My View: The 25th Anniversary

By John Zutz

The twenty-fifth anniversary of the end of our war in Vietnam has come and gone. Our society became aware of that fact, and since we haven't resolved it yet, we wondered just what to think about it.

First we examined the present. We got to see and read about the celebrations in Vietnam. We heard about the veterans returning to assist their former enemies.

Then, as April 30 got closer, we got to relive the past. We got to experience the tragic crash of the cargo plane loaded with babies and medical personnel as the evacuation of the south accelerated. We got to see once again those famous images of choppers lifting desperate refugees from the roofs of Saigon. Finally, we saw the tank bursting through the gates of the Presidential Palace.

Most of all we got to listen to important people tell us what it all means twenty-five years later. Some even went so far as to use the opportunity to advise veterans that since the war has been over for so long that we should put it behind us. Of course that's the same thing they wanted twenty-five years ago.

Veterans have been examining the war's meanings and effects for all those years. They expect us to forget what we have learned, so they won't have to be reminded of how many of today's decisions grow out of the effects of that senseless war.

Like it or not, the way the United States executes military strategy, and even how it picks which wars to fight, is influenced by Vietnam.

Like it or not, our economy is still paying the debts incurred during the Vietnam War. The American budget was balanced until Lyndon Johnson decided he wanted guns and butter. We've still got five years to pay on the thirty-year T-bills issued during the war.

But the biggest effects most veterans see are the human effects. The human problems were created by the war and reinforced by staggering debt. Over those twenty-five years veterans have begged, pleaded, and protested, attempting to solve those problems to no avail.

Though we know the number of names on the wall, we can only estimate the number of veterans who are daily turned away from VA hospitals. If that number were one, it would be one too many, but veterans are getting health care by the lowest bidder.
Though we know the number of those who came home with purple hearts, we can only estimate the number of veterans who are homeless on the streets. If that number were one, it would be one too many, but veterans are getting social services by the lowest bidder.

Though we kept track of the number of barrels of herbicides shipped to Vietnam, we can only estimate the number of veterans and their children who have had health problems caused by living in a chemical soup. If that number were one, it would be one too many, but veterans are getting treatment by the lowest bidder.

Though we have records of the tons of bombs dropped, shells fired, and rifle rounds expended, we can only estimate the number of veterans who are incapacitated to some degree by post-traumatic stress. If that number were one, it would be one too many, but veterans are getting therapy by the lowest bidder.

Meanwhile, our government continues to stonewall and deny the existence of any problems, including problems indicated by its own studies. If Congress really cares for veterans, as each congressman will attest, why do these problems persist after twenty-five years?

The real problem is that veterans are getting government by the highest bidder.