Reason for the tragedy

John Nguyen,

I appreciate the words in your emotional letter.

If you recall the 1954 Geneva Convention that partitioned Vietnam one of the contingencies provided for free elections to be held. Whoever won the elections would control Vietnam. You know as well as I, that Ho Chi Minh would have been elected President. The US, in keeping with it's policy of containment, conspired with the South Vietnamese government and it's president, Ngo Dinh Diem to ignore any election provision. People like to blame the communist cadre for committing atrocities against local political officials-which is what happened. I would point out that many former Viet Minh soldiers who had fought to expel the French and who chose to remain in the South , were likewise assassinated by South Vietnamese forces.

When people claim that the Americans were helping the south to attain freedom, they fail to realize that the Viet Minh effectively gained freedom for ALL of Indochina when the French Expeditionary forces were defeated at DienBienphu. Foolishly Ho Chi Minh accepted the western powers and China's (who feared a strong Vietnam) assurances of elections and normalization.

The US State Department and CIA are to blame for getting us involved in an unjust war. The people who protested the war knew what I have already mentioned and did not feel that Vietnam was the place where our young servicemen and women should die. You may feel that our becoming involved was the thing we should do, but I ask you if the cause of South Vietnam was so just, then why weren't the ARVN's motivated enough to defeat the communist forces? After all, they had the most powerful nation on earth helping them.

Don't blame the war protestors. I fought in Vietnam in an infantry unit. I am proud of my service. However, the war was wrong, and I can't blame those who protested.

If you feel someone should be blamed, then point your finger at those who started the war, then changed their minds when they FINALLY realized it was a mistake. Those are the ones who abandoned you. Not the protestors. They never were with YOU or the war in the first place.