Mekong Delta, rice paddy, South China Sea, Viet Cong, Viet Minh, Tet Offensive, Saigon, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh Trail, agent orange, DMZ, hamlet, napalm, Pentagon Papers, draft lottery, deferment, Indochina, peace with honor, PTSD, quagmire.
If these terms and place names spark a memory, you probably lived through the time of war in Viet Nam, a tragedy enacted on the other side of the globe and brought into American living rooms courtesy of CBS, ABC, and NBC. You recall that this was a period of turmoil on campuses and streets and at dinner tables across the nation. Otherwise, maybe you have studied this (ancient) history.
In 1975 when the North Vietnamese army overran Saigon, and America witnessed the final helicopter lifting off from the US Embassy, I was 14 and had a sure assumption that there would be no more war for us. So much was learned from this quagmire in Southeast Asia and from the debates and battles on the homefront. The draft ended. We had a Bicentennial to celebrate.
One Sunday in the 1990s, at a Northern Virginia parish where I was assisting with Masses, I visited with a priest from Viet Nam. He shared his background and I asked how life changed after the war was over in 1975. He politely related that the war had ended for us, but it was far from over at that time for his people and his family. He shared about his uncle’s imprisonment and other privations and persecutions. The US may have moved on to other things, but people in his home region did not have that option.
Another insight came talking with a parishioner here in Camden, a vet who had served in the war and who bore unmistakable scars from that experience. I shared how much I had enjoyed and learned from the multi-part Ken Burns and Lynn Novick documentary that had just come out about the war. It looked at the conflict from the points of view of the various parties, trying to see the war through the eyes of all the stakeholders. I told him, “It is well done and helpful—I bet you would like it. I would like to hear what you think.” He had not seen the series but heard it misrepresented and disrespected the military, the soldiers and the sailors. Viet Nam really is not ancient history, not all issues are resolved.
Saint Pope Paul VI spoke to the UN General Assembly on October 4, 1965:
“… If you want to be sisters and brothers, let the arms fall from your hands. A person cannot love with offensive weapons in his hands. Arms, and especially the terrible arms that modern science has provided you, engender bad dreams, feed evil sentiments, create nightmares, hostilities, and dark resolutions even before they cause any victims and ruins. They call for enormous expenses. They interrupt projects of solidarity and of useful labor. They warp the outlook of nations. So long as humans remain the weak, changeable, and even wicked being that we so often show ourselves to be, defensive arms will, alas, be necessary. But your courage and good qualities urge you on to a study of means that can guarantee the security of international life without any recourse to arms…”
As we know too well, the Viet Nam War was not the last “recourse to arms” that humanity has seen. Since February 24th we have witnessed the war in Ukraine—with its horror, waste and heroism on display. None of this disruption and pain needed to happen, yet still it goes on and on, into a bitter winter ahead. And of course, this is only the most visible of wars to Americans; many more are taking place around the world.
It struck me back in February that Vladimir Putin began a senseless, unnecessary war the same week a beautiful American died, Dr. Paul Farmer. You may know that he is one of the founders of Partners in Health, an effort to bring good medical care to places in the world where that is not available. The phrase he lived by is, “The idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that is wrong with the world.”
Since I write from Camden, NJ, I want to end with a mention of a lovely Camden man, Father Michael Doyle. He died during this month when we honor veterans and pray in particular for all who have gone before us to the fullness of God’s kingdom. Google his name to find any of the several tributes and obituaries that sum up his life so well. Since 1974 he was pastor of Sacred Heart Parish and dedicated his life to gathering with others to cooperate with God’s will for peace and justice in the Waterfront South neighborhood of Camden and in the wider world.
The most remembered line from Saint Pope Paul VI’s UN speech is “No more war. War never again.” It is important to remember and to learn from outstanding peacemakers who by their conviction and practical work show that aspiration for peace is more than a dream or a flower-child slogan. Each of us in our lives can build or destroy, heal or hurt. The best way anyone can honor veterans and their sacrifice is to work so there are no more wars. And we can remember outstanding peace-makers and their sacrifice by building and healing, supporting on every level efforts to make peace.
