RI DAILY

Manhattan's little, quieter island and beyond

Island insights that go beyond the tram.

RI DAILY

Manhattan's little, quieter island and beyond

Reporting Roosevelt Island since sunrise.

Vietnam War Still Hurts, and We Should Never Forget Its Painful Lessons

The Vietnam War Still Hurts Timeline, 1967: my best friend and I spend a summer playing baseball, riding horses and talking about girls. We’re 19 years old. Timeline, 1968: my best friend, now a Marine writes from Viet Nam bragging...

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silhouette of soldiers walking

The Vietnam War Still Hurts

Timeline, 1967: my best friend and I spend a summer playing baseball, riding horses and talking about girls. We’re 19 years old.

black smoke coming from fire
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Timeline, 1968: my best friend, now a Marine writes from Viet Nam bragging about his “confirmed kills,” emphasizing how many are women and children.

Timeline, 2019: After 50 years apart, he tells me, “We were animals. It was kill or be killed.”

I still love him. They can’t take 1967 away from us…

…but Vietnam War Still Hurts

About the Vietnam War…

More than 3 million people (including over 58,000 Americans) were killed in the Vietnam War, and more than half of the dead were Vietnamese civilians. Opposition to the war in the United States bitterly divided Americans, even after President Richard Nixon ordered the withdrawal of U.S. forces in 1973. 

The History Channel

Vietnam war, initiated by U.S. government fraud, still hurts…

The Gulf of Tonkin incident (Vietnamese: Sự kiện Vịnh Bắc Bộ), also known as the USS Maddox incident, was an international confrontation that led to the United States engaging more directly in the Vietnam War. It involved one real and one falsely claimed confrontation between ships of North Vietnam and the United States in the waters of the Gulf of Tonkin. The original American report blamed North Vietnam for both incidents, but the Pentagon Papers, the memoirs of Robert McNamara, and NSA publications from 2005, proved material misrepresentation by the US government to justify a war against Vietnam.

Wikipedia
“Yes. I’m Present.”

“Yes. I’m Present.”

On October 20, 2022, RIOC approved a tower, guarded its confusion and learned to mistake presence for consent.

It is October 20, 2022, and the Cultural Center Theater at 548 Main Street has again been made to serve as a boardroom, its folding tables carrying the temporary authority of the state. The folding tables are perfect for RIOC. They support anything, question nothing and collapse under pressure. At 5:45 p.m., Chair Designee Alex Valella calls the meeting to order.