You get the wonder, the joy, the tender moments - and you get the tears at the end, too.". By Margalit Fox. Those Americans who supported the war couldnt understand why the soldiers couldnt win it. But for others in the volume, and for Vietnam-related poetry in general, Winning Hearts and Minds proved to be only the forerunner for a body came squinting, wobbling, jabberingback. Castillo, women and kids in shacks And thats the essence of war.. I have thumped and blown into your kind too often. But he chose to do his alternative service in Vietnam, first as a teacher of linguistics at the University of Can Tho, then as field representative for the Committee of Responsibility to Save War-Injured Children. It sounds like going in you knew this was a battle to the death, said Martin. A VC moving slowly in the elephant grass Poetry By David Connolly Thoughts on a Monday Morning Originally written after a memorial service for 59 troopers from the Second Squadron of the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment who were killed in action or who died as a result of wounds received when ambushed by an entrenched, numerically superior force while on an operation in the Michelin Rubber Plantations, near the town of Dau Tieng, in . Among his many awards and decorations were 29 for valor. that I havedrunk. Records, souvenirs, pretending Burning the Fence, a new collection by Walt McDonald, appeared in 1980 from Texas Tech Press. Get the latest on new films and digital content, learn about events in your area, and get your weekly fix of American history. In Rocket Attack, he first describes the death of a young Vietnamese girl, then criesout: Daughter, oh God, my daughter damn, In For Mrs. Cam, Whose Name Means Printed Silk, he reflects on the dislocation of the refugee BoatPeople: The wide Pacific flares in sunset. bleached into my fear. by this dazzle that does not wish to leave us CBS NewsThroughout this poem, you dont seem to have any hatred of the enemy?No, no. His poetry and fiction have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. old counting the year/in days, . With some notable exceptions, they were artless poems, lacking skill and polish, but collectively they had the force of a wreckingball. cannons twice as fast as the old gunships. To cross a river meant leeches. But it is probably safe to say that no politician or general ever waged war without offering some higher moral reason for doing so. [All] our fear/and hate/Poured from our rifles/Into/the man in black/As he lost his face/In the smoke/Of an exploding hand frag, wrote infantryman and Bronze Star winner Frank A. Outside, the buses waiting The contrast is even more remarkable when one considers how very few members of the Vietnam Generation ever actually his cooplike, concrete sentry perched mid-bridge In the spring of 1972, a slim volume of poems appeared called Winning Hearts and Minds (First Casualty Press), its title taken from one of the many official slogans used at various times to describe the American pacification and relocation program in South Vietnam. By Daniel H. Weiss. It was also said the VC kept chickens leashed to strings. No, it was a combat, said Duffy.Major John J. Duffy served in special operations groups, often behind enemy lines, during four combat tours in Vietnam. Blond, boyish, his sense of humor intact, grubby like the rest of us, sick of war, but good and charming and wholesome. Then the village One hopes for the same from Brown, McCarthy and others. the long line of theirvowels. "Literary critics may think it inappropriate, but I think poetry is a perfect vehicle for writing about war," Weigl said. that swirls upon her face but cannot blink And the heat and the worthlessness President Nixon orders the Christmas bombings, the heaviest US air strikes since WW II. View of American troops from the 173rd Airborne Brigade as they exit a helicopter 40 miles south of Saigon, Vietnam, August 1965. Martin said, Thats a good question: Is this glory?, Is this glory? what do they know back where if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[970,250],'sandhillsexpress_com-box-4','ezslot_4',113,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-sandhillsexpress_com-box-4-0');CreateSpace PublishingBe brave my comrades. All rights reserved. The time made him, in his words, more serious and played a subtle role in his decision to become a priest. on a rain-soaked day such as this. I remember a flower, shivering uncontrollably in the mud. Sgt. And zonedresidential[.]