"Made In America, Sold In the Nam" is a long-awaited book for me. As a child of the '60's, and a military brat at the same time, I lived through the residuals of the Viet Nam War and have always felt a sense of displacement, or perhaps an "unfinishedness" about it. This book was a salve to my emptiness. It was a "yes" to my heart's cry for my friends who had to go there when they were too young, too confused about it all, hadn't had time to grow up, didn't want to go to war; and, who sometimes came home and sometimes, didn't.
I remember several conversations with friends of that time about whether it was better to study hard and get the grades to go to college~potentially; or whether to just "goof off," and enjoy their senior year since they were probably going to be drafted anyway. There was a fatalism in those times. There was no peace of mind or heart with a draft in this Country.
I remember the song lyrics by either Dylan or Creedence, "I ain't no Senator's son, no," the idea that the only way out of the draft was big money and pull with the government...Senator's sons...big buisness's boys. Otherwise, look out, they were coming for you any day now. Imagine the anxiety and terrors those young boys must have felt...watching the Viet Nam War on the television all day and night and wondering if they would be there soon.
The writers in this beautiful, heartwrenching, chilling and uplifting book are simply angels of another time, 'though at times they seem to be demons expressing otherworldly horrors. They are artists and witnesses, survivors and grievers, husbands, children, friends, pilots and others who know what it's like to taste a little bit of Hell on Earth, and to share it with us. They are to be commended and honored for that simple act alone, as if their other actions and reactions didn't mean the world, as well!
It is writers such as these that remind us ever that War is futile in the end; that it is destructive to the minds, spirits, hearts and bodies of those we cherish.
It is writers such as these that remind us that lives are taken in the Game of War...forfeited as if they were like chess pieces on a board to politicians and distant world leaders. Lives taken, lives and families destroyed and/or left with wounds that take a lifetime to heal, if ever. Lives that are taken away and can never be replaced for a political principle...to save face for a government...not necessarily because it's for the good of the people of the United States of America or the invaded country.
Not necessarily because the rhetoric is true, but because the polls need stabilizing. Young men, fathers, brothers, sons, children, priests, preachers, teachers, doctors, lawyers, chefs, construction workers, mechanics, and on and on....those who aren't here today to actually help our own Country and economy when we need them!
For that alone, I beg you to read this precious book. And, to remember and think about the times we live in now.
Deb/TheBookishDame
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