen College Station, Texas
I was quite perturbed after reading Hannah Friedman’s essay. A high-school senior myself, I am very familiar with the college-selection process, and I attend a school that promotes excellence, sending numerous students to top colleges each year. However, the difference between my experience and Friedman’s lies in the fact that my peers do not engage in the competitive, cutthroat and brutal process she describes. Her implication that this “backstabbing mentality” is the norm is quite distressing, and it makes one wonder about the value systems that her community instills in its students. It also seems ironic that, after decrying the trend of name-dropping, Friedman engages in the activity herself, impressing upon the reader that she got accepted to Yale. One can only hope for the day when all students will base their decisions on the character and worth of a college and not just its name. Laura Perille Englewood, Colo.
There is one line in Hannah Friedman’s column that explains it all. The two mothers whose relationship became frosty after their daughters competed to gain admission to the same prestigious college reveal the sad truth behind the cutthroat, pressured, life-or-death attitudes that many high-school seniors have about getting into college. It is their crazed and shortsighted parents who fuel such frenzied myopia. Who would have guessed that the generation that came of age in the late ’60s and the ’70s, throwing off the narrow and limited definitions of success and what constitutes a good life, would turn out to be so uptight and rigid in their expectations for their children? Maybe it’s time for another hippie revolution. Emily Lachman Haworth, N.J.
Leave the Jobs Here
I read “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” (April 19) with great interest. The outsourcing of American jobs has to stop. In addition to putting Americans out of work, it has led the quality of these companies’ customer-service departments to go down. I was happy to see that credit-card firm Capital One has pulled out of a contract with a call center in New Delhi. Now if only it would move all of its operations back to the United States. I have received phone calls from the New Delhi center. Not only could I barely understand the individual who was calling but the phone lines constantly crackled and kept cutting out. Now when I receive these phone calls I just hang up. I will no longer do business with companies that outsource. Maybe if every one of us sent a letter to these companies and took our business to firms that keep their operations in this country, the offshoring companies would think twice before moving overseas. Darlene Carlo Buffalo, N.Y.
After spending a significant amount of money on Dell computers over the years, I had reached a point where I vowed never to buy another. “Thick accents” and ignorance don’t even begin to cover the abysmal level of “customer service” that Dell is currently providing. I have spent hours on hold, days trying one tech-support person after another and, while following their advice, messing up my computer thoroughly. Now I discover that Dell is bringing some jobs back to this country–but only for the large corporate accounts and certain types of computers. All my computers from now on will be built by American technicians to my specifications. We have to fight back against this trend, not just for our own convenience but for American jobs in general. Liz Burnside Vancouver, Wash.
