{Credit: Courtesy James G. Zumwalt: 1st Lt. James G. Zumwalt (left) talks with his father, Adm. Elmo R. Zumwalt Jr., in 1971 on board USS Manitowoc just off the coast of Vietnam.}
November 08, 2010 - For many Americans who fought in the Vietnam War, the enemy was a faceless symbol of Communist aggression — and a target.
The North Vietnamese soldiers, or NVA, and Viet Cong guerrillas generally were respected for their courage and toughness, but hated nonetheless. One of the tragedies of war is that peace doesn’t necessarily cure the disease of hate.
Although it has been 35 years since the fall of Saigon, countless American veterans of that war still bear its festering scars on their psyches. Veteran James G. Zumwalt knows well the inner agonies of loss and despair caused by that war.
His father, Adm. Elmo Zumwalt Jr., had served as the Naval commander in Vietnam. It was by his order that the chemical defoliant Agent Orange was sprayed along riverbanks near Saigon to clear jungle areas.
The admiral’s son, Lt. j.g. Elmo Zumwalt III —James Zumwalt’s brother — commanded one of the “swift boats” that conducted combat operations along those waterways. On Aug. 13, 1988, after a five-year fight with Agent Orange-related cancers, the son died at age 42.
The tragic death led the surviving son to confront the hatred he felt toward the VC and NVA he had fought. Ultimately, James Zumwalt found that once he looked beyond the obscuring mask of hate, he saw his former enemy was no less human than he was.
Zumwalt tells the story in the recently released book “Bare Feet, Iron Will: Stories from the Other Side of Vietnam’s Battlefields.” The author will be discussing his book and signing copies at New Dominion Bookshop at 12:15 p.m. Wednesday. {read rest}
In 2003 some 72% of Americans fully supported the Abandoning of the Missions and those Sent to Accomplish so extremely Quickly after 9/11!!At least some 95%, if not more as less then 1% serve them, not only still support the, just below, total lack of Sacrifice, they ran from any and all Accountability and left everything still on the table to be continually used if the political/military want was still in play in future executive/legislative wants!!
DeJa-Vu: “With no shared sacrifices being asked of civilians after Sept. 11", Decades and War From, All Over Again!! 
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Monday, November 8, 2010
Behind enemy lives
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