The Fates of Vietnam

The scarring backdrop has always been our generation being the first to lose a war. 

We were largely, not universally, but largely scorned. First we were baby killers. Then we were drug addicts, this tag being joined to the first. 

Almost instantly we were unstable, often homeless, home wreckers, devoid of lasting love and intact families. Several more monikers for us.

Later, America went to war again, this time in the Storm of a Dessert alongside regional allies; overwhelming forces complete with game plan, specific objectives, and overall leadership distilled from young officers having risen on the military food-chain, no longer baby killing drug addicts.

Along with the pendulum swing of victory came a citizens’ degree of respect and blooming appreciation for the Vietnam veteran experience. Remember the yellow ribbons and the ubiquitous flag waving.

Later still it was political leadership insisting on war once again, this time by forging anemic evidence from grand intentions. The Vietnam experience, meanwhile, was now as helium escaping slowly, and diffusing into the universe from an aging and out of fashion balloon.

Some of us now gone. Some of us still visible. Some yet waving flags. Some yet cursing the fates.

In reality, the Vietnam War ended two full years after our combat departure. Many monikers now hanging limp.