Editorial
Visions of Vietnam still Vivid
The images, though black and white and 30 years old, are still as jarring as if photographed yesterday and seen for the first time today: The little girl running naked from a napalm attack.
A U.S. military medic, his head and ‘one eye bandaged, struggling to aid a wounded soldier who lies against his leg in a muddy foxhole.
Hundreds of children waiting to be loaded onto helicopters amid chaos during the fall, of Saigon. Vietnam was the television war, the .war with no purpose. It was the war that: spawned Kent State and the Chicago riots, the generation gap, My Lai and Tet; squares and hippies, the Killing Fields and the Vietnam Wall, Abbie Hoffman and Richard Nixon.
Twenty-five years hence, it would be nice to say all that remains of the war are images like those described above, and that all wounds –physical, mental, and emotional - have been healed. Would that it were true.
Some vets still lie in ‘hospitals, never to re-cover from their wounds. Some who have otherwise returned to a normal life, still wake in a cold sweat in the middle off the night, reliving in their nightmares a battle, they fought 35 years ago.
Some are still returning home, in caskets, their remains yielded ’by the deep jungle after all these years. But the quarter century that has passed since the fall of Saigon has seen healing: The United States and Dietary are on good terms, having restored formal relations in 1995
This country, after years: of indifference, has embraced Vietnam veterans and, if belatedly, recognized their sacrifices, and many Vietnam veterans have returned to the country where they fought to find personal peace.
One of them is Sen. John McCain, who went ‘back this week to the place where he was shot down, dragged ashore and beaten in1967; then held as prisoner: for five years. "I put the Vietnam War behind me, a long time ago. I harbor no anger, no rancor," McCain said this week at the site of his capture. For some, it will take longer than. 25, years, but we can hope there will be a time when all who were involved can put the Vietnam War behind them, as much as is humanly possible.
