Prologue

    The 1960s were a time of change and turmoil for the United States.  Rapid advances in technology and communication were starting to reshape American life.  We would land a man on the moon, and the civil rights movement, would come to the forefront, as would politics and war.  For many years, America had been involved in a cold war with communism, and the threat of nuclear war.  For America, communism was a clear and tangible threat.

As a child born in 1952, I grew up with a fear of Russia and nuclear war. Too young to understand the rhetoric of the communist doctrines, I associated it through fear with evil. I had grown up with a previous generation who in the future would be called, “The Greatest Generation.” These were of course, the World War Two generation. These were men that would pass on the values of honor, duty, and commitment.

I was taught that it was important to respect the American flag, life, and freedom.  To defend democracy, the homeland, and the Constitution of the United States of America, and whether necessary, do so with my life. I was taught that the American flag and freedom were not mere words, but true manifestations purchase with patriotic blood and sacrifice.

Whether others were brought up with these beliefs, I can only guess, that most of my generation was.  But there were differences in why we fought the Vietnam War, and World War Two.  The Second World War would be fought for the collective survival of the free world, and Vietnam would be fought to contain the spread of Communism in Southeast Asia. 

Many years after the Vietnam War, there would be arguments whether the war was necessary to fight.  America gained nothing from fighting the war, because it still ended in victory for the Communist North. It can also be argued that because the American government abandoned South Vietnam, it caused its fall.  Whether the Vietnam War was so crucial to fight, where was the rest of the free world?

Other reasons and opinions would arise for losing the war, such as the misreporting associated with the American news media.  One comment I heard often at the time, and echoed today, is that sensationalism sells news.  The atrocities reported about Vietnam combat troops, while not to be condoned, were minor, compared to the number of troops serving there.  Media scenes of villages being bombed, and women, children, and the elderly being killed in the cross fire, shocked the nation back home.  Scenes of American troops engaged in heavy fighting, and the body count, brought a cry to end the war.

Vietnam would be the first war, in which the American news media would have more access to military operations and reporting, than in any previous war.  The news coverage of political arguments and infighting, over the Vietnam War, was a nightly topic on the evening news.  By the end of 1969, American public opinion not only turned against the war, but those fighting it as well. 

In America by 1967, those in their late teens and the twenty-something generation, had split into three factions.  Those serving, war protesters, and the free love hippie peace movement.  The coverage of the Vietnam War became a media battleground, of pro and con opinions, and confusion.  It had indeed become a dark time for the country.

By the end of the war, the real losers would be the Vietnam Veterans.  Vietnam combat veterans would be portrayed as nothing more than young American men, deprived of morality, drug users, interested only in sex and sadistic killing.  They would come home to an unrecognizable landscape.  Their scars would run deep beyond the physical scars, and well into their psyche.  

Preparing For War

War is Hell!  I had heard

Impressum

Verlag: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG

Texte: Roger A. Sanchez Sr.
Bildmaterialien: Cover: Roger A. Sanchez Sr.
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 22.03.2013
ISBN: 978-3-7309-1615-5

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Widmung:
Dedicated to the Marines of the First Marine Division, who served during the Vietnam War, and to the members of the United States Armed Forces.