Monday was Memorial Day. This long-standing federal holiday was established as a day to honor and mourn U.S. military personnel who died while serving in the United States military. Originally observed on May 30, Congress in 1968 changed the day of observance to the last Monday of May thus creating a three-day weekend. Today the Memorial Day weekend is typically considered the beginning of summer celebrated with picnics, barbecues and a reason for stores to have sales.

On May 21, the Sentinel published a Guest Commentary submitted by retired Lt. Gen. Michael Vane. His commentary consisted primarily of excerpts from a speech he delivered last month to Vietnam veterans. He started by saying, “Welcome back Vietnam veterans.” An obvious reference to the fact Vietnam vets never received the glorious appreciative welcome home that veterans of previous wars had received. The reason being perhaps that Vietnam was like no other war. To begin with, we lost. After more than a decade of fighting an ill equipped peasant army the U.S. suffered a humiliating defeat. For the first time the horrors of war were broadcast into our living rooms. We saw our soldiers burn down entire villages and murder defenseless women and children. It is estimated that 2 million Vietnamese civilians were killed during the period of U.S. involvement.

Lt. Gen. Vane did admit that many mistakes were made. Mistakes made by incompetent military commanders and politicians but it was not they who paid the price of those mistakes. They were paid for with the blood of more than 58,000 dead young soldiers and the broken lives of so many more. As written about another war long ago, Tennyson wrote:

Theirs not to make reply

Theirs not to reason why

Theirs but to do and die

Vane, without saying so himself, but referring to a survey, contends that the majority of military and non-military Americans agreed with the statement, “our troops were asked to fight a war in which our political leaders would not let them win.”

I would like to ask the lieutenant general, against a poorly equipped peasant army and with access to state-of-the-art weaponry, what prevented you from winning? LBJ gave Gen. Westmoreland everything he asked for. There were half a million troops under his command; 75 million tons of bombs, twice as much as were dropped in Europe and Asia during WWII, were dropped on Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. What exactly was it that political leaders were preventing?

In 1967, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara commissioned what became known as the Pentagon Papers. That comprehensive report, compiled with significant input from the CIA and Pentagon analysts, concluded the war could not be won. Yet the war dragged on for years at ever greater cost of blood and treasure

As Major Gen. Smedley Butler wrote way back in 1935, “War is a racket.” It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. Profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many.

Vane notes that America’s attitude toward Vietnam veterans is improving. Perhaps that is due to a broader understanding that soldiers are just a cog in the machine. There is greater empathy for all soldiers knowing the hellish environment they are thrust into and what behavioral and psychological changes must take place to merely survive. Atrocities that may occur on the battlefield are a product of the culture that military leadership creates and accepts.

It’s been 50 years since the last soldiers left Vietnam. People are dying off. Memories are fading. History is being rewritten. Generals will speak of the glory of battle and extol the virtue of war, but Vietnam is and will remain a blight on the reputation of the United States of America.

Michael Funari is a resident of Santa Cruz.