Beard of the Week LVII: A Marine in Vietnam
This week's beard belongs to an unnamed US Marine who fought in the Vietnam War. The date was 1966. I found this photograph on the website of the "White House's Commission on Remembrance". Here is the caption that accompanied the photograph (on this page about the Vietnam War):
Date: 1966
Title: U.S. Marines forward reconnaissance patrol sets up to counter attack North Vietnamese infiltration south of the DMZ.
Source: Photo by Larry Burrows, REQUIEM By The Photographers Who Died in Vietnam and Indochina, Random House 1997
Today, of course, is Veterans' Day here in the US, a day to remember and honor all our veterans from all the wars that the US has fought in. Today I found myself thinking about the Vietnam War, a war that seemed, in the end, nothing but a string of bad policy decisions and bad political strategies, that ended in a period of great cultural ferment. It was a war that didn't seem to satisfy anybody, but that a great many couldn't stop fighting.
It turned out to be a war that too many were still fighting at the start of this century, although it was "Mission Accomplished" over thirty years ago. So much of the strategy in the current war in Iraq, at least in the earlier days, seemed to be decided by those who still wanted to demonstrate, somehow, that their belief that we could have won the Vietnam War if–well, it's a long string of ifs and they seemed determined that it would not happen with their war in Iraq, that Iraq would not become a quagmire, that Iraq was winnable even without a goal or any idea what it was to "win", that they would be vindicated at last and could then move on past their embarrassment, anger, sorrow, and all the other heartaches that lingered for them after the unwinnable war in Vietnam. I know their emotions are strong and heart-felt, but they're also troublesome.
Troublesome in the obvious way: we're fighting a war in Iraq but too many of those making too many of the decisions are still fighting the war in Vietnam. Folks, this is not the Vietnam war! And, to be sure, this is not the only war from the past that's still being fought. There seem to be those who still don't realize, or won't recognize, that the South lost the US civil war.
Isn't it time that we stop fighting wars that are over with? There are so many better things we can be doing. I don't really know how to bring closure to these people who can't accept their losses, but it must happen somehow.
I admit to being cheerily optimistic sometimes, entirely without cause.* Regardless, I felt buoyed by last week's election–at least, in most ways. I rarely exhibit my emotions very openly, nor my patriotism, but it was exciting and good of America to choose the president-elect that we did, and I find myself hopeful that it may signal a real change, a bit of chemistry, perhaps some magic, that can help those in need finally find the strength or will or whatever to put some of their battles to rest and finally leave them in the past where they belong, but where we still remember.
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* It should, therefore, go without saying that I can be remarkably gloomy sometimes, too, also without requiring much of a reason. Remarkably, the optimistic seems to win out on average.