By Mark Ashwill
Buffalo, NY – April 30th marks the 30th anniversary of the end of the only war the United States has ever lost. As historian Howard Zinn once observed, "it was organized modern technology vs. organized human beings, and the human beings won." While Vietnam, whose people, flora and fauna bore the brunt of the war's devastation, has long since moved on, of practical necessity and for cultural and historical reasons, many Americans are still haunted by the war, unwilling to learn the lessons that history teaches us, choosing to remain mired in the past.
No issue epitomizes this more pathetically than the ongoing and largely futile attempts to locate the remains of American MIAs. (To put this in sharp binational relief, there are fewer than 1500 U.S. MIAs while Vietnam has over 300,000.) Even the newest U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam is still singing the same old song about this non-issue, which was so key in the 1980s and early 90s as a stumbling block and eventual stepping stone toward the normalization of diplomatic relations.
Forty-five hundred hours of excavation yields a single tooth, the only human remains recovered from a 1968 ambush in central Vietnam. What's wrong with this picture? While the tooth may bring a measure of consolation to the deceased's family, the cost is mind-numbing and obscene. In fact, the noble undertaking of recovering MIA remains, such as they are in a tropical climate and highly acidic soil, is something of a cottage industry with the dim yet persistent hum of political ax grinding. There are medics, linguists, forensic photographers, Life Support Technicians, Mortuary Affairs Specialists, Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technicians, and civilian anthropologists. For what? The pilot's class ring, a bone fragment, a tooth?
While the U.S. does this because it can and because this remains a highly charged political issue at home (the next time you're at your local post office check out the black flag flying below the Stars and Stripes), the $104 million Joint Personnel Accounting Command budget would be better spent on the living - poverty alleviation, victims of Agent Orange with debilitating and monstrous deformities, and children who are maimed each year while playing with land mines and unexploded ordnance - conditions for which our government is directly or indirectly responsible.
Then, there is the long-term economic, emotional and environmental impact of carpet bombing, defoliation, and mass relocations, and the legacy of rogue military units that butchered innocent men, women and children in wholesale violation of the rules of war. And, as in the U.S., posttraumatic stress disorder continues to afflict large numbers of veterans. Victory is not a balm that magically heals the psychological wounds suffered in combat.
Last month, a New York City judge dismissed the lawsuit filed by Vietnamese plaintiffs affected by Agent Orange and other chemicals used during the U.S. War, thus making it easier for our country and complicitous corporations to continue to evade their moral, legal and financial responsibility. While the U.S. can never repay the debt it owes the people of Vietnam, it can address specific problems and improve the quality of life for the countless innocent victims of its military juggernaut. Even a Zogby poll in November 2004 showed that 64% of Americans believe "the government has a moral responsibility to compensate U.S. servicemen and Vietnamese civilians who were affected by Agent Orange."
Americans can be generous, but often resist any concept of moral or legal obligation to the collateral victims of our military might. Should we care about long-term environmental damage? Must we provide assistance to people who are still losing limbs and lives from unexploded U.S. ordnance and land mines? Should we find ways to help children whose birth defects can be traced to Agent Orange, and the families that care for them? When American soldiers commit war crimes, how often is that acknowledged and punished, and should their victims receive compensation? The only answers that those with a moral compass, a conscience, and a sense of personal responsibility can offer are yes, yes, a thousand times, yes!
Listener-Commentator Mark Ashwill is founder and executive director of the U.S.-Indochina Educational Foundation, Inc. and the author of "Vietnam Today: A Guide to a Nation at a Crossroads" (with Thai Ngoc Diep). He is director of the World Languages Program, Fulbright adviser, and adjunct instructor in the General Education Program at UB.