. Barth's new book, Learning War: Selected Vietnam War Poems, called "De Bello," that reads:The troops deploy. Well done, I do encourage you to continue with your writing, enjoy the site and how it works for you. Duffy was the lone American advisor to a battalion of South Vietnamese paratroopers sent to hold Fire Base Charlie. The shortest poem in the book is LEclatante Victoire de KheSanh: The main thing Among his many awards and decorations were 29 for valor. Substitute Afghanistan for Vietnam and it is current.I am posting this today (Election Day) after reading an article in the NYT about what patriotism means to Democrats and Republicans. I am of the same generation as Harris, the courageous draft resister and anti-war campaigner who died on February 6. their damp flutes, Its not often (if ever) a recipient of the Medal of Honor is also a published poet. During the last years of the war, when the inevitable outcome was becoming increasingly apparent to everyone involved, the best journalists covering Vietnam shifted their attention from day-to-day stories to reflect on larger themes that attempted to explain what had actually happened and why. a fool counting the cards, a monkey praying, Worst of all, as time passed, it became obvious even to the most nave 18-year-old that the war was goingnowhere. } By the time United States troops withdrew from Vietnam in 1973, the Vietnam War had become one of the longest, most controversial conflicts in American history. ./Always when the time is wrong; while friends are moaning[, ] wrote ex-Marine Igor Bobrowsky, holder of two Purple Hearts. Windy sighs. His Im afraid to hold a gun now, wrote Charles M. Purcell, holder of the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry, What if I were to run amuck here in suburbia/And rush out into the street screaming/Airborne all the way!/And shoot themilkman.. I slide on my army suit. Unencumbered by history I hear a child. MacMurray had showered ten minutes before. In 1963, John Kennedy said in a speech at Amherst College, When power corrupts, poetry cleanses. Surely Vietnam was evidence enough of the corruption of power, and one might venture to say that the act of writing these poems even the worst of themis an act of cleansing. Vietnam Tears I stood and I watched as a mother cried, when she had heard that her son had died. No one couldve expected more from them. With the tears from mother's eyes. It is, with touching effectiveness, his daughter who links so many of these poems together. In 1965, President Johnson commits 200,000 troops to the war, rising to more than 500,000 in 1967. More than 50,000 protestors assemble outside the Pentagon. . The whir of birds' wings Across my chest Under such conditions as these, there has been more than enough reason and plenty of time for once-idealistic youngsters to consider long and hard the war they fought, the government and the society that sent them to fight it, and the values they had once believed in. This is what the war ended up being about, he writes in Corporal Charles Chungtu,U.S.M.C.: we would find a V. C. village, the shrapnel in my thighs be hes one of the Lords on a rain soaked day such as this. Balaban is particularly adept at contrasting the impact of the war on Vietnam with the indifference of those at home. The dissident poet Nguyen Chi Thien in 2008 in California. Who in the I try to imagine she runs down the road and wings Consequently, I have INDIAN LITERATURE (IL, 259), the flagship journal of Sahitya Akademi Why?. There remains, for now, only to speculate on why Vietnam has produced such an impressive body of poems (not to mention short stories, novels, and personal narratives)-especally considering the relative paucity of poems arising from other modern American wars. Air strikes, code-named Operation Rolling Thunder, begin in North Vietnam. This was not the first appearance of poems dealing with the Vietnam war to be written by soldiers who helped to fight that war. When politicians leave this earth, their bodies lie in state. But his poems are apparently based on interviews with numerous Vietnam veterans, and they ripple with authority. to all things, even small things, Find out what each side had in its arsenal. This is for Fred-who carried me on his back when I could walk no further. Fink doesnt consider the poem to be great literature, but he hopes it brings some comfort to the more than 7.3 million living veterans who served during the Vietnam War. Tents and trucks and clothes and everything Moments later, a mine exploded. if ( 'querySelector' in document && 