More questions for military and veterans who fought in a war? They later performed a shoddy surgery on his leg, leaving him with a limp. Volunteering to give him or her a ride to and from their appointments. To force a false confession, guards beat him "every two or three hours" for four days. Congressmen visited South Vietnam in 1970 and reported the horrors they witnessed. The resulting disarray allowed a pro-American general to overthrow Cambodia's government. A four-year investigation by the military confirmed 18 culprits, none of whom faced formal consequences. Pride can kill a Vet. The U.S., however, continued counting them as "unaccounted for.". Even those who were adopted were sometimes given away by their new parents. . But few people knew the true extent of his dishonesty in 1969. Now it dragged America back into combat. At Kent State University in Ohio, students and activists went on the anti-warpath. This question is mainly for someone on my contacts who asks similar questions. That doesn't include the life-shortening disorders and severe disabilities suffered by the children of those exposed. Nice lumping and steretyping. In 1968 the bloodiest phase of the war began, and Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were killed. As Americans were rocked by tectonic social shifts, the war's many faults shook their collective conscience. In 1964 President Lyndon Johnson seemingly agreed, telling his national security adviser that the Vietnam War wasn't "worth fighting for." The campaign killed between 150,000 and 500,000 noncombatants. Are high school sports in need of radical reform? So many from then and even now don't stand up for the benfits they deserve. The US Government does not recognize “in-country” identifiers (Just like … McCain became incapable of lifting his arms above his shoulders. Cottingham served as part of the Tiger Force, a unit assembled in 1966 to "out-guerrilla" the Vietcong, per the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. I signed up for the second tour. War: What is it good for? The empathy we Vietnam Vets feel for each other is something none can describe from any other war. On May, 12, 1975, the Khmer Rouge –- Cambodia's Communist regime –- commandeered an American cargo ship. A superior officer ordered Bruner to see a psychiatrist and scolded him for speaking up. 1,326 520. War is organized barbarism on an enormous scale. But, in my mind's eye, I didn't perform all that well; and I can't forgive people until I figure out some way to forgive myself. … However, military analyst Daniel Ellsberg (above) discovered the cover-up. Per the Chicago Tribune, in 1990 the VA revealed that the military realized Agent Orange was dangerous but used it anyway. Nonetheless, with the CIA's blessing, three Berets shot Chuyen in the head for supposedly stabbing them in the back. Official: COVID-19 prompts Rose Bowl move out of Calif. As end nears, Trump gets doses of flattery, finality. Jump to page: Results 1 to 30 of 76 ... so to speak, while Vietnam was a completely unnecessary ****fest with tons of grey area. One former bully recalled that the forlorn orphans "would just look down and walk away." As North Vietnamese troops prepared to topple Saigon, rumors circulated that the incoming Communists would slaughter anyone connected to America. And then when they got back home, they were treated like the scum of … As Dr. Darius Rejali observed, torture "gives one person absolute power over another," which distorts the torturer's morals and worsens societies that condone it. What kills people is not COVID. As Smithsonian Magazine described, many of their mothers didn't view them as tiny humans but humongous burdens. Students hammered him for perpetuating a conflict that he promised to end and for being Richard Nixon. According to one estimate, the number of veterans without stable accommodation was … In March the demoralized men marched on the village of My Lai with orders to eradicate Communists and Communist sympathizers. do this for 13 months strait then when you come out you get back here and tell us if your not messed up in the head to. The rationale sounded straightforward: drown the country's jungles in plant poison to prevent Vietcong from hiding. In 1967 the jaded GIs executed untold numbers of defenseless villagers. Why is ebenefits so messed up? Meadlo wasn't alone. Maybe your just too dumb to know what your talking about. What are you gonna do when Russia sends tsunami. In the process, he broke both arms and a leg. If you’re going to Hell, you might as well go in style. Twenty-seven members admitted that collecting ears as trophies "was routine." Charley Company savagely murdered 504 villagers. A temporary peace ensued but was shattered on May 4. That year he publicly promised to reduce America's involvement in the Vietnam War while he secretly reduced Cambodia to rubble. Uncle Sam was dead wrong. According to History, lawmakers lambasted him for waging war without Congressional input. Then they dumped him in a "murky" body of water. Yet people tend to accept it more than less frequent instances of torture. Who knows what recruiters are promising these days, but there was a time when a stint in the military looked quite attractive to an awful lot of people, for a multitude of reasons. Eleven hours later a ceasefire officially commenced in accordance with the Paris Peace Accords. Other POWs endured having all four limbs bound together (sometimes behind their backs), whereupon they were hung from meat hooks for hours or days. Right? Our suicide rate is so high that--if true--we would have been wiped out before 1999. The country's ousted ex-leader threw his support behind the Khmer Rouge. As Time detailed, in 1969 the Green Berets conducted a top-secret operation to ascertain the effectiveness of the Cambodia bombings. But Koh Tang was crawling with up to 200 amply armed and battle-tested combatants. The Khmer Rouge went on to implement oppressive policies and engage in atrocities (including cannibalism and genocide) that resulted in the deaths of between 1 million and 3 million people. You mean compared to a world without medicine, or transportation, or instant communication? Instead of being honored for service to their country, the vietnam veterans were ridiculed and mean things were said. By 1965 the U.S. military had taken charge and started telling the relatives of captive commandos that their loved ones died in the line of duty. Of course, not everyone gets it, my grandfather fought 3 bloody wars, and he didn't seem to get shell shock, which is quite odd as he served in a duty that had a 90% mortality rate. I had a black friend who was the easiest going person I have ever met. Arizona Senator John McCain was never physically the same after surviving over five years as a POW. The country's medical system is also limited. