Khe Sahn

The bodies of US Marines lie half buried on Hill 689, west of Khe Sanh, in 1968. The siege at Khe Sanh was one of the longest and bloodiest battles of the war.
Nearly 60,000 US soldiers died in Vietnam with over 300,000 injured.
For the Vietnamese, though, the figure was far higher with estimates of over half a million killed and many millions wounded.

Images like these cannot be easily forgotten by Vietnam veterans. Seeing the men you fought with, friends that kept you sane and safe, half burried in a hill of dirt.

Wounded

Here is a photo of the 101st airborn guiding an medical evacuation.

I think this photo brings to life the harrowing experience of what it must have been like pushing through the jungles of Vietnam. Bullets would have come from the surrounding forest as the soldiers tried to rescue their wounded. It is easy to understand why so many vets suffer from post traumatic stress disorder.

Letter from A Veteran

It was a war without glory. It was endless nights of waiting in rain-soaked, mud-caked fatigues for death to strike from the bush, counting the hours till dawn, the days, the months, trusting no one, existing utterly alone. It was an enemy who rarely showed his face and murdered arbitrarily when he did, who used his school children as terrorists and brutally tortured his prisoners. It was bearing witness to countless mutual atrocities and concluding that the Geneva Convention was a joke politicians told to each other. It was the grunt who watched his friend's legs blown off by a booby trap, the helicopter nose-gunner presented with the gruesome aftermath of his handiwork on a village, the green private who killed one of his own with a fumbled grenade, the short-timer who fragged his field commander for ordering an impossible assault. It was the freckle-faced kid transformed into a steely-eyed killer by fear and rage and unendurable frustration, an ordinary human being so inured to unspeakable acts of violence that stories of hacking off the ears of old women, smashing babies against tree trunks and castrating prisoners during interrogation were met with icy indifference. It was cursing the ability to reason and wondering, in ever-suppressed horror, just how far one could push the envelope of sanity.
It was a peace without honor. It was walking point and dodging sniper fire along the Mekong Delta one morning, then stepping off an airplane in San Francisco 48 hours later, dumped back into America's lap and expected to act civilized. It was being spat upon by one's own countrymen who, angry and frustrated by an immoral and undeclared war, found it difficult to distinguish between vandals and victims. It was never knowing if your buddies made it back and living with the slow-burning fuse of survivor guilt, muted by the sheer magnitude of the experience, the onslaught of ineffable emotion, the dumbfounded expressions of those who hadn't been there and couldn't possibly understand. It was separation and divorce and dulling the anguish with drugs and alcohol, subsequent years of nightmares, embarrassing "startle" reactions, unrelenting memories, and uncontrollable tears.
It was an epic whose heroes were unsung....
This is a frightning and vivid letter written by a vietnam veteran who was eighteen years old when he arrived in Vietnam. He thought if he could just survive for twelve or thirteen months he would make it though ok. Very often the joy of going home masks the effects of combat PTSD. On arriving home most Vietnam veterans were spit on and treated like criminals by the people around them. Having gone through unimaginable horror and finally coming home to such an unwelcoming reception is traumatic in its own right.

New wars, old wounds

With the recent wars in Iraq and the war on terrorism, there has been an uptick in Vietnam veterans feeling the stress of PTSD. Seeing the military they once belonged to fighting a war on television brought back a great deal of memories and emotions for those suffering with combat PTSD.
One Veteran spoke of renewed feeling of guilt as he watched the war on T.V. He was wounded badly as shrapnel tore through his body during a skirmish in Vietnam. Four comrades carried him to safety on a poncho and went back to help in the battle. None of the four survived that day and he carried that guilt with him for 40 years.
A few years back he decided to do something about his guilt and decide to be a santa for the soldiers. His idea was to collect autographed college and pro footballs, letters form local children and other mementos and send them to the troops. His idea changed when the military signed of on him bringing the stuff to them personally.
He went there hoping to bury some emotional demons but found that the trip only made things worse. He had some trouble sleeping in the dark at times but now he hates to see the dark, it makes him extremely nervous. He does not relax until the dawn.
He started patrolling the neighborhood at night with his 9-mm pistol at his side. He even once sleep drove to a local walmart 20 minutes away at 3 am. He finally checked into a facility and is still getting treatment this day.
I really thought this story showed the long lasting emotional scars left by the war. This Vietnam veteran also carried a great guilt for being rescued and his rescuers being killed. In his attempt to do something right, it only brought back old fears and stress.

