Half a century on, Vietnam wounds linger

This editorial appeared in the Fayetteville, NC Observer on Oct. 6.

Half a century is a long time to grieve, to seek healing and reconciliation, to live with pain that won’t go away.

But for some Americans who fought in the Vietnam War, it has been that long, or longer. This year is the 50th anniversary of the deployment of regular troops to the Southeast Asian nation where a fierce struggle would kill more than 58,000 Americans and leave hundreds of thousands more with life-changing injuries. But it could as well be the 65th anniversary too, because U.S. military advisers were first dispatched there in 1950.

It was the last war this country fought with draftee soldiers – many of them passing through Fort Bragg and Fayetteville during their training. The draft made it the last war to which most of the country was deeply connected, because it was fought – like World War II and Korea – by people from the broadest possible cross-section of America. In those days, everyone knew someone who was fighting there, and nearly everyone knew someone who died there.

The war created a national social ferment that we’ve not seen before or since, a furor that was divisive and disruptive, that led to rioting in the streets and brought an end to a presidency.

Vietnam gave us a new term – Post Traumatic Stress Disorder – and a new understanding of what long stints of combat can do to human beings. It put a new burden on our veterans’ health-care system that still hasn’t been successfully met.

Vietnam veterans across the country are marking the war’s 50th anniversary this year. Dozens came together in Fayetteville last week for a ceremony that commemorated the first deployment and recognized the families of the fallen.

Retired Maj. Gen. Rodney Anderson, a former Fort Bragg deputy commander, spoke at the gathering and recalled how anger in America inflicted more wounds on those who served. Our soldiers, he said, were blamed for a war they didn’t start and for the misdeeds of only a few.

Anderson cited the “hellish way we treated them as a nation,” and said we need now to give thanks for those who died, were captured or are still missing in action. “We cannot undo what is done,” he said, “but we can surely give thanks.”

Anderson added some challenges for the veterans: Talk about their experiences. Encourage today’s soldiers. And stay involved in their communities.

Fifty years later, we are still healing from the Vietnam War. And the mission is still as important as it’s ever been.

This story was originally published October 9, 2015 at 5:14 PM with the headline "Half a century on, Vietnam wounds linger."