Different Slants

I’ve thought quite a bit about Viet Nam, the war I missed, the men and women who went there, and how much chaos and pain were inflicted on both countries by what I’ve grown to understand, since 1968 when I was eighteen, was a totally unnecessary war.

Just like Iraq is today.

People in Washington make political decisions about the fate of foreign countries, usually much smaller than the United States. What will fly in the Congress?…What the voters will buy…How will America’s leaders’ decisions affect their own electability and also will it hurt their Party’s ability to retain control of the Congress?

Simple questions, really, posed by extraordinarily experienced, highly educated, worldly politicians…overwhelmingly men who, safe in their bubble of leadership, send hundreds of thousands of America’s young soldiers across vast oceans to trap and kill hundreds of thousands of technologically inferior young men of another religion, color or political philosophy…and also their defenseless families.

These same deep-thinkers could instead send these same soldiers to repair our own crumbling bridges, or roads, without anyone shooting at them while they do that work. They could build new schools and hire excellent educators in poor areas of this country for a fraction of the cost of blowing up and rebuilding those same bridges, roads and schools in countries thousands of miles away.

Whatever your political inclination, those kinds of budget decisions are fiscally ridiculous. Same for hospitals, medical research and even saving disintegrating American nitrate film classics from the twenties. Art matters too. How smart, how visionary, can our leaders be to piss away our finite resources in such a lethal venture, where no matter what we do, the recipients in those countries will hate us for certain and most likely try to kill as many of the invaders of their countries as possible.

As very likely we too would do, with enormous popular enthusiasm to anyone who invaded the USA to tell us how to live, change our laws, imprison our young men, trample our religions, blow up our infrastructure and choose our leaders. Why is this such a difficult concept for our government to foresee?

Am I talking about Viet Nam?

Or Am I talking about Iraq?

How could you tell the difference?

The Vietnamese were as entiled to their civil war as the United States was to its own Civil War in 1861. Are we the judges of mankind? Did people, like my own family, flee their original countries soley for the intent to go back overseas and blow up whoever and wherever they wanted, whenever the mood struck them? I think, not likely.

I think money is the major reason industrial companies and soulless, shortsighted poitical leaders decide we should go overseas ro kill people who can’t defend themselves. How is it those primitive people kill us so efficently, anyway? If Americans don’t think oceans of money are a good enough reason to fight a war, they should elect leaders who philosophically, morally and financially have their heads screwed on correctly.

Republican leaders have acted like this.

Democratic leaders have acted like this.

I think people who may have a clearer, less explosive idea for governing for the benefit of the people in THIS country should gather together and elect leaders who will take care of our own many underfunded problems, first, before they think about starting a war to distract the voters and then kill their voter’s children.

How many children of Democrats were killed in Viet Nam under President Johnson? How many children of Republicans were and are being killed in Iraq? I guess those kids will never grow up to elect more Republicans and Democrats, will they? Not very clear thinking by the leaders of both of those dominant political partys, is it?

Am I saying this too symplistically?

No, I’m not.

I have four children, from ages ten to thirty-two. How many of them should die for their country, the way thousands of other parent’s children haved died or are dying daily, to control the fates of faraway little countries?

None of my kids should die for that. And none of anyone else’s kids, either. And no defenseless child in any of those little countries should ever look up in the sky, in horror, to see if:

The Americans are coming!!

The Americans are coming!!

Here are some numbers I discovered when I became more curious about the way we allow our leaders to kill our children:

The USA lost in Viet Nam, as best they could be counted, a total of 58,193 people. The Air Force’s losses were 2,584. Army’s were 38,209. Navy’s were 2,555. Marine’s lost 14,838 and the tiny Coast Guard, 7.

There were 382 suicides during the War and 234 murders. Twelve of our dead were Moslems and eleven were Quakers. Eight were women. The improvement in equality for women in the United States, a fabulous idea, will no doubt change that last statistic in our current war in Iraq.