War-Tax Resistance: A Civil Disobedience On Vietnam

As old as is the will to fight American wars, so follows the will to resist support of these wars by non-participation. Non-participation including the denial of tax payment to enable warfare. With the surge of the Vietnam War in the 1960s, tax-resistance reached new levels of awareness among the American public. The will to resist was campaigned upon by well-known singer Joan Baez, in addition to the creation of the "Writers and Editors War Tax Protest" in 1967 by New York Times Magazine's Gerald Walker. An action of protest which began its movement in America through peace churches such as the Mennonites and the Quakers, and American naturalist and essayist Henry David Thoreau (protesting the war tax of the Mexican-American War, and documented in his essay Resistance to Civil Government), now expanded to the average American household via coverage in American news and on America's doorsteps.

To give a detailed history of the resistance of Vietnam War taxes and the resistance to American war-tax in general, I present a link and excerpt from Warresisters.org:

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The following excerpt is copyright to © 2008, War Resisters League:

"War tax resistance gained nationwide publicity when Joan Baez announced in 1964 her refusal to pay 60 percent of her 1963 income taxes because of the war in Vietnam. In 1965 the Peacemakers formed the “No Tax for War in Vietnam Committee,” obtaining signers to the pledge “I am not going to pay taxes on 1964 income.” By 1967 about 500 people had signed the pledge.

Then several events in the mid- to late-1960s occurred making this a pivotal period for the war resistance movement, signaling a shift in war tax resistance from a couple hundred to eventually tens of thousands of refusers.

A committee led by A.J. Muste obtained 370 signatures (including Joan Baez, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, David Dellinger, Dorothy Day, Noam Chomsky, Nobel Prize winner Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, publisher Lyle Stuart, and Staughton Lynd) for an ad in The Washington Post, which proclaimed their intention not to pay all or part of their 1965 income taxes.

A suggestion in 1966 to form a mass movement around the refusal to pay the (at that time) 10 percent telephone tax was given an initial boost by Chicago tax resister Karl Meyer. This was followed by War Resisters League developing a national campaign in the late 1960s to encourage refusal to pay the telephone tax.

In 1967, Gerald Walker of The New York Times Magazine began the organizing of Writers and Editors War Tax Protest. The 528 writers and editors (including Gloria Steinem and Kirkpatrick Sale) pledged themselves to refuse the 10 percent war surtax (which had just been added to income taxes) and possibly the 23 percent of their income tax allocated for the war. Most daily newspapers refused to sell space for the ad. Only the New York Post (at that time, a liberal newspaper), Ramparts (a popular left-wing anti-war magazine), and the New York Review of Books carried it.

Ken Knudson, in a 1965 letter to the Peacemaker, suggested that inflating the W-4 form would stop withholding. Again, Karl Meyer was instrumental in promoting this idea, which was adopted by Peacemakers, Catholic Worker, and War Resisters League, among other organizations in the late 1960s. Inflating W-4 forms also brought a new wave of indictments and jailings by the government — 16 were indicted for claiming too many dependents; of those, six were actually jailed.

The number of known income tax resisters grew from 275 in 1966 to an estimated 20,000 in the early 1970s. The number of telephone tax resisters was estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands. Many groups were formed around the country including “people’s life funds,” to which people sent their war tax resisted money to fund community programs.

The popularity of war tax resistance grew to such an extent that the WRL could no longer handle the volume of requests. So in 1969 a press conference was held in New York City to announce the founding of the National War Tax Resistance (WTR). Long-time peace activist Bradford Lyttle was the first coordinator. Local WTR chapters blossomed around the country, and by 1972 there were 192 such groups. WTR published a comprehensive handbook on tax resistance, Ain’t Gonna Pay for War No More (edited by Robert Calvert), and put out a monthly newsletter, Tax Talk. Radical members of the historic peace churches began to urge their constituencies to refuse war taxes.

