Revisiting Vietnam American RadioWorks
     
  Vietnam Scrapbook
     

Ray Erwin
Stillwater, Minnesota, USA

As a "veteran" of Viet Nam (USAID or U. S. Agency for International Development) I am frequently saddened whenever Viet Nam is reviewed and always so without any consideration of we hundreds of civilians that went toViet Nam in official technical advisory capacity or with charitable organizations.

And there are some 42 or so names on the MIA list that have no military identification and thus probably civilians. A good friend of mine with whom I trained in VN language and country orientation was captured during the Tet Offensive and his grave later found inland from Hue.

Richard A. Hunt in his "Pacification - The American Struggle for Vietnam's Hearts and Minds" says that our pacification program was highly successful but collapsed because of the failure of the external military effort.

I was an USAID agricultural advisor in Lam Dong Province 1966-67 and believed in our American effort in Viet Nam (and continue to do so). I paid the price, however, and barely survived an ulcer upon returning. I call myself a "veteran" as I like to list it with my record of a military veteran of WWII and the Korean Conflict.
   

 

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