EDITORIAL
The cold winds of war are blowing this January, with the imminent possibility of military action in Iraq.
As the deployment of troops continues, more and more Americans are taking to the streets to protest. Last week, residents in several local communities protested, including the third such event in Hillsborough in the last eight weeks.
We couldn’t help but be struck by the prospect of war contrasted with mass demonstrations against it. It’s almost as if it’s "déja vu all over again," as Yogi Berra put it.
Modern history lessons include the "lessons of Vietnam," a war that Veterans of Foreign Wars State Commander Pierre Lamereaux called the nation’s "most hated war" in a ceremony honoring Vietnam veterans at Manville’s VFW post Saturday.
And much of that history is focused on the public’s change in attitudes towards the war, including massive and frequently, violent demonstrations against the U.S. government’s involvement in Asia.
Faced with a lack of public support, the Nixon administration eventually found victory by declaring it so, and withdrew American troops from Southeast Asia.
In the years since, we have often heard expressions of the "Lessons of Vietnam." Secretary of State Colin Powell, a U.S. Army officer who served two tours of duty in Vietnam, has been quoted as saying the lesson he learned was that military action cannot be successful without the support of the American public.
Linguistics professor and writer Noam Chomsky said in a 1982 interview for the "Indochina Newsletter" that the lesson of Vietnam was governmental mendacity that the government would lie in order to achieve its goals.
Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger wrote to President Gerald Ford in 1975 that one of the lessons of Vietnam was that the American public will support military action if they believe it will protect the freedoms enjoyed by the residents of other nations.
Perhaps the least heard students of the history of the Vietnam war are the ones who faced all of the terrifying aspects of the war, from marching through unfamiliar jungles to guerilla warfare to a return to a divided country: the veterans.
Returning home was not easy for many of these men. Public sentiment was so negative, many refused to acknowledge their service until years later.
Others suffered long-term mental and physical health problems, for which they have had many years to contemplate the "lessons of Vietnam."
And what do the veterans of that "hated" war say to today’s protesters? What lessons did they learn?
Vietnam veterans have no problem saying exactly what the lessons of Vietnam are: the right to speak out, the freedom to express disagreement with officials and the right to demonstrate. They say the lesson is that the United States will fight to protect those freedoms and rights.
High Bridge resident and Vietnam veteran John Le Gates added one caveat: Politicians start wars; soldiers fight them.

