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Renee Sherer (Schleicher)
A month ago I returned from a tour of southeast Asia. In Vietnam my tour group was able to speak, separately, with two Viet Cong veterans. One had lost his legs to an American bomb, another had lost an arm to an American landmine. We were there to explore the topic of forgiveness and reconciliation since Americans are clearly welcome throughout Vietnam. They talked about their pain and loss during and immediately following the war, what they call the American War. The one without his arm had spent ten years living in the Cu Chi tunnels. He said that they were from poor rural families, illiterate, without newspapers, TV or, obviously, computers. They heard what their leaders wanted them to hear. He talked about his tremendous anger throughout that period, especially after losing his arm. But later, he said, he learned that Americans were protesting in their streets, that they didn't want the war either, that it was a war between leaders, not people of each country. There were, he said, no winners in the war, not on either side, and he began to forgive.
That said, such an atmosphere of reconciliation was not present at the Hanoi Hilton where John McCain was interred and tortured. What remains of it (much was torn down) is now a museum, largely devoted to the French occupation of Vietnam. There is, for example, the guillotine that the French were still using there during World War II, likely while the Nazis were marching into Paris. But then the museum totally skips over North Vietnam's own horrors, moving immediately to the reconciliation with the United States when McCain and John Kerry visited. There is a picture of Ho Chi Minh shaking McCain's hand. The cutline of the picture reads something like,"John McCain thanks Ho for the excellent healthcare he received here."
Oddly, ironically and jarringly, at the trinket shops outside the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, Karen Carpenter music played over the loudspeakers.
An amazing experience.
For those of you who served in the military in Vietnam, my heart still bleeds for your experience and feels a level of guilt for my lack of respect for our miliatry during that period. I learned that much later. As the Viet Cong veteran said, there were no winners in that war.
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