On War
I’ve been watching an 11-hour Ken Burns documentary titled “The Vietnam War” about the epic conflict in Vietnam. This topic recently has been a point of interest to me for some reason. Maybe it’s because I’m getting older and learning more about the history of where I “came from” even though I was born next to a Sonic Drive-thru in Houston, Texas. I’m trying to get a better understanding of my ancestral history. Another topic for another post though.
What stood out to me while learning about the War is how truly senseless war can be. There were two million civilian deaths on both sides of the Vietnam War, and a countless number of those who are affected by it. That’s only ONE war. Civilian deaths were being used as pawns in a “greater” plan. Deaths of dogs, cats, and even people.
I was born lucky. To be of age at a time that didn’t require a draft, to live in a country that didn’t fervently demand recruits. Sometimes I forget that other countries have the draft still in tact. South Korea still has a conscription. It’s crazy to me that there were Korean Pop Stars who left their troupe to join actual troops. Singers being forced to trade their mics for rifles. Dancers trading their sneakers for boots. Not a bad trade for Doc Marten fans, but I digress. There’s a scene in the 2019 film 1917 directed by Sam Mendes of multiple WW1 soldiers sitting between rounds of war listening to a folk tune about returning home from war. The camera pans to reveal all of the soldiers were children. Eighteen year old boys confronted with what is supposed to be eighty year old trauma. Maybe I’m so far removed from the realness of the world, but it’s insane to me to know that at the same age these boys were fighting for their lives, I was trying to figure out if a Swiffer or broom is best to clean my dorm. Herbert Hoover said it best:
“Older men declare war. But it is youth that must fight and die. And it is youth who must inherit the tribulation, the sorrow, and the triumphs that are the aftermath of war.”
My grandpa was forced into a re-education camp when the war ended. When I first heard about this from my mom, I used to just think it was “badass” that my grandpa was a veteran with scars underneath his tattered suit. When I hear stories about it now, it’s not that I can feel his pain, but It makes me think of the 9 years taken from him for a political war. Vietnam was a chess piece for American politicians. Now that I think about it, all war is political, even the religious ones.
A running theme that I’m noticing from doing research about the war is how often the government lies or withholds the truth from their people for their own agendas such as re-election. Fighting someone else’s war for them to make a statement or hold a dick-measuring contest with other countries doesn’t appeal to me. Americans were falsely given the impression that we were winning the war, when in reality, we were getting spanked. That’s just America as well. How many countries have covert corruption within their political system? I’m willing to bet my meager bank account that many of them bury empire-collapsing secrets.
I say all of this behind a laptop screen, a cushy college degree, and a fear of confrontation. I’m not the one dedicating my life to fighting or defending our country, but as a boy who can easily be persuaded to take a stand on something, I empathize with those who had no choice but to sacrifice their lives for a cause they did or did not believe in. Doing all of this thinking makes me want to solidify my stance on war and fighting so here it is:
War is a temporary and futile effort, while the casualties are felt forever
Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. (n.d.). Vietnam War. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved December 17, 2022, from https://www.britannica.com/event/Vietnam-War
