An important discussion brought to my attention by our fellow Silver Spur 23, Michael Lemmon. Here’s what Michael has to say about this audio program:
Roger,
My immense gratitude for all your hard and sustained work; it is very important to continue. I wanted to share with you the other part of the discussion presentation that I made at Brookings following your video lead-in.
The “With Good Reason” audio program (FYI – made by some of the same folks who worked on the USNS Walker story recounting the voyage of the original 3/17 and 7/17 troops to Vietnam in September 1967) is an edited down version of a much longer conversation we had in the process of which I/they confused times and unit identifications. The incident recounted in my part of the program was when I was with B Troop, 7/1st Air Cav in late April 1968 and not in late January when I was with A Troop, 3/17th Air Cav. Nonetheless, it has formed an important part of my own moral identification and history and something I have tried to convey in “the conversation” in more recent times – – something I had put off since the earlier failed conversation that Ron Holloman and I tried to have with our history professor at ODU in the summer of 1970. We basically avoided the conversation for some 45 years until we couldn’t any longer.
If you judge this exchange useful to share at the upcoming reunion, feel free. [See link below to play and even download the audio file]
Warm regards to all Silver Spurs,
Mike Lemmon – mclemmon96@gmail.com
Silver Spur 23
Dutchmaster 13
Getting Into Vietnam
by With Good Reason Radio
I have some serious issues with some of the stated conclusions:
1) I DO NOT believe that we who served in Vietnam had somehow become like the very enemy forces our fathers fought against in WWII. Many of us wrestled with the moral dilemma that is war, both during and long after our tours.
2) Like many discussions about Vietnam, many commentators always turn to My Lai in an effort to show how we had become barbarians in a foreign country. The My Lai massacre was tragic and should have never happened, and was certainly not cordoned by the majority of U.S. Forces when we learned of it. MY LAI WAS THE EXCEPTION, NOT THE RULE!
Yet we seldom, if ever, hear about the war atrocities such as the Hue massacre by our enemy, or the atrocities the enemy inflicted on hamlets to conscript young men by armed force! Nor do these discussions address how many U.S. troops supported orphanages and locals, including medical programs, throughout the war. Of course that would not fit the barbarian narrative!
I hope other Spurs will join in this important discussion!