Khe Sanh Address
by Lawrence Winters
Born and raised in New Paltz, NY, Larry Winters
entered the United States Marine Corps after high school
and served in Vietnam 1969-1970. Twenty-five years
later, by then a licensed mental health counselor at
Four Winds Hospital in Katonah, he returned to Vietnam
with other heath care professionals to study PTSD in the
Vietnamese people and to make peace with his past. Larry
is a widely published poet, men's group leader and group
psychotherapist.
Abraham Lincoln went to the battlefield at Gettysburg
to give his address. He stood on blood-soaked ground. No
American that I know spoke at any of the battlefields in
Vietnam. Unable to stand at this battlefield, I honor
the men on both sides of the Khe Sanh siege for their
giving of life and limb.
The Battle of Khe Sanh was conducted in northwestern
Quang Tri Province, Republic of Vietnam, between 21
January and 8 April 1968. 730 Americans were killed in
action, 2,642 wounded, 7 missing. The Vietnamese
estimate of dead was over 9000.
It has been forty-seven years since our fathers made
war on Viet Nam. Since that time they have involved us
in the conflicts of the Bay of Pigs, Grenada, Panama,
Persian Gulf, Bosnia, and currently in the Afghanistan
and Iraq wars. We justify the deaths and casualties of
our people and those of the peoples of the foreign lands
we have fought in by citing our constitutional belief
that all men are created equal.
Standing now before numerous battle fields where so
many have given life it is time for us to reexamine if
we still believe all are created equal. Has this distant
constitutional message of our forefathers faded beyond
our hearing? Is it time to recalibrate our aggressive
behaviors to better match our founding ideals? Have we
lost our ability to truly value human life?
When we as a nation ask our men and women to offer
their lives, all reasons for doing so should be hard
wired directly to our forefather’s ideals. If one life
is given in vain, we have failed. Abraham Lincoln said,
“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought
forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in
Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men
are created equal.” Ask yourself honestly, where as a
nation do we stand regarding these words today? Do we
see our men and women soldiers as equals? Do we see our
enemies as human beings equal to us? Have we honored our
war dead and wounded as they should be? Can we make a
privileged place among us for our returning veterans? Do
we pay sincere tribute to their supreme sacrifices? Will
we remember the forfeit of their souls?
Today we are here to search our hearts for the echoes
of our ancestors who may have known the value of human
life better than we do today. We are here to rekindle
the flame of honor for our warriors. We are here to
enliven our awareness of human life. We are here to
remember an event of profound significance when the life
of a loved one is offered to protect us. We are here to
find the courage to put aside our own material needs to
consider the spiritual needs of the men and women who
have gifted us with trust that we shall guide them into
honorable endeavors that equal the value of their
lives. And most of all we are hear to look inward at
our own souls and to ask for guidance in answering these
questions concerning all human life.
Larry Winters
Author of the Making and Un-Making of a Marine
to be published end of March 2007
http://makingandunmaking.com
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