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| Michigan's Vietnam Veteran's Memorial is tucked between behind the Michigan Historical Museum and Michigan's Hall-of-Justice. Like so much of the Vietnam conflict, it is hidden as if to make it easy to forget. |
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| The actual monument is magnificent. The wall with the names of those lost in Vietnam is suspended through most of its arc. It immediately called to mind a page half turned...and then interrupted. |
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| The names are broken down by county. |
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| Eaton County |
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| Ingham county. I recognized names from both: Farhat, Klco, Hanna, Beatty. I went to high school with brothers and sisters by those names. |
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| A book with pages of stainless steel and ink of laser etching. If you served with a buddy who didn't make it, and you didn't know what county he was from, you can look him up. It is sobering to turn the pages. |
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| Off to the side is a stone for those who were wounded, either in flesh or in spirit. |
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| The back of the monument has a very brief history of the conflict. |
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| Worlds of pain and loss, reduced to a few words; ashes. Our country, those of us old enough to remember, are still deeply divided by Vietnam. We didn't stop the Godless Communists in Vietnam but they did not take over Thailand or Indonesia or the Philippines. It is not an experiment we can run twice; first one way and then the other. |
That is well done!
ReplyDeleteMy service was right after the Vietnam era. I have always held in high esteem those who served there. I have known many Vietnam vets (including several who died there), and I have always felt sorrow over the shabby way they were treated when they came home.
ReplyDeleteIt was the Left, the Media, and our politicians of the day who lost that war for us. I will never forgive Walter Cronkite (may piss be upon him) and his ilk for turning public sentiment against a decisive victorious conclusion. Tet was a disaster for the Commies, and yet the Media spun it as a defeat for us. The media and the international Commie movement purposely spun the false narrative that WE were the bad guys, the public started to believe it and lose faith, and then from Nixon on down our leaders did not have the guts to do WHATEVER it took to win it overwhelmingly and QUICKLY.
Same story as Korea, actually. Our politicians would not let our military leaders actually WIN the war, because they were afraid of a larger war with the Red Chinese and the Soviets. Our dim bulb politicians could not see that the Chinese and Soviet Commies were ALREADY involved up to their eyeballs, and thus whatever we had to do to wage war against them too was absolutely warranted and righteous. Same as in Vietnam.