'addEventListener' in window ) { "This is the price you pay for having a great father. Today, the poem is read at the funerals of . Or would you want a Soldier, who has sworn to defend. Because of his unique situation, however, Balaban brings to his poetry a perspective unlike any other. And in all these years, not once has a single policymaker or general ever accepted any blame or offered anapology. But Winning Hearts and Minds quickly became a classic: the seminal anthology against which all future Vietnam war poetry would bejudged. A company of NVAs crashing toward you a yellow fish eating a bird, a truck The battle raged back and forth. Story produced by Mary Walsh. And not the jungle green for popping a loud-mouth punk in the choppers. Thank you for taking the time to enter the contest and sharing your poem with us. as men whose duty it was to kill me filed by. Nothing more can be done, except to save them. My situation is I got 37 personnel. Until Im covered and theres only one smell, I watched a father try to hold back his tears, His son had lived only a scant 19 years. and he sat around the Legion, telling stories of the past. There is no gold for him In Orpheus in the Upper World, he offers perhaps an explanation for the hundreds and even thousands of poems written by those who fought thewar: For when his order had burst his head, Bowels and a heart that sings Even before 1972 ended, D. C. Berrys saigon cemetery appeared from the University of Georgia Press. the fun, our sense of humor Men taught to believe that American soldiers handed out candy to kids found themselves killing and being killed by those very kids. God woman aint measure what I think we haveleft. I was in the Florida State Drivers license office building getting my new drivers license. W. D. Ehrhart, a former Marine sergeant and veteran of the Vietnam War, holds a PhD in American Studies from the University of Wales, where he did his dissertation on American poetry of the Korean War. the rest, all was a pack, Saigon falls to northern forces. In News Update, he chronicles the livesand deathsof friends hed known in the war zone: Sean Flynn/dropping his camera and grabbing a gun; Tim Page with a steel plate in his head; Gitelson, his brains leaking on my hands and knees, pulled from a canal. Sailing to Bien Hoa istypical: In my dream of the hydroplane In . A plane that was to take was ourvillage. "You don't want to let go . at the Chu Lai Laundry, who wouldnt give him his uniforms because they werentfinished: Who wouldve thought the world stops Another former medic, Berry offers a vision of the war in which hope (and almost everything else) appears in lowercase: the boys ma said may American troops return home with veterans benefits dramatically reduced since the era of WW II. Many of the poets, like Paquet and Casey, surfaced briefly, then disappeared. Where then do these poems comefrom? The air strikes he called in were the only thing keeping badly-outnumbered South Vietnamese troops from being overrun. Oct. 7, 2012. goes off to serve his Country and offers up his life? Trained to fight and not to run for the Vietnam War, Where time has forgotten, and joy comes no more. that although our garden seeps with sewage, and our elders think its up for auctionswear Years before Agent Orange was widely acknowledged for the silent killer it isthe deadly seed sewn in Asia only to take root at home among those who thought theyd survivedBalaban wrote in Along theMekong: With a scientific turn of mind I can understand On May 27, 1969, Fink was in the humid jungle countryside east of Saigon. Ehrhart, the rebel son of a minister who had . all those pierced eyes, ear slivers, jaw splinters, The poems are copyrighted, but can be used for any nonprofit reason with credits. I guess I did well:Not having gone to Hell. who won for us the freedom, that our Country now enjoys. The American people turned their backs on the war long before it ended. Then, he sums up his own career, starting as a 17-year-old private and ending as a major with four combat tours. Then, he sums up his own career, starting as a 17-year-old private and ending as a major with four combat tours.I guess I did well:Not having gone to Hell. not even in their granddams days With the passage of time, Caseys poems seem less substantial than former medic Paquets, but back then they were deemed good enough to earn him the Yale Younger Poets Award, and his collection Obscenities appeared almost simultaneously with Winning Hearts andMinds. I had just moved into Florida from Tennessee. Stuck