I had spent a number of years in the Far East already when the war started and I remembered Douglas McArthur telling the Congress, "Don't get involved in a land war in the Far East." I thought it was good advice and I felt that someone in Washington had made a mistake when we used the Tonkin Gulf incident to start a full scale war in Vietnam.
You also served in Korea. Did Vietnam affect your perception of your Korean service, or did negative feelings about Korea affect your feelings about Vietnam?
The fact that we never really solved anything in Korea made me suspect that we would never solve anything in Vietnam, either. But my position was that of a person on a team. You might think the coach called a stupid play, but you don't go out there and run your own route because of that. It won't help to win the game.
What kind of news did you get from home? Did you hear about the antiwar
movement? What did you think of them? How much information was available?
How did it portray the antiwar movement?
I heard about the antiwar movement, but didn't think much about it.
College kids always protest a war. It is a dumb way to solve an
international dispute. If I had been in college, I would have been
against the war, too.
Select this to read [the Whole Story].