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Bob Morris morrisbob@hotmail.com, Vietnam veteran
Teton Village, Wyoming 83025 - 0261, USA
Saigon's generals had fought for the French,
against their own people! The VietNamese
would never have consented for the southern
half of their country to be ruled by former
French collaborators.
By 1966, many of my colleagues at Camp
Lejeune had returned from VietNam. Those with
Liberal Arts backgrounds often agreed with me.
One said, "This War is so foolish and futile,
it cannot last another six months; and why
should WE sacrifice OUR careers protesting a
War that's going to end anyway?"
Those without Liberal Arts backgrounds
seldom understood. Evangelicals NEVER
understood. I've been a critic of the
Religious Right ever since. Where was their
reverence for life when we needed it?
An adjacent battalion had a Southern Baptist
chaplain who said, "Bob, whenever I have doubts
about this War, I reflect that the VietCong are
Communists; and it's all right to kill
Communists."
"But Commander," I repeated, "Communism has
nothing to do with it. The VietNamese would
fight to the death to liberate the southern half
of their country from our client regime of former
French collaborators if Karl Marx had never been
born, and Russia were still ruled by the Tsars."
We officers were being asked to send our
Marines to their deaths in a War unjust and
futile.
-- morrisbob@hotmail.com
070119 - 0302
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