Thirty-five years ago I arrived in the central highlands of Vietnam, beginning my service with the 4th Infantry Division. By then, the war was increasingly unpopular at home, we were unwanted and resisted by many of the locals (even the ones supposedly on our side), most countries of the world did not support our effort and those that did had been pressured or bribed to do so. We had little awareness of or regard for those people’s history or culture or politics. We thought we could Americanize them and impose our values upon them, and we abused our captives and killed innocent civilians.
Our involvement and our casualties were growing rapidly. At first, names and photos of those killed were published, then only names, and when the total grew too large, only the numbers. Our government lied to us about the reasons for being there, our objectives and our prospects for success.
The Iraq war has an overwhelming sense of familiarity. I am waiting for a White House official to announce he sees “the light at the end of the tunnel.”
Trygve Anderson
Everett
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