Thanks for all you are doing. I visited Vietnam (not as a veteran) for a few weeks in 1999 and again in 2000. I didn't know what to expect, but I was struck by how friendly and welcoming people were. Reconciliation is very important work.
The greatest tragedy, to any humanist, of America is its total lack of solidarity with victims of its innumerable crimes: from the Hiroshima and Nagasaki crime against humanity of biblical proportions to destruction of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Iraq. In Vietnam we talk of the most vicious ways of killing, napalm bombs, 1-3 million killed, an unimaginable number to me - and yet, most Americans will endlessly talk of scars its left on them, basically never what it did to Vietnamese. Mind boggling and heartbreaking. It reminds you of post WW2 movies, where Japanese were not human beings, just bodies piling up after being eliminated.
No lesson ever learned, while one democracy after another gets toppled: Iran, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Salvador, the list goes on and on. And so today, the US is directly enabling the genocide of Gaza and the total destruction of people and their land - and most stay silent with complicity. I cannot comprehend for the life of me how one grow to be so heartless to feel nothing, no solidarity, no empathy for others. Is it because they are not white, which is why the racism cannot die off? Think of this: even the best of the US presidents (say Obama) love to practice international terrorism, like bombing of Yemen say - and we speak of distant lands the US has no contact with. And so we have here yet another heartless article masquerading as humanistic expose - instead of crying over unbearable destruction of Palestine today, the author muses - almost poetically - over the past without ever saying clearly: from Vietnam to Iraq we, the US, have been practicing one massacre after another, one destruction after another, while never in war with those countries. One uses the language of war, as if the US had been threatened by those countries, as if those countries were potent enemies, as if they had gotten in contact, as if those countries had potent armies able to fight back.
Thank you John Terzano for your heartfelt story. I was one of your generation who thought we would change the world for the betterment of all humanity. In these days of corruption, greed, and division your thoughts and deeds give me reason for hope.
Thanks for this moving essay and your thoughtful perspective related to the very personal costs of war. Your experience shows first-hand that good can come of it--albeit after the fact, and at tremendously high cost. It's a shame that in this case, it took that war to ultimately open the gates of goodwill between the two Countries. Without minimizing that reality, kudos to you and your colleagues for paving that path forward.
Thanks for all you are doing. I visited Vietnam (not as a veteran) for a few weeks in 1999 and again in 2000. I didn't know what to expect, but I was struck by how friendly and welcoming people were. Reconciliation is very important work.
The greatest tragedy, to any humanist, of America is its total lack of solidarity with victims of its innumerable crimes: from the Hiroshima and Nagasaki crime against humanity of biblical proportions to destruction of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Iraq. In Vietnam we talk of the most vicious ways of killing, napalm bombs, 1-3 million killed, an unimaginable number to me - and yet, most Americans will endlessly talk of scars its left on them, basically never what it did to Vietnamese. Mind boggling and heartbreaking. It reminds you of post WW2 movies, where Japanese were not human beings, just bodies piling up after being eliminated.
No lesson ever learned, while one democracy after another gets toppled: Iran, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Salvador, the list goes on and on. And so today, the US is directly enabling the genocide of Gaza and the total destruction of people and their land - and most stay silent with complicity. I cannot comprehend for the life of me how one grow to be so heartless to feel nothing, no solidarity, no empathy for others. Is it because they are not white, which is why the racism cannot die off? Think of this: even the best of the US presidents (say Obama) love to practice international terrorism, like bombing of Yemen say - and we speak of distant lands the US has no contact with. And so we have here yet another heartless article masquerading as humanistic expose - instead of crying over unbearable destruction of Palestine today, the author muses - almost poetically - over the past without ever saying clearly: from Vietnam to Iraq we, the US, have been practicing one massacre after another, one destruction after another, while never in war with those countries. One uses the language of war, as if the US had been threatened by those countries, as if those countries were potent enemies, as if they had gotten in contact, as if those countries had potent armies able to fight back.
So good of you to work on war legacy issues. Your article had me thinking about some different results of having fought in a war. In appreciation.
Just thank you.
Thank you John, and many other Vietnam vets, for your work over many decades to make this world a kinder and better place. Deepest respect.
Thank you John Terzano for your heartfelt story. I was one of your generation who thought we would change the world for the betterment of all humanity. In these days of corruption, greed, and division your thoughts and deeds give me reason for hope.
Thanks for this moving essay and your thoughtful perspective related to the very personal costs of war. Your experience shows first-hand that good can come of it--albeit after the fact, and at tremendously high cost. It's a shame that in this case, it took that war to ultimately open the gates of goodwill between the two Countries. Without minimizing that reality, kudos to you and your colleagues for paving that path forward.