Monday, March 30, 2015

Reading about Vietnam

I find the War Years such a part of my life and yet the war so little known. Was I for or against it?

My family was caught up in the Draft Lottery and served  in a very low risk situation. A high school member died in Vietnam - maybe more? No one I knew well.

I just finished listening to Matterhorn on CD - what a gripping microscopic look at the reality of that war on the ground, in the jungle. Great book. I wonder if all accounts of other wars are similar - so much effort and sacrifice for so little gain.

And the response back home - the men in the Elephant Grass knew what was happening but soldiered on. Thinking peaceful men killed because they had to. How do men stop doing that? Does the move home erase that desire to respond or are the threats simply gone?

There is more to Vietnam than the years of our assistance. But finding books on it will be harder.

Saturday, March 7, 2015

Memory and Adventure

The 2015 trip is with a new volunteer group to a place I have never seen but which has impacted my life. I went through college in the Vietnam era - remember when no one could find it on a map, the draft lottery, and how it defined our era, Now I will teach English there in July.