By 1969 you would have had to be brain-damaged to want to sink into that swamp. As a stateside commander, I faulted no one for not wanting to go. I helped many men get out. I told soldiers who did not want to go how to obtain conscientious-objector status. For the condemned-those that were going-I did my best to teach them the tricks to keep them alive. Later, I told a friend that I would have driven my son, if he were eligible for the draft, to Canada and proudly sustained him in exile. I was shocked those words came out of my mouth-but not sorry.
Let’s dial back to 1969: Hamburger Hill. Burned draft cards. Millions of demonstrators. Public figures, religious and political leaders, decorated Vietnam vets leading antiwar rallies, tossing their medals in the gutter. Prayer vigils. And every night television reminded us of the carnage: blood flowed from the tube onto the living-room floor. A popular slogan at the time was: SUPPOSE THEY HAD A WAR AND NOBODY CAME. I have often thought: what if nobody came?
In 1969 I was on my third tour with the infantry in Vietnam and had two more tours to come. I was a regular soldier and my job was war-fighting, but I hated that war. I saw what it did to my soldiers, my army, my nation and to the people of Vietnam. I openly questioned my superiors as to what end this war would lead. I saw too much blood, too much waste and too much stupidity. I concluded, about the same time Bill Clinton made his stand, that it was a criminal enterprise brought upon our nation by careless politicians and the greed of the military industries.
As a battalion commander I witnessed fragging, mass disobedience and bad discipline. Hippie beads and hippie deeds. Dope and no hope. Few American units in Vietnam were battleworthy. The generals were busy refighting World War II. Few had a clue about what was happening on the ground. It was the beginning of the lowest period in the annals of U.S. military history.
Anarchy ruled. My unit was composed of 99 percent draftees. They were all good men, but none in their heart of hearts wanted to be there. They just wanted to stay alive and get the hell out. Many had flunked out of colleges. Not many men in the mud are connected in high places. Most in the line were the guys from the other side of the tracks: the have-nots and disfranchised, the blacks, Hispanics and poor whites. They were the Murphys, Medinas and Browns. They all knew they were cannon fodder. Most envied those who found a haven in the National Guard or the Reserves. Or school–or the fat-cat jobs in the rear where the living was easy and the danger low. My job was to keep them alive, not win an unwinnable war.
Vietnam was an insane war from the start, and by 1969 blood in the trenches and protest in the streets flowed to new heights. Young Bill Clinton was too bright to blindly accept the old maxim “My country, right or wrong.” He questioned our involvement, as did millions of Americans, and asked what our country was doing there. He also found a way to escape the killing machine. This does not make him a devious draft dodger.
By 1969 the war was finished. Service there was no longer regarded as a patriotic duty-not even by those who served. The common practice that year for the young was how not to go there; the trick for the nation was how to get the hell out and salvage as much dignity and save as much face as we could. Bill Clinton should not be held accountable now because he did not fight then. He made a tough decision. I found Clinton’s letter, explaining why he refused ROTC, a brilliant examination of how his generation looked at the war. Clinton wrote: “No government … should have the power to make its citizens fight and kill and die in a war they may oppose, a war which even possibly may be wrong, a war which, in any case, does not involve immediately the peace and freedom of the nation.”
If I could fault Clinton today it would be for not being completely honest on this issue. Not going to Vietnam is something for which he should not be ashamed or try to cover up. Americans would have appreciated his candor. We’re fed up with smoke and mirrors. It would be refreshing for a leader to tell the truth. “I did it, and I’m proud” would probably win more votes than the best damage control could ever do.
Those who didn’t rush to the sounds of the guns are not unpatriotic. Defense Secretary Dick Cheney held draft deferments, yet he led our forces in the Persian Gulf victory. Vice President Dan Quayle found a way not to go on active duty, as did 16 million young men who won deferments or joined the National Guard or the Reserves. These are the people who are running America today. We don’t blame them for finding a way out of Vietnam. Let’s treat Clinton the same way, and concentrate on his credentials.
