Vietnam going capitalist... That really breaks the heart of an old Bolshevist like Hayden. Didn't the Vietnamese get the communist "utopia" Hayden and that squalling she-ass Jane Fonda collaborated for? Why is he so disappointed?

Hayden, like communism, is a failure. He still claims to hate it, but the former California state Senator is quite wealthy, thanks to capitalism. But then, practicing what they preach isn't exactly a nihilist's forte.

SFC Cheryl McElroy
US Army (Ret.)

Lorain, OH

Like Iraq, the Vietnam war was unnecessary, and while I had some doubts, I never opposed it. When Iraq came along, I listened to my doubts and opposed it. I had done some reading about Vietnam before the war and knew that the Vietnamese Communists had put out some feelers toward the US after WWII. Later, I learned the Chinese Communists had done the same thing after the war. Having been around the block a few times during the cold war, I recognized that the Tonkin Gulf incident was a fake, But this merely formalized a conflict that we had been involved in since the Eisenhower Administration, before the French left. At some point, I did think we had an opportunity to create a "Tito" type relationship with China and Vietnam. This could have been after the war. I was very surprised to see two Communist countries roll over for "free trade." So much for ideology? I also had an opportunity to listen to an army adviser who had served in Vietnam before the "official" war began. It didn't sound like a walk in the park. However, by 1965, I had served for almost ten years in the "cold war," and had been stationed in Europe, except for a few months, from the time of the Hungarian uprising through the rise of the Berlin Wall. In between there was the Suez Crisis, Eisenhower sending some troops into Lebanon and the U2 incident. Vietnam was, initially, another hot war like Korea that broke out during the cold war. We were on a roll against a "monolithic" Communist menace, which only existed in our own minds. The nuances of diplomacy were, and still are, beyond us. This is not an excuse, but an explanation and a warning that you have to pay attention to the nuances. While countries may seem similar, there is no such thing as uniformity of belief, and the nuances can get you killed.

Pervis J. Casey

Riverside, CA

McCain: Are you in the lobbyists' pockets?

You say you're not
but then you do
exactly what
they want you to.

Christopher Johnson

Pickerington, OH

People like Tom Hayden are gifted. His ability to connect with those wartime revolutionaries in the first place and to follow them after many years is touching. I am still healing, now 60, hoping for some kind of breakthrough from the intransigence that America has suffered from. He gives me hope.

I always loved the Vietnamese. The absurd cruelty of a massive war upon these people, with a culture of macho disdain, is what I remember about my time in the Air Force over there. The inherent racism and superior sense of manifest destiny we were inoculated with continues to distort our ability to be functional in the world.

We need to find ways to avoid the fear and paranoia with which our "leaders" manipulate us. It is obvious that a sustained opening of diplomacy with creative economics will succeed in the Third World where massive military violence does not.

We had an opportunity to make friends with Vietnam without a war and are blessed to have Vietnamese friendship now. I believe this can also be the case with Iran and Syria. I hope that Mr. Hayden will be accessible to a more progressive American diplomacy.

Jim Willingham
Vietnam Vets Against the War

St. Petersburg, Florida/USA