Vietnam War

Donald Phillip Townsend, a highly decorated Vietnam War veteran who became a licensed thoroughbred horse breeder, died Nov. 29 from complications after blocked blood vessel surgery at St. Joseph Medical Center. The longtime Keymar resident was 61. Mr. Townsend, the son of a stationary engineer and a homemaker, was born in Baltimore and raised in Highlandtown. After graduating from Patterson Park High School in 1967, Mr. Townsend was drafted into the Army in 1968 and served as an infantryman with the 1st Cavalry Division in Vietnam.

Americans everywhere at home are in torment. They are being asked for what today seems to pass as the supreme sacrifice — undergoing intrusive body searches for their own and their country's safety. There was a time in not-too-distant memory when the word "sacrifice" meant something here — such as during World War II and the Vietnam War. Then, Americans had to lay their lives on the line in the tens and hundreds of thousands for it. That fact was particularly true in the 1941-45 fight against German and Japanese totalitarianism, in which 405,000 Americans died, literally in defense of our political and democratic system, as imperfect as it may be. It was true, perhaps to a lesser extent, in Vietnam from the early 1960s through 1975, when another 58,000 Americans lost their lives and many thousands more were wounded in a failed effort to deny communism another outpost in Southeast Asia.

With the revelation that Richard Blumenthal, the U.S. Senate candidate in Connecticut, received five draft deferments during the Vietnam War, and with the country now involved in two wars, the draft has become a subject of renewed interest. Mr. Blumenthal apparently did not oppose the war on principle. He seems to have requested the deferments for two reasons: He did not want to take the chance of putting himself at risk in the war zone, and he did not want his blossoming career interrupted.

It doesn't seem so long ago, when I still had hair, that I marched in the streets with many members of my generation to protest our nation's participation in the Vietnam War. We burned our draft cards, railed against LBJ and sang, "All we are saying is give peace a chance." We knew, when it was out time to lead, that war would be a thing of the past. Today, we are involved in a permanent state of war. While winding down from an unfortunate excursion in Iraq, we are escalating our presence in Afghanistan, a place where no one has ever been able to bring much order, and we don't even seem to question it. We just accept it!

B y Norris P. West Like everyone else, when I think of black history during this month, the usual names come to mind: Nat Turner, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. DuBois. But I also have gained a greater appreciation over the years for living black history - stories and experiences of people you might meet in your neighborhood, at the supermarket or at the fitness club. The fitness club - the Columbia Athletic Club, to be specific - is the place where I met Charles DeShields six years ago. When I got to know him, it was apparent that his life embodies so much of 20th Century African-American history.

Thank you for the article on the passing of A. Robert Kaufman. As one of Bob's closest friends and political comrades in his latter years, I would like to briefly respond to Professor Donald F. Norris' comment that Bob was irrelevant to the political process. Before there was such a thing as the civil rights movement, Bob was walking picket lines against racial injustice. Before there was a mass movement against the Vietnam War, Bob was helping to organize and educate people about the crimes the U.S. government was perpetrating there.

Of Baltimore, born April 22, 1947 in LaFollette, TN, passed away August 27, 2009. Preceded in death by his loving mother, Marie, and brother Ronald. He leaves behind his sister Gloria, daughters; Frances Hipsley and Tamara Hoyle, Son-in-law Rich Hipsley, and three granddaughters; Marie, Bekah and Amy. Wayne was a United States Marine veteran who proudly served in the Vietnam War. He was loved by many and respected by all. Memorial service will be held on Tuesday, September 1st at MacNabb Funeral Home in Catonsville, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. , followed by a Celebration of Life in Lansdowne.

It's Miller time in Vietnam, by way of the streets of Baltimore. When SABMiller, a large London-based brewing company, decided to launch the Miller High Life brand into the Southeast Asian nation this year, it turned to a Baltimore company to design the advertising. Trahan, Burden & Charles created a commercial with fast-paced scenes of young, chic people having a good time, interspersed with nighttime clips of Baltimore's Fells Point and some iconic images of New York City. SABMiller "wanted to do something very American," said Allan Charles, chairman and creative director for TBC. The commercial is "all very American.

Walter Cronkite, once the most trusted man in America and a leading figure in broadcast journalism's Mount Rushmore, believed the nation's war on drugs was unwinnable, and he said so on television. A decade after his years with CBS News, Mr. Cronkite succeeded in raising public awareness of the war's futility - an impressive accomplishment. Of course, Mr. Cronkite is famous for having reached the same correct conclusion about the Vietnam War in 1968. All of his obituaries have recalled Mr. Cronkite's special report from Vietnam, his characterization of the war as stalemate and his call for a negotiated peace.