February 5, 2008 at 07:40:04

The Tet Offensive: A Battle that Changed America

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By Horace Coleman (about the author) Page 3 of 3 page(s)

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The U.S. powers that be won all the major battles of Tet-eventually. It also learned that it wasn't going to be as easy as they thought to win what was-at least to the Vietnamese factions involved-primarily a civil war.

The U.S. had the advantage of weapons and technology. The VC and North Vietnamese had better knowledge of the terrain, the culture, the history and the people. Time's tide flowed, at that moment, against colonialism, neo colonialism and client states.

Once Vietnam was reunified, it fought the Khmer Rouge to stop mistreatment of ethnic Vietnamese in Cambodia and to solidify that border. It fought a short border war with the Chinese. Vietnam is now a country with most of it's population born after "the American war." It has its inequities and injustices. It will transform itself at its own pace. It will never be "perfect." What country is?

The U.S. has taken its experience and knowledge and moved on, pushing new, and old, rivers.

There's a Vietnam era GI saying about "the American war" that goes "I wouldn't take a million dollars for the experience I had. I wouldn't do it again for a million dollars."

Shortly after I returned to the states, Lyndon Johnson announced his intent not to stay in power. Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy were killed.

Boston raged about school integration. Affirmative Action helped more white women than any one else. Disco died. Suburbia grew. We went to the moon. Computers got desk topped size and smaller. And the wheel keeps turning. Sometimes in ruts. Some times in new lurches. And, every once in a while, in new paths.

Often I wonder: Will America grow up while, or after, "We're #1?" Will we ever learn to "embrace the suck" we can't avoid?

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California based essayist / poet. Background: university professor, public information officer, technical writer, proposal writer / editor, community college instructor. Vietnam veteran.

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