donna V. – my sympathies for your family’s loss.

You are right when you said ‘we probably should not have gone in there” – those 55,000+ would be alive and with us instead of a name on a wall.

The Vietnamese were fighting an anti-colonial war – they fought the Japanese, then the returning French, then us. We were fighting to “contain the spread of communism” – so when Vietnam fell to the Reds, what happened? Nothing.

Today Vietnam is totalitarian – and peaceful. It bothers no one. American companies are manufacturing there and selling Coca Cola.

Your cousin and my buddy died while politicians did everything possible to avoid admitting they made a mistake. It’s always someone else’s kids who die for mistakes.

So for what exactly did your cousin and my buddy die?

They died for an empty slogan. If I had a son and he faced being drafted into a similar war situation I would send him to Canada.