The soul humbling forgiveness
of the Vietnamese
brings our hearts
to our bending knees
Author's Notes/Comments:
Author David Lamb says
there are still 300,000
Vietnamese missing in
action. 4 million Vietnamese died in a
struggle which began
even before Ho Chi Minh
petitioned Woodrow Wilson
for independence.
Lamb said that 1 Vietnamese woman who
lost 5 sons in the war treated
him with kindness (this
also happened in America's Civil War),
that the Vietnamese
equivalent of the tomb
of the unknown soldier
is multiplied many times..
each is marked with
the Vietnamese word for
martyr..
David Lamb: The Vietnamese fought the
Chinese for 1000 years,
the French for 100 years
and the US for a mere 10.
There are many Americans
who have suffered and
are suffering from
the effects of Vietnam..
many paraplegics..
soldiers with Agent Orange
cancer.. soldiers too poor
to fight the draft..
black soldiers whose
numbers were called up
much more often in
a lottery weighted
by race..
soldiers lied to about
the Tonkin Gulf
(writer has lost father,
grandfather, and great
great grandfather to
military actions'
diseases)
