Blast from the past. Thanks. I served in the Navy stateside in the Navy and would get calls from friends who came back shot up. The stuff that was going on would shock anybody. One of them was a tank commander and had to get permission to return fire on the nva who were hiding in rubber plant groves. They were told not to do it because we had an agreement with the French that would pay them 1 million dollars for each rubber tree that we destroyed. Occasionally, they would squeeze off a few shells just to vent and piss off the brass. Almost everyone that served during that time (including me) were disgusted with the war because the politicians never let the military finish the job.
It was sad to see the waste of human lives and treasure in Vietnam. We lost lives by the thousands and Vietnam along with the Great Society even more so piled up the spending and began the financial bleeding of massive national debt.