Vietnam, today and looking back

[Bill Greenwood]

Vietnam is on my mind this week, even more than normal and not just because there is a t v special on going all the way back to '64 and the beginnings of direct U S involvement in combat.
It is particularly surreal in that 50 years ago almost to the month I was in the Air Force , but in the U S and was never sent to Vietnam and surely never volunteered to go.
The surreal part is that right now my Son and his girlfriend are visiting there for a couple of weeks. Here is a country that we were bitter enemies with, and even if in some ways the war was not a large or world wide as some it certainly was as intense for those who were part of it and it went on for 2 or 3 times as long as our other wars.
So, I'm just amazed that Americans are welcome there as visitors, and apparently without rancor. My Son pointed out that most people in the country these days would not even have been born 50 years ago and the war would not be fresh in their mind. Charles doesn't speak that language, but I asked him to try to find a few of the vets there and try to hear their feelings and thoughts and memories. Charles says to countryside is beautiful and the cities have knock off or local or Chinese made goods like Nike shoes. Charles loves to try all types of exotic food, but they don't have cheese curds or Dr. Pepper there?
One plane associated with the war is all the helicopters and tv just said about a million U S casualties were airlifted to hospitals usually with an hour flight.