(Update: As of 5/24/07, 81 women of many different ranks have died in Iraq. 75 from the US, 5 from the UK and 1 from The Ukraine. That represents slightly more than 2% of the 3,434 deaths of all the invading forces of the coalition. I regret all the deaths, but that number representing female fighters won’t freeze where it is)

My thanks to Don Larson for his help in unearthing these most recent statistics. He is a good example of a person with very different views than mine, on some things, but we can and do respect each other. That’s the way it ought to be.

Seven states bore the brunt of the US death toll: California, 5,573; New York, 4,121; Texas, 3.414; Pennsylvania, 3,144; Ohio, 3,096; Illinois, 2,984; Michigan, 2,654. Total: 24,937 or about 43% 0f the 58, 193 that died.

To the parents of those dead children, or their wives, brothers, sisters, kids and their friends, I mourn your loss. I respect your children, their bravery and their sacrifice. I just wish all of them were still alive in this country living here with you and making the United States a better place. There is no disrespect in my wishing that for the people whom I’m sure you loved, as i love my family.

As for the now united Viet Nam, where United States Corporations do ever more business every month, who marvel at that country’s ancient culture and endlessly photograph its truly beautiful cities, towns and beaches? Would that country, so friendly and inviting to us now, and with so many expatriote Vietnamese living in America today, be better off if our own and other country’s forces hadn’t killed approximately, since no one will ever know with any real certainty, 1,100,000 soldiers and the estimated 900,000 to 4,000,000 civilians?

What do think?

Why are the Vietnamese, an ancient people, so charming and inviting now, and yet were so hateful and deadly forty years ago? I guess it depends on whatever our government tells us. Or what we choose to believe.

Think about it.

Note: I want to express my appreciation to Robert Munden for his assistance in gathering the statistics I used in this story. His skill with a computer far exceeds mine, and his cheery attitude makes him a pleasure to work with. Thanks, Robert!

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Note from the Author:

 

Robert M. Katzman, owner of Fighting Words Publishing Company, with four different titles currently in print and over 4,000 books sold to date, is seeking more retail outlets for his vivid and non-fiction inspirational books: 

 

Independent bookstores, Jewish and other religious organizations, Chicago historical societies or groups, English teachers who want a new voice in their class who was a witness to history, book clubs, high schools or museum gift shops.  I will support anyone who supports me by giving readings in the Chicago Metro area.  I have done this over 40 times, and I always sign my books, when asked.  Everyone, positively everyone, asks.  I was amazed, at first, by that.

 

Individuals who wish to order my books can view the four book covers and see reviews of them at www.FightingWordsPubco.com 

 

There are links to YouTube and podcasts, as well.  Or, anyone can call me directly at (847) 274-1474.  Googling my name will also produce all kinds of unusual results.  That other Robert M. Katzman, now deceased, whose name will also appear and who also published, was a doctor.  He actually bought one of my books!  Such a nice man.  Rest in peace, Dr. Katzman.

 

There will be short poems, stories and essays published in this space every two weeks by either myself or my co-blogist Richard G. Munden, or both.  If you find our postings thought provoking, moving or even amusing, please tell others to come view this site.  We will find our strength in your numbers.

 

 Next year, I will publish my fifth book, a collection of my best poetry and essays, called,

                                         

        I Seek the Praise of Ordinary Men

 

Individuals who know of independent bookstores that might be interested in a rough-hewn guy like me, who ran a chain of newsstands for 20 years in Chicago, please tell them about my books, will you?  I am partial to independent bookstores, having owned two, myself, until my last one was killed by the giant chains, in 1994. I still miss it. 

 

I’m also looking to find someone who would want to make a play out of some of my stories in the Chicago area, so I could go there and do some readings sometimes.  I think there’s enough honest sex, drugs and rock n’ roll to hold anyone’s interest, as well as a lot of authentic dialogue from ordinary people in extraordinary situations.  I think the plays would work anywhere, frankly, in some intimate theater with talented actors.