In 1972 Congressman Ronald Dellums (CA) introduced the World Peace Tax Fund Act in Congress, which was designed to create a conscientious objector status for taxpayers. The National Council for a World Peace Tax Fund was formed to promote this legislation (later changed to National Campaign for a Peace Tax Fund). The bill has been introduced into each Congress since.

During the Indochina War, war tax resistance gained its greatest strength ever in the history of the United States, and on a secular basis rather than as a result of the historic peace churches, who played a very minor role this time. The government did its best to stop this increase in tax resistance, but was hamstrung by telephone tax resisters. There were so many resisters and so little tax owed per person that the IRS lost money every time they made a collection. The cost of bank levies, garnished wages, automobile and property seizures, and even the simplest IRS paperwork was simply too expensive to be worth it."

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Here is the complete article: "History of War Tax Resistance" - © 2008, War Resisters League

A worthy read for any interested in creative nonviolent protest in general. A great deal of information is shared, in particular, of war-tax resistance occurring during the Vietnam war and throughout the 20th century.

Michael

The Vietnam Veteran

The largest subgroup suffering from PTSD is the combat veteran. In the U.S. the Vietnam War produced the largest number of PTSD cases. The average age of soldiers in world war two was twenty-six. The average age of soldiers entering the Vietnam War was nineteen.
This war was like no other the U.S. had fought in. Soldiers fought more as individuals rather than teams. Nothing was what it appeared to be. There was very little acceptance of new soldiers coming in, and it was hard to identify the enemy or its uniform. Soldiers had to be weary of women and children as potential life threatening enemies. There was also no real frontline. It was a constant back and forth battle for the same pieces of territory. The basic rule of thought was to kill as many enemies as you could and get out alive.
The transition home was also abrupt. A normal soldier coming from the jungles of Vietnam and killing enemies with his M-16 would be shipped back and on his parents steps in forty-eight hours. There was no time to spend with fellow soldiers and work through some of the trauma. Not to mention that many Vietnam veterans were treated as villains rather than heroes.
It is amazing that the military after fighting two world wars did not have a better plan in dealing with the emotional effect of war on their own soldiers. Many great lessons could be learned form that war.

To many modern Americans, the assumed perspective on the people of Vietnam, and the U.S. involvement in Vietnam is that they were the enemy, we the hero. Essentially, this is the basic foundation for any war effort. However, there is an obvious wrong within this very perspective. In it, a presumption is made upon a people as a whole. The Vietnamese were depicted as uncivilized, war-mongering, anti-American sadists. They were depicted through the media fog as an enemy to be corrected, to be policed. They were to be found guilty by the American people of violating a way of life beyond our own.

This sentiment does not extend itself only to the people of Vietnam; but equally of the American public. The media depicted anti-Vietnam War protesters as hippies. College-aged students with tattered jeans attempting to bring down their own leaders. Anarchists. Useless to the American ideal and a danger to the civility of the American dream. This is incorrect at its most basic. If it wasn't only these kids with beat attire and hygiene, who was it? Then begs the question - Where then did resistance begin?

Recently, while researching this subject, I came upon an article published by the University of Massachusetts Press in "The Chronicle of Higher Education" in 2000 by H. Bruce Franklin (a professor of English and American Studies at Rutgers University at Newark). It poses frankly with the title, "The Antiwar Movement We Are Supposed To Forget". The essay centers around the root of resistance to the Vietnam War - which began as soon as the very turning of the war wheel was set in motion.

The essay also outlines the founded outcomes of the war. A desire for our country to divide and conquer a "known enemy", and at best, dividing only our own country around it. The propaganda teaming at the American public to acknowledge Vietnam as the enemy, the evil, without any simple foundation for such a belief.

"THE ANTIWAR MOVEMENT WE ARE SUPPOSED TO FORGET" By H. Bruce Franklin

For any remotely interested in the history of the American war resistance, or merely in the history of Vietnam - this is a mandatory read. One of critical analysis both in the world of politics, and the heart of philosophical inquiry.


