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North Vietnam was never subdued


Date published: 12/2/2006

I am not sure which Vietnam War letter-writer Michael A. Smith fought in ["Don't insult Vietnam vets ," Nov. 28]. However, the war he refers to does not sound like the same one that took a little over two years of my life.

Yes, we bombed North Vietnam, but not into submission as Mr. Smith claims. If the North Vietnamese government was so eager to sign a treaty to end the carnage, what was that last hectic day there airlifting people off the roof of the American Embassy?

I do agree with him on one count: We were not allowed to win the war.

We got wrapped up in "body count." It brings to mind the British officer who once bragged that the British still had the flag they captured at Bunker Hill, and the American officer reminded him that we still had the hill.

Mr. Smith says we never lost a military engagement during the war. More than 58,000 young men, many of them my close friends, lost their military engagements in that country.

I am proud of my service to my country, but blind allegiance doesn't erase fact.

George W. Williams

Spotsylvania



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Date published: 12/2/2006