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Twenty-Five Years Ago Today

By Horace Coleman

In 'Nam a technically superior force, mostly composed of and lead by Caucasians, was defeated by a backward (but not primitive) Asian society that was superior in will, purpose, political focus and cultural sophistication.

Americans have grown mentally flabby and spiritually weak and insincere. We suspect we're too good to die and heaven couldn't possibly be as much fun as Disneyland, let alone the rest of America. Besides, we have more stuff. None of this is to imply that the Vietnamese are living saints, or that communism is a superior system, rather that communism (for a short time) can be a better system in some instances than what some people currently have. Vietnam was one of those times and places. Eventually, all forms of government dissolve and degenerate into cliques, oligarchies and corruption. Sic semper or something....

Democracy turns into mob rule or rule by whoever has the most cash/clout. It needs an informed, intelligent and involved electorate, so you know it's going to be sporadic.

Americans first went along with the war in Vietnam because they're greedy sheep and anti-communist, even though the vast majority of the population has no knowledge of or experience with actual communism or socialism (except for "entitlement programs"). They eventually opposed the war because we weren't winning it quickly enough and it required personal sacrifice. The country can't (won't) sustain long-term efforts - gotta have instant progress/gratification.

We basically ignored Korean war vets. 'Nam was too big to ignore and too complex and visually ugly for a soundbite mentality that wants quick, easily-absorbed knowledge and has no desire for insight or wisdom. So, "blame" the vets. I think a number of 'Nam vets are secretly (and justifiably) contemptuous of and disdainful toward a society that made unnecessary and excessive demands on them.

So, the home team lost, even though it was favored by the political Las Vegas line, which wasn't necessarily based on reality. The home team not only lost, but didn't cover the point spread. And, even more devastating, all the dire things predicted and expected didn't come to pass. Makes you want to ask, "Was this trip really necessary?" This makes many people automatically do upbeat post-game analyses to cover their tracks.

The real Vietnam syndrome is the need for some to justly and satisfactorily explain things, mostly to themselves. To make sense of the experience. Thing is, 'Nam is basically irrational. 'Nam is over; the next time it will get another fifteen minutes of fame will be on the 50th anniversary of the war's end. Except for Henry Kissinger, all the "significant players" and most of the vets will be dead by then. Another generation of political troglodytes, militarists and grad students needing dissertation fodder will be interested. Maybe. More than likely, Vietnam will end up in the same limbo as the War of 1812: a war we didn't "lose" (in our minds), but don't talk about. Let alone understand.

If you really want to understand America's Vietnam vets, check out what happened in France before and after Vietnam and Algeria. Or study the two Koreas. You can probably make more sense of another country's misadventures than ours. You're too close to this one. And, an honest 'Nam vet might tell you something about the collective you-and-us you really wouldn't want to hear. But it is kind of funny about pissants who never served in 'Nam pretending to be 'Nam vets. I bet talking to some outed ones of that type would give you some good insights. How come you did that?

Many vets don't talk about 'Nam because, although they can easily give you physical details, it was a mystical, lost, youthful "religious" experience no one wanted to hear about for so long that it's lost some precious and precise meaning.

It was Dickens: The best of times; the worst of times. A rite of passage. A science-fiction war. It was an adventure, a mistake. A "patriotic duty," a quasi-colonial war, a civil war, an anti-communist holy crusade and FUBAR - all at the same time. Society pinned a scarlet "N" on our foreheads and treated us as if we were former street whores. It was as if Vietnam made us the winners in Shirley Jackson's lottery. All we were was spouse, lover, father, mother, sister, brother, uncle, aunt, cousin, friend, classmate. The person from around the corner or up the street. The roles we played before and after we got blooded or bloody.

After being outcast for so long, you just might decide to keep your memories, dreams, nightmares and hard-earned knowledge to yourself.

I learned a lot in 'Nam. Namely, that:

• People will do whatever it takes to survive.
• America can be humbled (though it won't admit it can be or that it has happened)
• American blacks don't have the wherewithal, culture or temperament to have a revolution - just prayin' ain't gonna get it, though people overestimate "progress" and its consequences all the time.
• People of color basically want the same thing as white Americans: more stuff.
• A white society never really respects a non-white one - even if (especially if) that society can kick its ass.
• Americans tend to be very ignorant about history, recent history and current events, as well as xenophobic.
• People of color aren't inherently any more moral than any other people.
• Americans, like the citizens of most countries, are good at jiving themselves.
• The communist/Stalinist phrase that goes "the capitalists will sell us the rope with which to hang them" is an overstatement - and wrong. We'll hang ourselves with our own behavior and mentality.
• We know most of our rights but few of our responsibilities nor how overprivileged we are.
• It takes a long time to do things right - and then they don't stay that way long.
• Moral courage is even rarer than physical bravery.
• Very few learn from their mistakes, or even want to. We just prefer a different outcome.
• Racism - and the other isms - are so ingrained in most individuals that they can't recognize their true form and extent in themselves.
• A lifetime is as long as you live, however long that is.
• Tomorrow isn't promised.
• There are few obvious, fixed, permanent or easily understandable truths.
• God - assuming there is a sentient being with a gender and an agenda - ain't on no one's side but its own.
• You're capable of more than you think you are, positively and negatively.
• No one is too good to suffer - or die - for no good reason, even if it doesn't say that in the Constitution.
• Eventually you have to "write your own orders" and to accept the consequences of fate and your own actions with grace.
• The best things in life are free but rarely come without effort.