Vietnam Vets Should be Proud of Record

by: - T.L. Foster, A Vietnam Vet and Extremely Proud of It, 618 W. Westwood, Peoria, Illinois.

I guess the release of the hostages in Iran has triggered an impulse in me and other Vietnam veterans to air the truth about all of the misconceptions that abound about the long, bloody Vietnam War and its veterans. Here are the six misconceptions that I have

been continually asked about since I was carried out of that area on a stretcher in May 1968:

1) That the Vietnam War was something less than a real war – baloney – why then were there more total combat casualties for the Marine Corps in Vietnam than WWII?  And why did the Vietnam War produce the third largest number of casualties for the U.S. Army in its 205 year history?  If Americans are so hungry for heroes, there are 236 Medal of Honor winners from the war of whom over 60% gave their lives to earn that precious piece of metal!

2 ) That the Vietnam veterans had to be dragged into military service – baloney – two-thirds of the men and women who served in Vietnam were volunteers, while two-thirds of the men and women who served in WWII were drafted!

3 ) That many Vietnam Veterans had drug problems relating directly to the war – baloney- hard drugs never emerged on any scale at all until the very end of the war. By that time 95% of the veterans had already served! I find it incredibly ironic that marijuana use became a dangerous act when soldiers indulged in their leisure time, yet the males and females of their peer group who stayed behind in college could and often did blow their minds 24/7 on mescaline, LSD and other dangerous drugs with absolutely no stigma once they graduated!

4 ) That our Vietnam troops were not as efficient as previous American combat troops – baloney again – we were the youngest, best educated, best equipped, and most decorated troops that America has ever seen!

5 ) That the American troops were defeated in Vietnam – Hogwash -  We never lost a major battle during our entire involvement !  We were ordered over there by orders of the Congress of the USA which supposedly represents the people, and we were ordered home

by the Congress.  We were most definitely NOT in any way defeated by the communists!

6 ) That the Vietnam veteran was truly a war-monger – baloney too – any person who is  willing to lay his life on the line so that someone else can have freedom (the Vietnamese people) from a bloody, atheistic communist oppression certainly isn’t a war-monger! How that got turned around I’ll never know, but someone during this controversial war was certainly working hard at twisting the truth.  Any idea just who that might have been News Media??

The above article was printed in the “Peoria Journal Star” newspaper in Peoria, Illinois on February 21, 1981 and in the March 1981 issue of the “Illinois  VFW  News”..