Memories of the Vietnam War still haunt many American veterans

Many American veterans have returned to Vietnam after the war and also many have never dared to return because they could not get over the horrible memories of a senseless war.

It has been 45 years since the American war in Vietnam ended, but with many American veterans returning, it seems that the haunting of the war in the small Southeast Asian country. has never calmed down.

Many American veterans have returned to Vietnam after the war and also many have never dared to return because they could not get over the horrible memories of that day….

There are many of them who, over the years, have become veterans of peace, tirelessly working hard, trying to heal the wounds of war.

These days, the blockade because of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York has caused my reunion with once anti-war Americans to be missed and turned into a phone conversation, reminiscent of the war. can forget.

When it comes to memories of the Vietnam war, Doug Rawlings has never forgotten the fateful day in 1969 when he was called up to the army and was sent to Vietnam until August 1970.

The brutality of the US military at that time was something he could never forget…. Beating, raping, killing… Perhaps he couldn't and didn't want to talk more about those days but instead showed me his poem "Unexploded Ordnance: A ballad" (rough translation: The bomb). unexploded - a song), a haunting poem about what the US military did to the people of Vietnam, about the retribution "you reap what you sow" for what they did in Vietnam. Male.

But when it comes to Veterans for Peace, which he was one of the five founding members with the aim of eradicating war and hatred, now there are 6,000-7,000 members with about 130 branches across the country. America, he seems to be somewhat liberated.

When I asked him what he wanted to say to the Vietnamese people on the occasion of the 45th anniversary of the American war ending in Vietnam on April 30, he confided: “At that time, I was just a 22-year-old student who was conscripted into the army. . I should have resisted going, but I myself lacked the courage to oppose it. I regret that decision immensely. What hurts me the most is the pain we have caused to Vietnamese children, not only physically, only mentally, but also psychologically. This pain is more painful when I have a family, have children and raise my own children. That's why I co-founded the Veterans Association with the desire to abolish all wars."

Unlike Doug Rawlings, another veteran, Nick Mottern, was a volunteer to the Vietnam battlefield in 1962.

Now in his 80s, he still tells me clearly over the phone that although he has never killed a single person during his 2 years in the army in Saigon in 1962-1963, and a year as a journalist for the English newspaper. Saigon Post in 1964. But what he saw during the war made him unable to stop feeling embarrassed and ashamed.

Although a member of Veterans for Peace in New York for a long time, was very active in many anti-war activities later, he never once chose to return to Vietnam after the war ended.

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