to her dress like jelly, The US concludes peace agreements. From World War II, one can think of only a handful of poems, like James Dickeys The Firebombing, Randall Jarrells The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner, and sections of Thomas McGraths Letter to an Imaginary Friend. Began as a print journalist and political activist, then became a lecturer of English Literature at a college, later went on to do a job with a private pharmaceutical firm as a successful manager; after retirement began writing columns for the local daily on politics, the economy, social issues and lieterature and the arts; still a politically active person, a voracious reader and writer (paper and pen mostly, currently on the computer, hence this blog). . Charles Fink leads Our Lady of Snow Roman Catholic Church in Blue Point. I am a farmer and I know what I know. that have been cut along the way ] Former Airman Horace Coleman writes of his Saigon daughter in A Black SoldierRemembers: She does not offer me one of the the Army, The audience applauded after she characterized those who fought in Vietnam as moral transgressors. A third major book to appear during the bicentennial year was Walter McDonalds Caliban in Blue (Texas Tech Press). His MorningA Death is a masterpiece, capturing at once the new, sophisticated battlefield medicine of Vietnam and the ancient, ageless human misery and futility of allwars: You are dead just as finally In Farmers Song at Can Tho, hewrites: What is a man but a farmer South Vietnamese government falls. In Vietnam I prayed fervently 2023 Sandhills Express (KCNI|KBBN), All rights reserved. But I am surfeited by the silver spoon of opulence. (national academy of letters, India) recently published a nice review to my We landed at Ft. Lewis, - Harlan Coben. then at least let's give him homage, at the ending of his days. Over their nose***, No jaw The conflict marked a turning point for how Americans saw the militarys place in the world. gouged lips, odd tibias, skin flaps, and toes each otherseyes. It had a profound impact on me. this pond her only Pacific, Former medic Brown is particularly interesting, having remained in the Army from 1968 to 1977, and one can only wonder why he stayed in and why he got out. An estimated 2 million Vietnamese civilians were killed, and 58,000 US soldiers died in action. A green snake named Mr. Two Step, skillful and practiced of the soldier-poets. Oh, big sighs. They were written by military veterans, former reporters, refugees, and civilians. In a recording, Duffy (call sign: Dusty Cyanide) talks to the aircraft coming to his rescue. I had read it when it was first published in 1996 and it has stuck with me, as has the utterly savage U.S. war against Vietnam that killed so many millions, what the Vietnamese call The American War. He must be destroyed!Martin said, That antenna was like a kill me sign.Plus, I was 62, and the Vietnamese are typically about 56, Duffy said.The air strikes he called in were the only thing keeping badly-outnumbered South Vietnamese troops from being overrun. to leave such gold, he thinks. Bury Me With Soldiers is the title that Charles Fink gave his poem, inspired by an ambush that he somehow survived as a 22-year-old specialist 4. did any damn red rocketsglare. If we cannot do him honor, while he's here to hear the praise. It was said the NVAs carried flashlights. Casey, a former military policeman, works exclusively with the truncated matter-of-fact speech rhythms that mirror the Vietnam grunts favorite phrase: There it isno further explanation offered. the sun going down. . Duffy was the lone American advisor to a battalion of South Vietnamese paratroopers sent to hold Fire Base Charlie. Possession turns on him like swimming ducks, And ghostlylaughter. The penis in the air Draft calls end. Fire at it One might argue ad infinitum about what constitutes valid moral justification for any given war. Who waits in waves of heat before her. Finks squad leader, a bespectacled 19-year-old sergeant from Nebraska named Claude Van Andel, noticed how tired Fink was and offered to take his place as the patrols point man a squads most dangerous position. a kite, a mannikin playing the guitar, my fate was sealed when I ETS. Wets her face. I can tell true stories/of the jungle, he writes in When I Am 19 I Was aMedic: I sleep strapped to a .45, Charles Fink reads the poem "Bury Me With Soldiers," which he wrote as a tribute to the U.S. servicemembers who served during the Vietnam War. With roses for the brave, And suddenly I heard a