UNFORGIVEN: THE COST OF WAR AND THE LIES THAT SHAPED IT

Insights into understanding Vietnam Uncensored

Of all the truths learned in combat, the truest meant we had to adapt. The fields of battle were constantly in flux. They were the same but different. Injury, capture, and death waited for every step. It became necessary to know, find, perceive, and withstand them. Even then, the possibility of survival became a question.

How could we imagine more than 58,000 of us would pay the ultimate price and 150,000 return injured? For all our intelligence, endurance, skill, and perception, how was it possible to think our government ascribed to Henry Kissinger’s statement we were no more than “dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy.” The words pierce my armor, turn my stomach, and bring anger. What is gone is gone, but I remember. If I lived a thousand years, I would not forgive.

History and the Pentagon Papers would prove successive American administrations’ duplicity, lies, and deceit. Although Army Intelligence admitted the war had become untenable, our leaders could not get past their arrogance in believing a country smaller than California could win against the superior military of the U.S. Their response to declining expectations meant to add more bombings, infuse more troops and spray more toxic chemicals into Vietnam’s furnace of death…