Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Episode 2610 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature an op-ed about the sage advice for all Vietnam Veterans from Oklahoman Jim Redwine. The op-ed appeared in the Pawhuska Journal-Capital and was titled: Some thoughts as U.S., Vietnam become partners. The piece was submitted by Jim Redwine.
Jim Redwine lost his good childhood friend and neighbor, Gary Malone, when the latter was killed in Vietnam on July 28, 1966. He thought about Gary when President Biden stood in Hanoi before the flags of the two countries and announced to the world a new strategic partnership between our two countries.
He wondered what Gary would think about this development. He said this; “Gary cannot express his feelings about his country’s rapprochement with the people our government sent him to fight. But I may soon get to see his brother, Bud Malone, who along with Gary’s twin, Jerry, also saw combat in Vietnam. Maybe Bud and I will discuss the war and Gary and Jerry or, more likely, since Bud is Osage and we have been friends for almost 80 years, not much will need to be said.”
He added this; When American young people were both fighting and protesting the Vietnam War, our government was issuing vague exhortations about the need to stop the advance of Communism in China and the U.S.S.R. (today’s Russia). In fact, as Gary and 58,000 more members of our generation were serving and being killed in Vietnam, our government’s pronouncements then sound much like our government’s rationales for war today. We must fight China, Russia, Iran and a myriad of other perceived enemies there now so we will not have to fight them here later. The one constant we can rely on is that old people will do now what old people did then when 22-year-old Gary gave his life for what he believed in. That is, our government will send young people to pay the price.
Listen to episode 2610 and discover more about the sage advice for all Vietnam Veterans from Oklahoman Jim Redwine.
