LIVING WITH BETRAYAL: THE ILLNESS OF VIETNAM VETERANS

Insights into Vietnam Uncensored

We marched into Vietnam, filled with purpose and pride, believing we were part of something greater. The camaraderie was strong, and the training had prepared us to face the unimaginable. But we never expected to return home to betrayal. We mistook respect for our leaders as genuine concern for our safety. The truth was more painful: we were abandoned by those who sent us into the fray.

Vietnam was a crucible of chaos. The jungles teemed with danger, the air thick with anxiety. We knew of the enemy and the horrors of combat. What we could not grasp were the reckless decisions made thousands of miles away, far from the battlefield. Those civilian leaders, more concerned with strategies than our lives, crafted a war that became a furnace of death.

Among the given realities was the threat of disease. Contaminated blood supplies led to Hepatitis C, a silent killer that took my friend. Malaria and other jungle-borne afflictions plagued us, gnawing at our health. But the most egregious betrayal came in the form of Agent Orange. This toxic substance, a reddish-brown fog with a musty odor, was sprayed indiscriminately over jungles and base camps. It was meant to control the enemy and the very environment that harbored them. Little did we know it would come to haunt us.