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December 17, 2006
With Age Comes Wisdom
While reading Patrick Conroy's essay, titled "An Honest Confession by an American Coward" and linked above, I had mixed feelings about the man, his thoughts, his opinions, his past, and his present. They were difficult to sum up, and like many people, I came away feeling that yes, it takes a lot of courage to look at your past and find fault in your reasoning and your actions, and it takes a lot of courage to admit that publically.
After hearing Al Kroboth's story of his walk across Vietnam and his brutal imprisonment in the North, I found myself passing harrowing, remorseless judgment on myself. I had not turned out to be the man I had once envisioned myself to be. I thought I would be the kind of man that America could point to and say, "There. That's the guy. That's the one who got it right. The whole package. The one I can depend on."
It had never once occurred to me that I would find myself in the position I did on that night in Al Kroboth's house in Roselle, New Jersey: an American coward spending the night with an American hero.
Confessions of a peacenik who has come to realize that he was wrong, dead wrong, about the United States of America and the troops who protect this country with courage, dignity and honor. It has an added bonus, the story of a hero, a Vietnam Veteran, who suffered horror upon horror, while the peaceniks indulged in sex, drugs and rock-n-roll. And it has some thoughts that are worthy of being quoted:
"America is good enough to die for even when she is wrong."
But this sentence in Patrick's confession left a sour taste in my mouth:
"I understand now that I should have protested the war after my return from Vietnam, after I had done my duty for my country."
It seems to me that Patrick has a bit more to learn about cowardice and a lot more to learn about supporting the troops who do the hard stuff so you can sit back and do the easy stuff. Patrick still needs to learn the simple truth that you can't support the troops without supporting their mission.
The former soldiers who crawled into bed with the anti-war crowd upon their return from battle did great damage to our troops and their mission, they not only abandoned their brothers-in-arms, they turned on them like a pack of rabid dogs. If joining them is what hindsight makes him wish he had done, then I believe Patrick Conroy has to look a little deeper, and travel a little further down the path of redemption for his actions in the 60s.
It seems to me that Patrick landed just short of the mark. But that's just my opinion.
After you read Patrick Conroy's confession, go read what Vietnam Veteran Russ Vaughn has to say about it.
As long as we are on the subject, if you are interested, you might want to read "Vietnam: Looking Back at the Facts" by K. G. Sears, Ph.D.
The anti-war movement was akin to a national temper tantrum that eventually engulfed and the afflicted the entire nation with its warped rational. This group, fueled and led by dodgers and their cohorts, were responsible for poisoning the American public’s mind on the subject of Vietnam. Eventually those dodging hoards, and their cronies in the US media, influenced the body politic to elect a Congress that stripped the soldiers who fought in Vietnam of their victories, and voted to cut and run in the face of adversity. To this very day, academia, the media, the politicians, talking heads, and the draft dodging multitudes continuously feed off one another with their preposterous and deceptive hallucinations about “Vietnam.”
Sound familiar?
Posted by LindaSoG at December 17, 2006 10:06 AM
Comments
Linda, if Conroy had served in Vietnam, he probably would not have come back as a war protester.
Posted by: TomR at December 17, 2006 12:54 PM
Perhaps you're right Tom.
But he says that today he believes that would have been the right thing to do, it is what he wishes he did.
Posted by: LindaSoG at December 17, 2006 01:14 PM