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Answering Questions

By Jim Willingham

Answering questions: a high school history class project with Jason, May, 2009

How old were you when you were there?

I was 23 when I got to Vietnam in Sept., 1970 and was 24 when I left in Sept., 1971.

Can you talk about a sense of what you experienced?

My sense is that the Vietnam War was a tragic mistake. It never should have happened. We had a chance to have a peaceful resolution of the Vietnam and Indochina conflicts without war in the 1950's, but we were supposed to be afraid of communism spreading over the globe. Communism never would have expanded beyond Indochina in Southeast Asia, even without the war, as this area is surrounded by anti-communist nations like Thailand, Burma, Malaysia, and Indonesia. This was clearly evident, but the American people were told we had to stop communism in Vietnam before it went farther. This was a lie. America had offers of friendship and cooperation after WW1 and again after WW2 from Ho Chi Minh, but these were ignored in favor of trying to maintain a pro-western style of government. First, the US supported the French colonization and later a pseudo-democratic police state in South Vietnam. As it is now, we are making friends with the Vietnamese much as we would have had there been no war.

How do you feel about what you lived through?

It was a very heavy military experience flying into all these forts, artillery bases inside "South" Vietnam. At the end of my tour, August, 1971, we flew into 3 deserted artillery bases near the Cambodian border. The US Army just picked up and left. The South Vietnamese made no effort to occupy those areas.

What did you think about the war when you were in it and what do you think about it now?

When I was in Vietnam I was not thinking, really. I was mostly focused on doing my job and not-reacting emotionally to what I was seeing, like soldiers killed, destroyed terrain. We would just pass on to the next scene. It was enduring a year that gave me no sense of meaning other than flying about this war-torn country like a bad dream. I came home and marched to end the war with other veterans. Looking back, 40 years later, I still have vivid memories of desolated, defoliated landscape. I know that the land of Vietnam is still healing and that we, as a nation, must not ever do this again.

How were you changed by your experience?

I was ripped out of my innocence. I realized that America was not always so great after-all. I had seen a dark side and after coming home, lived in poverty and alienation for many years, angry and saddened, without a sense of direction or hope. I eventually went through a Vet Center program with other Vietnam Veterans and rehabilitation counseling. I came to terms with the Vietnam War in a larger perspective. We had been misguided in the past. One real change we need to make is to use our military responsibly for safety and defense and anti-terrorism and NOT for private contractor profits and false ideologies of power and greed. This is the most sacred trust that we share as Americans.

Jim Willingham is a VVAW member living in St Petersburg, Florida.