War In Vietnam

IT TOOK three years for the war in Vietnam to become controversial. It took the Persian Gulf war about three days.Clayton K. Yeutter, the new chairman of the Republican National Committee, fired the first volley by suggesting that Democrats who voted against authorizing President Bush to go to war "picked the wrong war. If the conflict goes well, that will work against them."Democrats immediately attacked Yeutter for making the war a partisan issue. "These remarks are deeply troubling," Sen. Robert Kerrey, D-Neb.

FOR MONTHS, readers have written and called seeking updated information about the number of U.S. soldiers killed and wounded in Iraq. Their e-mails and phone messages convey an urgency that transcends politics or opinions about the war itself. They express a desire for information and for articles that reflect the sacrifices and struggles of individual soldiers and their families. This trend, exemplified by last Sunday's front-page story "`Ripples' of War," which chronicled the effect of a soldier's death on a wide circle of family, friends and acquaintances, represents a more humanistic approach to reporting about the ramifications of war. The same day, The New York Times had a front-page article about deaths of soldiers over age 50 and how their loved ones and friends are coping.

America "can't seem to forget" the war in Vietnam, th novelist and journalist Jack Fuller wrote ten years ago, but it "doesn't know what exactly to remember," either."

The following is taken from a statement delivered Wednesday before the House Armed Services Committee. The author holds the Arleigh A. Burke chair in strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. His e-mail is acordesman@aol.com. Nearly half a century ago, I entered the office of the secretary of defense at a time when it was neoliberals who thrust us into a war in Vietnam. Over the years that followed, I saw the same tendency in that war to downplay the risks and threats and internal divisions in the nation where we fought that I see in the way that this administration treats the Iraq war today.

Thirty years ago, when the United States was fighting the war in Vietnam, much of the peace movement revolved around the college campus. Then, anti-war protest was often associated with words like "counterculture" and "draft dodger." Today's protesters arrive from a different era, the age of a volunteer army. This week in New York, a well-dressed middle-age man was part of the protest. He bore a sign that read: Corporate Attorneys Against the War. When other demonstrators decided to make themselves heard, they blocked Fifth Avenue by staging a "die-in."

Clinton: 'a liar' or 'freak of nature'I am writing this letter with a sense of outrage after listening to Bill Clinton's speech before the American Legion Aug. 26.After hearing him say that, despite opposing the war in Vietnam, he was never against the heroic men and women who served in the war, I have to question either his veracity or his memory. I don't remember anyone from the anti-war movement who supported the military during the Vietnam War.By Bill Clinton's own recollections, he was a vocal and fervent supporter of the anti-war movement while studying in England.

Because of an editing error, a letter in the Jan. 23 Forum from Katharine W. Rylaarsdam misquoted the philosopher Spinoza. The quotation, which was accurately contained in Ms. Rylaarsdam's letter, should have read: "Peace is not an absence war; it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice."% We regret the error.Control abuse by making politicians payThe only way greedy politicians and government officials are going to be stopped from using government funds for their own gain is to insure that each one has to make restitution for all money used erroneously.

Baby Boomers and Vietnam WarAs the "baby boomers" reach for their rightful station in society, many want to question our birthright on the basis of one factor: Did you serve in your generation's war in Vietnam?I did. And I believe that gives me the constitutional right to freely express my opinion.In Vietnam, the U.S. lacked a policy to deal with the plight of the exploited people of southeast Asia. . . . Ho Chi Minh originally sought help from the U.S. but was turned away because the French had been our allies.

It is hard to determine when the word "quagmire" was first used to describe a foreign military adventure gone bad, but its etymology shows that it is an appropriate term. Quagmire's first syllable comes from the word "quake" - as in earthquake - and it originally referred to ground that appeared solid but actually gave way when stepped upon. That could be the description of the British in South Africa in the 1890s or the French in Algeria in the 1960s. In U.S. foreign policy, "quagmire" is usually associated with the war in Vietnam, which appeared to many to be a clear-cut case of stopping Communist aggression and expansion, but turned out to be a far more complex situation.

Norman Morrison was a Quaker. He was opposed to war, the violence of war, the killing. He came to the Pentagon, doused himself with gasoline, burned himself to death, below my office. He held a child in his arms, his daughter. Passers-by shouted, `Save the child.' He threw the child. The child lived and is alive today. "His wife issued a very moving statement: `Human beings must stop killing other human beings.' And that's a belief I shared. I shared it then. I believe it even more strongly today.