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Maine Public is encouraging Vietnam Veterans and anyone affected by the conflict to share their own story on the Vietnam War and correspondence they had during or after the war. Submissions can be written, recorded or videotaped and sent to Maine Public at mystory@mainepublic.org. The stories will be collected and archived here and some may be shared with the greater Maine audience.Watch "Courageous Conversations."Click HERE for support opportunities for veterans in crisis.

Harry Pringle, Portland

I graduated from Princeton in June of 1968. I was drafted into the army
that September, and in October 1970 stepped off a helicopter at a fire
base near the Cambodian border. For the next twelve months (a few days
less, actually, because I got out of the army a little early to go to
law school) I served as a combat infantry platoon sergeant, first with
the 1st Division operating out of Lai Khe and then (when the 1st
Division, but not its men, was ‘withdrawn’ from Viet Nam) with the 5th
Mechanized Division along the DMZ near Quang Tri.

Read more…

At some point in late 1969 or early 1970, my fiancee, Anne, happened to
read a column in Newsweek by Stewart Alsop in which he said that
graduates of Ivy League schools almost never served in Viet Nam. Because
(although he was by and large correct) she knew several who were, she
wrote him, and he in turn wrote me asking for my impressions from the
field - wondering, perhaps, if they would differ from the briefings he
got from the generals on his regular trips to the war zone.

Attached to this email are two documents: first, a letter that I wrote
to Mr. Alsop on February 10, 1970. Shortly after, I would head north to
my new unit on the DMZ. Second, a copy of the column that Mr. Alsop
wrote for Newsweek on May 11, 1970, soon after President Nixon decided
to invade Cambodia. The article contains several quotes from an unnamed
infantry platoon sergeant, taken from my letter.

Stewart Alsop’s views on Viet Nam were evolving by 1970. Who knows,
perhaps my letter may have helped that process along.

A few parting reflections, with the benefit of nearly 50 years of hindsight:

First, given the reception that some veterans received on coming home
from Viet Nam, it is gratifying to see the very different reception that
veterans of Iraq, Afghanistan and other war zones now receive. But given
the fact that with some notable exceptions many of our political leaders
at all levels of government from the President on down since Viet Nam
have actively avoided (or more precisely in some cases, evaded)
militarily service, their recent tendency to fawn over veterans rings
hollow. I would like to think that it reflects their collective guilt,
and not just political opportunism, but I’m frankly not convinced.

Second, despite having been drafted, I have to say that I strongly
support the idea of a draft - or at least universal service of some
kind. The Viet Nam war ended at least in part because young men were
taken from their families and sent to die for a cause that their friends
and families increasingly came to see as misguided, and the overwhelming
political pressure that resulted. A democracy loses a vital check on
political excess when politicians, whose own sons and daughters are
completely exempt from service, can order a professional military into
battle at a moment’s notice.

And finally, thinking for a moment about my own experience, rarely a day
goes by that I do not reflect on how fortunate I was. I do not know why
I came back unharmed, when men I served with did not. What I do know is
that those who were less lucky than I deserve every bit of the attention
and gratitude that they appear now belatedly to be receiving - and for
your part in that, I thank you.

Read the letter and the letter and the column