Vietnam War in Retrospect

Vietnam War in Retrospect

Dr Abe V Rotor

"Freedom isn't free."

- Team America: World Police (2004)

Mural painting Reunification Palace, HoChiMinh City.  

Photo by the author, September 21, 2005

In retrospect, the US apologizes,

“We were wrong, terribly wrong."

Wrong for three million Vietnamese,

Half a million Americans and allies killed;

Wrong for spending trillions of dollars,

For dropping bombs four times over

That in the last World War.

Wrong for not saving America from another Great Depression

At the expense of escalating a local war.

All in the name of democracy,

A slogan sans conscience, sans piety.

How could it be true, “To err is human, to forgive divine?”

After Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, now Iran

And another generation to explain why. ~

                   "I love the smell of napalm in the morning." — Apocalypse Now (1979)

 The Vietnam War (1955–1975) was a prolonged Cold War-era conflict between Communist North Vietnam (supported by China/Soviet Union) and South Vietnam (supported by the U.S.), resulting in a unified Communist Vietnam after U.S. withdrawal in 1973. Driven by containment policy, the U.S. intervened, leading to intense guerrilla warfare, massive casualties and deep social division. Britannica/Internet