This Is Bush's Vietnam

The New York Times ^ | September 17, 2004 | BOB HERBERT

[presidio9]

ARLINGTON, Va.

The rows of simple white headstones in the broad expanses of brilliant green lawns are scrupulously arranged, and they seem to go on and on, endlessly, in every direction.

It was impossible not to be moved. A soft September wind was the only sound. Beyond that was just the silence of history, and the collective memory of the lives lost in its service.

Nearly 300,000 people are buried at Arlington National Cemetery, which is just across the Potomac from Washington. On Tuesday morning I visited the grave of Air Force Second Lt. Richard VandeGeer. The headstone tells us, as simply as possible, that he went to Vietnam, that he was born Jan. 11, 1948, and died May 15, 1975, and that he was awarded the Purple Heart.

His mother, Diana VandeGeer, who is 75 now and lives in Florida, tells us that he loved to play soldier as a child, that he was a helicopter pilot in Vietnam and that she longs for him still. He would be 56 now, but to his mother he is forever a tall and handsome 27.

Richard VandeGeer was not the last American serviceman to die in the Vietnam War, but he was close enough. He was part of the last group of Americans killed, and his name was the last of the more than 58,000 to be listed on the wall of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington. As I stood at his grave, I couldn't help but wonder how long it will take us to get to the last American combat death in Iraq.

Lieutenant VandeGeer died heroically. He was the pilot of a CH-53A transport helicopter that was part of an effort to rescue crew members of the Mayaguez, an American merchant ship that was captured by the Khmer Rouge off the coast of Cambodia on May 12, 1975. The helicopter was shot down and half of the 26 men aboard, including Lieutenant VandeGeer, perished.

(It was later learned that the crew of the Mayaguez had already been released.)

The failed rescue operation, considered the last combat activity of the Vietnam War, came four years after John Kerry's famous question, "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?"

Although he died bravely, Lieutenant VandeGeer's death was as senseless as those of the 58,000 who died before him in the fool's errand known as Vietnam. His remains were not recovered for 20 years - not until a joint operation by American and Cambodian authorities located the underwater helicopter wreckage in 1995. Positive identification, using the most advanced DNA technology, took another four years. Lieutenant VandeGeer was buried at Arlington in a private ceremony in 2000.

The Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation put me in touch with the lieutenant's family. "I'm still angry that my son is gone," said Mrs. VandeGeer, who is divorced and lives alone in Cocoa Beach. "I'm his mother. I think about him every day."

She said that while she will always be proud of her son, she believes he "died for nothing."

Lieutenant VandeGeer's sister, Michelle, told me she can't think about her brother without recalling that the last time she saw him was on her wedding day, in May 1974. "He looked so handsome and confident," she said. "He wanted to change the world."

Wars are all about chaos and catastrophes, death and suffering, and lifelong grief, which is why you should go to war only when it's absolutely unavoidable. Wars tear families apart as surely as they tear apart the flesh of those killed and wounded. Since we learned nothing from Vietnam, we are doomed to repeat its agony, this time in horrifying slow-motion in Iraq.

Three more marines were killed yesterday in Iraq. Kidnappings are commonplace. The insurgency is growing and becoming more sophisticated, which means more deadly. Ordinary Iraqis are becoming ever more enraged at the U.S.

When the newscaster David Brinkley, appalled by the carnage in Vietnam, asked Lyndon Johnson why he didn't just bring the troops home, Johnson replied, "I'm not going to be the first American president to lose a war."

George W. Bush is now trapped as tightly in Iraq as Johnson was in Vietnam. The war is going badly. The president's own intelligence estimates are pessimistic. There is no plan to actually win the war in Iraq, and no willingness to concede defeat.

I wonder who the last man or woman will be to die for this colossal mistake.

[concerned about politics]

This Is Bush's Vietnam

Just like Kerry and Viet Nam, the left is giving the enemy hope and sound bites to support their "army."
Like the left lost us the Viet Nam war, they're trying to make us lose this one, too.
If the left was pro-American, and the people banded together to fight terrorism on it's own soil, this war would be over.

[marty60]

BS. This is AMERICA's WAR for survival. When are these old lefties going to give it up. They lost the battle for the hearts and minds of the american people in the 60's and 70's. They are going to lose again.

[concerned about politics]

There is nothing that makes me angrier than the ghoulish, hate-filled, pacifist left's using our fallen soldiers and their families' grief to score political points.

Statement by Former Senator Bob Dole
Fri Sep 17, 2004 00:39:35-ET

ARLINGTON, VA -- Former Senator Bob Dole issued the following statement:

"As Chairman of the Bush-Cheney Veterans Coalition, and as a veteran, I call on John Kerry to demand that MoveOn.org take down their ad depicting a defeated American soldier.

