Why I went.

I was there as an engineer officer.  I was fortunate to spend most of my
time building and repairing and thus my memories of Vietnam are
not as haunting as some of my Vet buddies who were infantry.  
I talked to the Vietnamese as often as I could to try and
understand what they thought about the war. Most were terrified
of the Viet Cong and apathetic about democracy.  They were 
struggling just to survive and 
just wanted to be left alone in peace to watch their children
grow up and get married and have their own children.  
In college I had
read Dr. Tom Dooley's books about the partition of Vietnam and
the flood of refugees to the south.  Their stories of the 
atrocities that Ho Chi Minh conducted in his struggle to power
Were one reason I volunteered to go to Vietnam.  The atrocities
Ho perpetrated were on his own people.  Sheer terrorism.  I 
personally witnessed the results of similar terrorist acts by
the VC on Montagnard tribesmen that refused to pay the rice
tax or give their young sons to the VC cause.  I saw the 
mutilated village chief and his raped and mutilated wife and 
daughters left on display as a warning to others.  These events
never seemed to get in the American and Canadian press.  Only
the My Lai's would make it into Life magazine.  All though I 
think I have come to terms with my Vietnam experience, I was 
saddened to see all the press that was given to the recent
My Lai memorial.  To have national healing, Vietnam will have
to admit to and memorialize all those deaths that Ho, Giap
and others caused to turn Vietnam communist. Though tragic
My Lai was just another small example of brutality of war.
It was a pure power struggle for Ho to be at the top, regardless
 of the cost on his own peoples lives.  Read the history of the
struggle and it puts it all into perspective.  
Life meant nothing to Ho and Giap unless it was their own that
was threatened.  Is Vietnam better off now because of the 
communist revolution?  Don't think so. It's more captialist
now than before the war.