Going to Vietnam, Remembering Greg Wilkes
In couple of hours I head to Kota Kinabalu’s airport and I fly through Kuala Lumpur to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. At the beginning of my trip I would have told you this was one of my top destinations and it still is so I am quite excited. I’m nervous, too. Luckily, we have twenty years of Americans visiting and I know I will be very well received in Vietnam. Tell me, how can that be so? I just read that over 3.5 million Vietnamese were killed during the wars with France and mostly USA. If the tables were turned, I don’t really think Americans would be receiving Vietnamese warmly. The people of Thailand and Malaysia have been exceptionally friendly, warm and gracious – exactly for what Vietnam is so famous. I think we can all learn a lot from these Asians and I know I am very grateful that they have become such an integral part of America during the past decades of immigration. They like ALL of the waves of immigrants only make America stronger (and more friendly!).
There are three major events during my childhood that have had a lasting impression on me – 1) Man on the Moon, 2) Vietnam War and 3) Watergate. Lucky for me we went to the moon! The wonders of Apollo on television I am sure is one of the reasons I am an eternal optimist. What a grand show was that! The other two events have weighed heavily. My snapshots of the Vietnam War was ABC News telling us the numbers of casualties each night and seeing the flag-draped coffins being unloaded from the planes (the exact image that should be shown for every war and the image that Bush made illegal to show during his little war %@#**@&^!). There is no doubt where my 100% anti-war, strongly suspicious of anything military comes from. As for Watergate, I think you have seen that I am hugely cynical of anything government. Combine Vietnam War and Watergate for a ten year old who was paying attention and voila – you have me.
I wish the Vietnam War had ended the day of the horrible videos being filmed as the helicopters left the embassy abandoning our Vietnamese friends. I know that is the one scene that makes Bush and McCain be so strongly opposed to leaving Iraq. Once you start something like this, abandoning it cannot turn out good and in the day of video everyone will see that. For someone my age, I would say the worst of Vietnam has been knowing so many people messed up by the war. Growing up in Vermont, we had an extraordinary number of veterans not doing so well. Vermont provided a bit of sanctuary. By time I was sixteen I was absolutely flabbergasted by someone like Reagan talking so much war talk with so many troubled veterans walking about as if we needed more uncounted casualties of war. I still see many homeless people today that I know are connected to Vietnam War. Sure, blame it on the drugs and alcohol, but how many of them turned to these in order to cope with that war?
My roommate in college, Will, and I decided to hitchhike from Stockton, CA to Portland to see a friend in 1982… for the weekend! We got picked up by someone whose name I forget. We quickly realized that he was buggered, but he was headed to Seattle and this was a good ride for the whole distance. He was in the middle of a breakdown and he obviously needed psychological help. That fourteen hour drive was like the peeling of a bad onion. After learning that his wife though him out of the home in Stockton and he was headed to his parents in Seattle, he told us his story. In a nutshell, he worked communications between frontline and base. His best friend, Greg Wilkes – a name I will never forget, was on the frontline the day he was blown up. This kid’s life started to come apart when he received the transmission stating that Greg had been killed. The story was a lot more in detail than I will cover, but at the time Will and I were quite shaken by this living story. I think we did a lot for this guy by just listening and talking to him during that drive, but I have always wondered if he ever found any peace with life.
I visited Will in Washington, D.C. in 1984 or 1985. We went to the Vietnam War Memorial to see it and look up Greg Wilkes. I know we both hoped there would be no such name when we opened up the book that lists names and locations. Seeing the 50,000+ names in the granite was hard enough, but both of us were quite teary when we did find his name. We went to his carved name and wished his family and his friends the best with dealing with his loss. What a stupid loss indeed.
Imagine a memorial of the same in Vietnam with millions of names. It’s not possible and in some ways I am thankful that I do not have to see one. I’ll go to the American War museum later this year on my return visit and that will be enough. In the meantime, I am grateful that the Vietnamese people do not hate me and the rest of Americans. I don’t understand why, but I am just grateful. I very much look forward to seeing their beautiful country full of smiles. A toast to Greg Wilkes and the many other soldiers who carry out the will of the American government and people even when that will is so misplaced. May we get smarter with that will and might in the future. Cheers!
Tags: Asia, vietnam
vagabondrick
I can only imagine what you would say about the war in Iraq – is it worse that Vienam or more of the same insanity!