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From: John G. Kalil, Jr., USAF/OSI 69-70
Date: 3/29/2004
Time: 7:11:53 PM
Remote Name: 209.161.69.126
If you don't mind me asking. It's been 34 years since I left. I couldn't stand the place when I was there, yet I think about that year alot. Lots of memories of the people I served with and the places I went to in the Delta. I often wondered what happened there when the country fell to the Communists. I have very mixed emotions about the Vietnam war. Maybe we shouldn't have been there...I don't know. What I do know is the Viet Cong and the N. Vietnamese were murderers in their own right and some of the atrocities that they committed during that war should not be forgotten. Also, what should not be forgotten was the moral intent of the U.S. involvement and the sacrifice of the 55,000 Americans who died and the many more disabled GI's that live with their disabilities. What bothers me is how history is written about the war. I know that we may have made a mistake in being there in the first place, but that doesn't make the communists right. I now have a 16 year old daughter. When she was in Jr. High School, I read the section in her history book (all of 1 page)on the "unfortunate US involvement in Vietnam". No mention of the low life, murdering Viet Cong and the cold blooded North Vietnamese Communist government that committed atrocities. Unfortunately, the wrong people in authority are writing our history books. My daughter asked me about it and I told her the real story...including that the U.S., unfortunately, was backing a very corrupt government. But don't make the Cong look like the good guys. To me, the capital will always be Saigon. Not Ho Chi Minh City. F*** Ho Chi Minh.
I've played with the idea of going back to Can Tho.....and I'm not sure why. Maybe I need some form of "closure". I don't know what I would feel going back. THAT'S WHY I'M ASKING YOU HOW YOU RATED YOUR TRIP BACK TO CAN THO. I don't know if I can or want to forgive. And maybe that's wrong. I don't know if can smile at the Communists. Any maybe that's wrong.
How did you feel when you were there? Any regrets? Thanks, Pal for taking the time to read this. For your information, I live in the Pittsburgh, PA area. Just curious, where are you from?