Still watching Vietnam . . .

We are continuing to watch the Ken Burns' Documentary and I am amazed that I have seen no comments, good, bad or indifferent on Facebook. Are people so caught up in the assininity going on with sports and Hollywood that they have no time to reflect on what transpired over 50 years ago? I don't think I ever realized how many lies were told during the Vietnam War. I am constantly shocked by the brutality of war. My brain knows what happens but the life is constantly squeezed out of my heart - there is real, honest to God pain in seeing the Hell that was Vietnam. We made so many grievous mistakes and our soldiers paid the price for the vain, inept leadership of our country and the military command. How is it that I can be thankful that P&D's Pop was drafted early and was in Vietnam at the beginning of the build up to the killing of thousands of young Americans. Even back in 1966 I was petrified when I saw the nightly news and realized that even the media back then was helping the enemy by expounding on what the next day's targets were going to be. We should never have gotten involved in another French catastrophe but since our presidents allowed us to be suckered into prosecuting the war Barry Goldwater would have been the right president. We never learn that there is no nice in war - it is hell on earth and if it must be fought we must fight to win. We must not be the good guys - we must go for all out destruction. That is a scary thought but it may be the only humane way to go to war. Odd words - humane and war - they don't go together - can't be done. Man has not improved since creation - maybe there is so little good and much too much evil in man. Who set us in motion? Can Higgs Bosun not choose to support goodness and love? Very hard to reconcile the thought that we are made in His Image with what man continues to do to man.

I didn't think it would affect me like this . . .

I watched the first two parts of Ken Burn's Vietnam Documentary and was pretty much okay but after tonight's two hour episode I lost it. Oh my God - all of the fears I had back in 1965 and 1966 came crashing down and I was never in Vietnam. I can't even begin to understand the quagmire of Vietnam and we sent our own young men to fight without proper training or some semblance of honest, strong, intelligent leadership. Hubris on the part of Lyndon Johnson and his advisors led them to destroy the lives of thousands of our young men and their families. Vietnam left a terrible burden on the generation who fought the lost cause - the scars will last forever. And mankind has learned nothing from the past - man is not perfectable. At times man is an abomination. I appreciate and respect the love of my life. Thank you, P&D's Pop. You are loved and loving. Forever yours, I am.