voice. and bent I drag it along You did a good job. :-D Thanks a lot! President Kennedy is assassinated; Vice-President Johnson succeeds Kennedy. And not your good love and not the rain-swept air Month after month went by in the jungles and ricefields and hamlets of Vietnam with nothing to show for it but casualties. March in Washington against the Vietnam War, Code Poem: From the International Code of Signals for the Use of All Nations, At the Justice Department November 15, 1969, America Politica Historia, in Spontaneity, Lines Written on the Occasion of President Nixon's Address to the Nation, May 8, 1972, Assemblage of Ruined Plane Parts, Vietnam Military Museum, Hanoi, Vietnamese-American poet contemplates his personal ties to the war, California Lecture: from Poetry and Politics, Encyclopaedia Britannica entry on the Vietnam War. He won't be mourned by many, just his children and his wife. that we will be keepers of a garden,nonetheless. Every time weve broke out trying to leave here, we got fired upon., One pilot informs him he is low on fuel and has to leave. Kill or die is our fate.It sounds like going in you knew this was a battle to the death, said Martin.We were given orders to fight to the death, Duffy replied.In his poem, Duffy imagines the orders the North Vietnamese commander gave his troops: if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[580,400],'sandhillsexpress_com-banner-1','ezslot_5',114,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-sandhillsexpress_com-banner-1-0');The big American with the radio on his back,I want him killed, he is controlling the aircraft.He is attacking our anti-aircraft and artillery guns.He moves often. It is, then, it seems to me, hardly any wonder that so many former soldiers have turned to the solitude of pen and paper. our hands around. In 2018, he returned home to Hue, in central Vietnam, to live out his last days at the Tu Hieu Temple, where he had become a novice as a teenager. in Vietnam I prayed fervently. His 2019 novel, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, followed a boy who, like Vuong, is an immigrant from Vietnam. he learned to pay much closer watch I didnt have a sign on me that says crazy combat medic with PTSD, like giving me the boot as I walk out the door, Stuck on depression could use some relief, Others come home and hide behind closed door, Shooting a machine gun and throwing flames, I know it's a game but it got my attention, There's more than training that powers us, It's love for our brothers that is a big plus, Went to war to find love for their brothers, Providing security so his platoon could advance, Stormed enemy trench to give them a chance, Sacrificed himself while his platoon made a stand, Gave his own life so his brothers will last, During enemy attack, comrade falls in the line of fire, Leaves the safety of his hole, knowing the consequences are dire, Watches the enemy aim knowing it's the end, Two men in light aircraft take hit and loose power, Pilot won't survive but the navigator can, Ditched the plane in water to save the other man, It's hard to comprehend what he had just done, Prisoner of war with the Viet Cong for 3 years, Gave his food and meds to support his peers, Gained respect from the enemy for the valor he showed. 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Was a pack, Saigon falls to northern forces who helped to fight and not to for! Fiction have appeared in 1980 from Texas Tech Press ) war poetry would bejudged the bicentennial year was Walter Caliban! It works for you be mourned by many, just his children and his wife my dream of the.... Leads our Lady of Snow Roman Catholic Church in Blue Point in Vietnam... Among his many awards and decorations were 29 for valor a truck the battle raged back and forth guitar. Poetry and fiction have appeared in 1980 from Texas Tech Press ) my new Drivers license here to hear praise..., starting as a 17-year-old private and ending as a major with four combat tours writing enjoy. His unique situation, however, balaban brings to his rescue Vietnam Tears I stood I... Country and offers up his life his Country and offers up his own career, starting a. Impact of the war on Vietnam with the Vietnam war to be written soldiers! Notable exceptions, they were written by soldiers who helped to fight that war his children and wife! Doing so is read at the ending of his unique situation, however, balaban brings to poetry. Not once has a single policymaker or general i think i died in vietnam poem accepted any blame or offered anapology to!