It's one thing to debate whether we should take the fight to the terrorists, but depicting an American soldier in effect surrendering in the battle against the terrorists is beyond the pale.

I cannot believe that John Kerry, who reminds us daily of his Vietnam service, would possibly approve the disgusting and demoralizing portrayal of American soldiers fighting for us in Iraq, Afghanistan and around the world.

[roses of sharon]

Some minds are more susceptible than others to the cultural psychosis induced by the Islamic cults.

After 30 years of roaming the globe, murdering innocents with impunity, and claiming victimhood of occupation by Israel, these death cults are seeking to do the same to the 50 million souls in Iraq and Afganistan.

And the left and other intelligentsia, fall for it again/still.

[pabianice]

Bob Herbert is Dan Rather's brother.

[NetValue]

The disgusting new york times is using the same tactics they used to defeat America in Vietnam 30 years ago. John F'n Kerry led that treachery. America is getting a repeat performance. Let's hope voters are smarter today.

[Repairman Jack]

This is Bush's Vietnam

This is me vomiting.

[Rocko]

We left under a truce which the North Vietnamese violated. Why does the left never mention this?

[kabar]

As I stood at his grave, I couldn't help but wonder how long it will take us to get to the last American combat death in Iraq.,/i> <p. Or as Kerry said in 1971 before the Senate, "How do you ask someone to be the last man to die for a mistake?" This is going to become the new tact of the Dems. They want to cut and run and leave Iraq the same way we did in Vietnam. Are the South Vietnamese better off today under an oppressive Communist dictatorship?

[Parthalan]

As I understand it we should have let the military fight the war not the diplomats.

[presidio9]

Photograph of John Kerry meeting with Comrade Do Muoi, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, in Vietnam, July 15-18, 1993. Photo taken in the War Remnants Museum (formerly the "War Crimes Museum") in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) in May 2004.

In the Vietnamese Communist War Remnants Museum (formerly known as the "War Crimes Museum") in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), a photograph of John Kerry hangs in a room dedicated to the anti-war activists who helped the Vietnamese Communists win the Vietnam War. The photograph shows Senator Kerry being greeted by the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Comrade Do Muoi.

Jeffrey M. Epstein of Vietnam Vets for the Truth acquired the photograph over the Memorial Day weekend as America was commemorating its military heroes. Epstein's organization, Vietnam Vets for the Truth, issued a general request last week for photographs documenting Kerry's activities on behalf of the enemy. Bob Shirley, a Vietnam Swift Boat veteran (www.pcf45.com), sent the photograph to Epstein in response to that call. Shirley recently joined over 200 other Swift Boat veterans in signing an open letter questioning Kerry's fitness to serve as Commander

[SMARTY]

It is maddening how everyone who is too young to have a personal recollection of the period has bought the version of events re-invented by the liberals. They have been exploited and they all represent a class of people about whom the general characterization "no academic rigor" can be properly applied. Intellectual 'toadies' who would never go to a library and research any thing for themselves. Fact is, I learned more about absolutely EVERYTHING once I graduated from college and began to read books other that textbooks and books recommended to me by professors. I cannot tell you how BETRAYED I felt and how much I still hold it against the educators of this country that this is permitted.

[MrConfettiMan]

>>Although he died bravely, Lieutenant VandeGeer's death was as senseless as those of the 58,000 who died before him in the fool's errand known as Vietnam.

This statement is disgusting. I'm sure the mother of the soldier who is the focus of this story unfortunately feels her son's death was senseless but did the author of this article check with the other 57,999 mothers to verify how they felt. /rhethorical

[Fenris6]

LOL. The New York Times, seeking to smear Bush, accidentily stumbles upon Arlington Cemetary. Bets they had to look it up on MapQuest?

[Ronaldus Magnus Reagan]

Looks like Bob Herbert will have his own chapter in Mona Charen's book "Useful Idiots" when she updates it.

[Parthalan]

How many WMD did North VietNam start to move into South before US began it's involvement in the conflict?

[Valin]

One moment please......RAAAAAPLH.....now I feel better.
So much that's just plain wrong with this I really don't know where to start.
Let's start out with, this is not Viet-Nam. Unlike that war anyone with an IQ 4 points higher than a flatworm knows why we went into Iraq(hint it had very little to do with WMD).
It sounds like someone wants to return to the 60s

[Patrick1]

Ok..in Vietnam we lost 49,000 men in Iraq, 1,000. We faced 3,000,000 Viet Cong and NVA regulars, in Iraq we face RPGs and car bombs with no public support for either. You have countries in the area sending in fighters to keep themselves from being overthrown.

Herbert is right, just like Vietnam. Fool.

[marvlus]

We've already won the war against Hussein. This is now a war on terroism, which we've been told would be a long war. There is no comparison between Iraq and Vietnam, none, nada, zero!!