First of all, I want to thank you and your men for their selfless service in Vietnam. Second, I'll ask ALOHA RONNIE and SAMWolf for their indulgence because I've already expressed these same ideas elsewhere.
I agree with you that that the draftee who did his duty with honor during the Vietnamization phase of the war (or for that matter, at any time during the Vietnam or Korean conflicts) was among the truest of patriots. When Americans fought in WW2, they knew that failure to win meant almost certain capture of North America. However, during the Cold War, Korea and Vietnam were more like battles in a long conflict. Loss of Vietnam might not mean that communists would march into Washington D.C. and seize power. Men who served during those Asian conflicts were well aware that their blood was a drop in a huge ocean of sacrifice that could go on for generation after generation beyond theirs. In the Cold War, many believed there would be no final conflict other than nuclear holocaust. Few men had the faith shared by Ronald Reagan that we could win. Where was the glory? Where was the sense of impending loss of homeland? They had to fight without either, just on the knowledge that this was what their country required of them. And they even fought knowing some disapproved.
I see our troops who fell in the service of freedom in Korea and Vietnam much like the Spartans and Greeks who battled the Persians at Thermopylae in 480 BC. A few hundred died to hold off an invasion force while their comrades could fall back and reinforce their defenses of Greece. The democracy was saved, and a Golden Age ensued. A monument was erected at the mountain pass with these words inscribed:
"Go tell the Spartans, you who pass us by, that here, obedient to their laws, we lie."Had we lost the Cold War, there is no doubt in my mind that the results would have been equally tragic as had we lost WW2. History will show that our sacrifices, which often seemed hopeless and meaningless, were essential in proving American resolve against communism. Every American and allied soldier who served in Vietnam showed the communists masters that they could not win their war of global domination. They would have to fight against a superior force with superior arms who would go into battle with the determination and selflessness of the Spartans. Ho Chi Minh's tin pot revolution might make inroads, but the Cold War would eventually be won by free men who would fight no matter what the odds.
Like the Spartans at Thermopylae, our draftees were obedient to the laws of their democracy.