Terry Garlock’s piece on the PBS series about the Vietnam War was spot on. And I do extend my deepest sympathies to him and his fellow veterans for having to sit through that screening presentation.
I had already made the decision not to watch the 18-hour series because I have yet to see any so-called documentary or movie about the war present any other than the John Kerry-Jane Fonda viewpoint about the conflict that claimed 58,000 American lives, including some of my good friends.
While I was serving my tour in Vietnam supplying special forces camps throughout the country, I had to cancel my subscriptions to all of the mainstream magazines that I used to read religiously because there was never an article about the war that was not slanted toward the anti-war view. The brave American servicemen were made out as evil monsters, which was totally not true.
I wish the American public could have seen all of the great service personnel I interacted with, not to mention the hundreds of Vietnamese men, women and children that we met and worked with during that year.
It was so satisfying during the Christmas season to fly one of our C-7 Caribous painted with Santa Claus (that’s where it got its nickname, Santa Bou) to deliver toys and goodies to all the kids in those camps out in the middle of nowhere.
There is nothing that broke my heart more than when we left these folks to die when the anti-war liberals cut off funding, negating the sacrifices of all those American service personnel.
Nobody in the press ever made a very big deal nor did any politician that I know of take responsibility for the massacres of Vietnamese that took place after that.
I could go on and on, but I’ll stop since Mr. Garlock made the case so eloquently in his article. All the anti-war protesters of the 1960s and ’70s have gone on to be the teachers, professors, and politicians of today’s culture that is poisoning the minds of our kids from the time they are in grade school with liberal ideologies.
Hopefully, we might be able to turn the deterioration of this nation around before it is too late.
James V. Kelso III
Lt. Col. USAF(Ret)
Peachtree City, Ga.
