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Viet Nam and Families at War

By Bobby Hanafin (reviewer)

Home Front: Viet Nam and Families at War
By Willard D. Gray
(Airleaf Publishing, 2006)

A Must Read for ANY Military Family that QUESTIONS:

When will the war finally come to an end?

No, we are not talking about Iraq, Afghanistan, or even the War on Terror. We are talking about Vietnam. As a Veteran of both Vietnam and Gulf War One, a Retired Military Officer, and the father of a Soldier who served in Iraq, I passionately recommend this insightful book to ANY military family who QUESTIONS, let alone opposes, the Global War on Terror. In fact, I recommend it to anyone who questions what our government has committed our nation to without the full consent of the American people, and without unequivocal National commitment and sacrifice.

Home Front: Viet Nam and Families at War is a primer for what Military Families who question, not oppose, but only question the War on Terror can expect from their community if they had done the same sort of questioning during Vietnam. This is a must read if you are a member of Military Families Speak Out (MFSO) or can relate to our concerns.

After reading Home Front..., and now having something to compare it to (the home front during Vietnam and Iraq), the experiences of military families who questioned (but few opposed) the Vietnam War receive far worse reception and treatment than anything today's military families who question receive.

I believe what accounts for this is the overwhelming number of American citizens who have been willing and able to question the motives and declarations of our government. More people today know for a fact that our government leaders habitually lie to the American people. During Vietnam, especially the first half of the war, at least until 1968, the vast majority of the nation, including troops serving in Vietnam found it impossible to believe our government would lie to us.

Home Front: Viet Nam and Families at War teaches and informs those of us who can relate, and the public in general, of the private and public humiliation, personal family ordeals, and shattered families that a questionable and controversial war had brought to any military family that questioned the Vietnam War.

Despite what critics have said to dissuade Gray from writing the book and others from reading it, not one veteran, including Gray, not one family written about in this book was part of the established anti-war movement back in the day. Their only socio-political crime was having the patriotic gall to question the war and course set for the nation by decision makers who, like today, cannot relate to those who carry the burdens of war. The basic difference between Vietnam and Iraq is that during Vietnam there was the facade of national commitment via the draft, but for Iraq precious few have been asked to or expected to sacrifice for the rest of us.

Their experiences, an ongoing tragedy since the last US Soldier left Vietnamese soil, reveal the physical and psychological wounds of war. Veterans suffered from PTSD, when it was unheard of and its existence challenged. There were a proliferation of bad conduct, personality disorder, or failure to adjust to military service discharges that were less than Honorable, even if the Veteran had served multiple combat tours in Vietnam.

The lesson we as military families can take from reading this book is that as Gray said these are, "wounds that don't discriminate between soldiers and their families regardless if they are pro or anti-war."

From the backwoods of Maine to the rugged wide open spaces of Montana, Gray has collected testimony from at least a dozen soldiers and their extended families. On hindsight this is testimony that should have been given at the first Winter Soldier Investigation, but that one, I believe, did not have a panel for Military Families shattered by the war. Most families back in the day would most likely not have attended anyway, because it was the war they questioned, but did not oppose. Most families only sought, like the Tillman's today, answers from their government and military as to why.

Gray's book breaks the myth spread by the pro-war movement that it was liberals and the liberal media that lost the Vietnam War as it would be the shameful elements that would lose the Global War on Terror. The centers of the anti-war movement back in the day were urban areas and college campuses, not rural America by a long shot. Frankly, the center of the anti-war movement today pretty much remains the urban scene; there is realistically no anti-war resistance on college campuses, because we have no draft. If a family resides in rural America, that is where most volunteers for Iraq and Afghanistan come from - YOU BETTER NOT QUESTION LET ALONE OPPOSE THEIR WAR! However, the price you pay comes nowhere near what these families endured during Vietnam.

The parallels between how military families were ostracized during Vietnam and Iraq are frightening. These families were literally terrorized by fellow Americans. Though not as bad, such harassment continues today and will continue as long as there remain questions.

Bobby Hanafin is on the Editorial Board of Our Troops News Ladder, a Member of VVA, DAV, and VVAW.
He spent near 30 years serving the nation in and out of uniform as enlisted and NCO in the Army went to college on the Vietnam Era GI Bill, got his commission in the Air Force retiring in 1994.