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(Cont. from Page-1)
An Open Letter to Anyone Who Served in Vietnam)
done to you.
I understood that I had been manipulated, but I also knew that I had failed
to think for myself. It was like waking up out of a nightmare, except
that the nightmare was real. I didn't know what to do.
One day about three years
ago, I went to a member of the church I attended at that time, because
he had served in Vietnam. I asked him if he had been in Vietnam, and he
got a look on his face and said," Yes." Then, I took his hand, looked
him square in the face, and said, "Thank you for going." His
jaw dropped, he got an amazed look on his face, and then he said, "No
one has ever said that to me." He hugged me and I could see that
he was about to get tears in his eyes. It gave me an idea, because there
is much more that needs to be said. How do we put into words all the regret
of so many years? I don't know, but when I have an opportunity, I take.
So here goes.
Have you been to Vietnam?
If so, I have something I want to say to you-Thank you for going! Thank
you from the bottom of my heart. Please forgive me for my insensitivity.
I don't know how I could have been so blind, but I was. When I woke up,
you were wounded and the damage was done, and I don't know how to fix
it.
I will never stop regretting my actions, and I will never let it happen
again. Please understand that I am speaking for the general public also.
We know we blew it and we don't know how to make it up to you. We wish
we had been there for you when you came home from Vietnam because you
were a hero and you deserved better.
Inside of you there is a pain that
will never completely go away and you know what? It's inside of us, too;
because when we let you down, we hurt ourselves, too. We all know it and
we suffer guilt and we don't know what to do so we cheer for our troops
and write letters to "any soldier" and we hang out the yellow
ribbons and fly the flag and we love America. We love you too, even if
it doesn't feel like it to you.
I know in my heart that, when we cheer
wildly for our troops, part of the reason is trying to make up for Vietnam.
And while it may work for us, it does nothing for you. We failed you.
You didn't fail us, but we failed you and we lost our only chance to be
grateful to you at the time when you needed and deserved it. We have disgraced
ourselves and brought shame to our country. We did it and we need your
forgiveness. Please say you will forgive us and please take your rightful
place as heroes of our country. We have learned a terribly painful lesson
at your expense and we don't know how to fix it.
From the heart,
Julie Weaver
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 "When
will I forgive and forget
the Vietnam War protesters?"
by Vietnam
War poet:
Jack
R. Kays,
© 2000
They gathered
in the streets and in the coffee house across this great land , where
they plotted and planed.
They crusaded, yelled, cursed and in open defiance burned their draft
cards in hand.
They brazenly wave the enemy’s flag in our face.
They shouted, "It’s not our damn war, we won’t go!"
They spit on and burned the Red, White and Blue and yelled "F---- you
too!"
The POW’s under went brutal, intense and prolonged agony,
and this man has the audacity to ask me… "When?"
They made fun of the MIA’s and spit on the returning WIA’s and shouted,
"Baby Killers!
They screamed their approval when Jane sat on the AAA gun in Hanoi and
thumbed her nose
at our fighting men and women. I can think
of over Fifty Eight thousand reasons for not forgiving or forgetting.
And they are
all inscribed on a cold black granite wall. And this man
has the audacity to ask me…When? Then they ran and hid-out in all four
corners of the earth to keep out of harms way.
When it was all over, they sneaked back into the good old US of A under
the protection of the
highest office of the land. "This was an unjust war," Was the lame excuse they used to justify their
immoral sin. I ask, "Who
gave them a choice?"
No one gave you or me a choice! It was our duty, and it was the law
of the land. Now, today this
man has the audacity to ask me, "When am I going to forget and forgive?"
Well, let me tell you something my friend, I have the tenacity to answer
this question once
and for all!
When? When the world cracks at both ends and the seven seas run in.
When snow cap mountains rise from the bowels of hell.
When all the stars have fallen from the heavens.
When time stands still. Not yesterday, not today and not tomorrow, but never! They
have perpetrated an unforgivable sin.
I hope to live to see the day ...
When they are all ... just dust in the wind.
Jackie
R. Kays,
SSgt USAF (Ret.) ,
35th Air Police Squadron
{Jackie Kays was medically retired after rescuing crewmen in a flare-bird that crashed in the world's heaviest landmine field at Đà Nẵng AB.]
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