Michael

History of PTSD

While researching post tramatic stress disorder in Vietnam veterans, I came across this interesting history of PTSD. It shows the distinct feelings of PTSD in warriors as far back as ancient Egypt. It goes on to give evidence throughout history that war in every age and era takes its toll on the human psyche. I have posted the link below.
http://www.vva.org/archive/TheVeteran/2005_03/feature_HistoryPTSD.htm

In Memory Day:

In recent years, Washington D.C. has paid tribute to soldiers who did not die in combat. "In Memory Day" celebrates the soldiers who died of emotional or noncombat injuries. Many soldiers fitting this description have traditionally been sidestepped in being paid their honors. Though, a soldier of the mental war played during the Vietnam-era certainly endured equal injury to those killed in physical combat. It is the institution of "In Memory Day" which dedicates hours of grievance to those equally harmed by the war in Vietnam. It is quite clear the devastation of Vietnam affected the individual on small scale; and the whole of the Earth in long view. Many casualties of such direct violence were not included in the engraving of felled soldiers, on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. However, they are to be honored through "In Memory Day". This includes those of noncombat violence, and emotional suffering. Many passed of mental injuries of irreparable damage, and may be deemed "not living" in common perspective. In addition, myriads have been exposed to toxins and traumas, and continue to combat them in daily life. These are, equally, soldiers of great battles. War waged on the field is as devastating an institution as war waged on the mind.

The following are articles posted at (Copyright © Vietnamgear.com):

"12 April 2009

One hundred and twenty three American heroes from the Vietnam War era will be honored posthumously on April 20 during the annual In Memory Day Ceremony.

In Memory Day was created to pay tribute to the men and women who died prematurely from noncombat injuries and emotional suffering caused directly by the Vietnam War, but who are not eligible to have their names inscribed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

The 11th annual In Memory Day Ceremony will be held on Monday, April 20, 2009, at 10 a.m. at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. Nearly 1,000 family members, friends and fellow veterans will be visiting the nation’s capital to participate in this year’s event, sponsored by the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial Fund.

"In Memory Day allows The Wall to do what it does best: provide a healing environment for family members and friends," said Jan C. Scruggs founder and president of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. "It also allows all of us to pay tribute to these brave Americans who served and sacrificed for their country."

Among the speakers at this year’s ceremony will be Richard Schneider, executive director for government affairs for the Non Commissioned Officers Association of the USA, the sponsor of the event. Navy veteran Chuck Price of Austin, Colo., will perform "The Unsung Heroes," a song about honoring and remembering Vietnam veterans.

In Memory Day
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial contains the names of 58,260 men and women who died while serving in the U.S. armed forces in the Vietnam War. The Memorial’s black granite walls have always stood to remember all of the nearly 3.5 million who participated in the divisive and controversial conflict.

“The Department of Defense developed specific parameters that allow only the names of service members who died of wounds suffered in combat zones to be added to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial,” Scruggs said. “The In Memory program recognizes those men and women who have died prematurely as a result of the Vietnam War, but who do not meet the criteria. Many of their deaths are a result of Agent Orange exposure and emotional wounds that never healed.”

During the ceremony, family members read aloud their loved ones’ names in chronological order by date of death. Following the ceremony, participants lay tributes at the base of The Wall corresponding to the honorees’ dates of service in Vietnam, so that these Vietnam veterans come to rest near those comrades with whom they served. With the addition of this year’s honorees, over 1,800 individuals will be honored in the In Memory Honor Roll. "

Link at Vietnamgear.com



Michael

AGENT ORANGE

This is the name given to a herbicide utilize during the Vietnam War to remove unwanted plant life and leaves, that provides cover to the enemy forces. A vast tract of land were sprayed with the chemical defoliant. Today this chemical its blame for the many diseases that the Vietnamese people and the United States Veterans had been suffering since the war; some of those illness are cancer, mood swings, skin problems and birth defects. This is because the effects of the Agent Orange pass through the genetic system of those who were exposed.

It is very sad to see even today people including children suffering the effects of a war that they didn't live but they will have to live with the effects for the rest of their life and asking them self Why?.

information taken from different sources such as books, encyclopedias and an interview that I did to an US Veteran who believes he was exposed to this agent and its seeking treatment. I'm trying to publish the interview but I need the persons permission, I'm working on it.