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs lists 14 different diseases, including Parkinson's and seven kinds of cancer, linked to Agent Orange exposure. The media made it that as if the entire U.S. military perpetrated the atrocities in Vietnam. Why are Vietnam veterans honored? Newer units provided by the United States contained a single inmate. In reality, commandos had raided nearby North Vietnamese targets as part of an operation originated by the CIA. I have a docket # that is 4 years old? and here’s the story: One night in early July we were set up in an ambush position during the day. Often the offspring of white or black men and Vietnamese women, these babies resembled blended enemies. No wonder so many were messed up. Will nuclear war happen this month or early next year? They fought for us to be where we are now. Initially hailed as heroes, the Tiger Force soon saw killing as "the way to live," according to one Tiger. Will Asthma Joe get as much guff as Bonespurs Don for being disqualified from military service? Even so, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs found that Vietnam veterans "with high exposure to warzone stress were nearly twice as likely to have died" between 1987 and 2013 than those who experienced less stress. Sure there are some that suffer from the war, and many more that suffer because of the manner in which our government has neglected the care of these soldiers. No skill usable on the outside, plus they got so messed up, one way or another, that they couldn’t hold a job if somebody had offered them one. The war had gore galore and rage to spare as napalm and incendiary policies scorched physical and political landscapes. I have always considered my self a Vietnam veteran. South Vietnamese leader Ngo Dinh Diem and JFK were shot dead three weeks apart in 1963. Tufts University explained that the Johnson Administration bombed Cambodia in 1965 because the country severed ties with the U.S. while allowing Communists to cross its borders. 11 Answers. It was literally overkill, just like the war itself. In 1994, I joined a group of volunteers on a goodwill project that was organized by the Friendship Foundation of American Vietnamese, a nonprofit based in Ohio. So people don’t know. A disabled veteran may struggle to get to appointments. Get your answers by asking now. Future Congressman Sam Johnson suffered seven years in captivity. I know it sounds very ignorant, but here's my question. But Cambodia had never formally joined the fighting. Two days after launching the invasion, Nixon announced it on television, conveniently leaving out the lethal aerial assaults that accompanied it. What kills people is water. A group of American infantrymen known as Charlie Company took a huge hit, according to History, suffering 28 casualties. Even then he managed to keep everyone in the dark for as long as possible. A former prisoner compared them to coffins. Why were Vietnam vets treated so badly when they came home? And we are all suffering from sever PTSD as a result of all the atrocities we committed while deployed to Vietnam. Meadlo's mother would later lament, "I sent them a good boy and they made him a murderer." They encountered kids, mothers, and largely elderly men. Tired of the government's seemingly inexhaustible dishonesty, Ellsberg eventually leaked the Pentagon Papers, showing shocking chicanery by the government during the Vietnam War. I confirm that I am a U.S. Fourteen men stood trial, but only Calley was convicted. I served with the 3BN11thREG1stMARDIV from 1970 to 1971. Can you threaten suicide to get out of basic training? We know they experienced more combat though, than anyone else. Many wished to walk away from Vietnam altogether and find their American fathers. Vietnam vets and their advocates believe a brutal calculation may lie at the heart of why their claims have gone unexamined. So even if you were stationed in South Africa passing out basketballs at a gym, you qualify to call yourself a Vietnam Vet, because that term has no legal standing and is a colloquialism. The operation ran like a legless racehorse. It's hard to quantify the harm caused by combat exposure and torture because, as the Lancet noted, soldiers tend to be healthier than the average person. That is not true! What in the hell are you talking about I am coming out there and kicking your ***? True Face of the Vietnam Vet by Malcolm McConnell [Reader's Digest (May 1994)] Fed up with the stereotype of his comrades as bedraggled losers, one man decided to expose [1] the frauds.. On the State Fair grounds in Dallas, B.G. . I was in the homecoming parade with the 1STMARDIV on base. How many people are you talking about? Like a deadbeat dad, the U.S. refused to pay attention to the children's pain. Eight men faced criminal charges, but Nixon wanted officials to scrap the case. You make assertions that simply are not true. The Vietnamese dubbed them "children of the dust." The United States and South Vietnam had Catholic presidents who were shot to death in November 1963. The New York Times described the original cages as "small concrete trenches with bars on top" which tightly packed five to seven people. Thousands of Vietnam vets who returned home unaware that they had been exposed to the same toxic dioxin that was meant to combat their enemies. Moreover, the mission had been a humiliating failure, and officials worried the commandos were undercover Communists. ... Asians Americans (especially Asian Men) have been treated badly especially by the Vietnam Vets like we are lower then them. Suddenly, court proceedings couldn't proceed "for national security reasons." So why did it become an issue after Vietnam? Led by Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge were ruthless Cambodian Communists who employed guerrilla tactics. Per ABC, in 1967 McCain's plane was struck by a missile, forcing him to eject. Five years prior, exclamations about a bloody incursion into Cambodia marked the beginning of the end of Nixon's presidency. Defense officials knew about the fighters, but nobody told the Marines. As a former member recounted, "We weren't even keeping count. But Em Son, the former special forces commander for the Khmer Rouge, later stated that Hargrove had been captured, questioned, and shot. Even if a lot of people saw the war as unjust why treat the people that fought the war like garbage? 1,326 520. In January 1968, fighting intensified with the Tet Offensive, which saw North Vietnam land a series of sucker punches on the U.S. and South Vietnam. 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