VLVL(4) Vietnam

[Toby G Levy]

Am I the only Vietnam vet on the list?  I went over in the beginning of
July 1971.  Vietnamization was the buzz word in the newspapers then. 
Everything was being turned over to the South Vietnamese and the
Americans were being phased out.  So why was I going, I asked myself.  I
was drafted and had no desire to fight for my life halfway around the
world.  So I wrote a letter to Nixon, saying that how could the Americans
be phasing out when every seat on the plane coming over was full?  I got
a letter back from a general telling me about "rotation" and other b.s. 
I wrote back to the general and a colonel answered my letter.  That was
far enough down the chain for me.  I served my time, stayed out of the
bush and came home in one piece, except for the fact that my fiance
dumped me while I was over there.

By 1973 Watergate was the rage, and Vietnamization was really taking
place.  The last handful of troops that left in 1975 was there only to
protect the US embassy in Saigon and not to fight.  As Pynchon said, 
1973 was the year that the war ended for Americans.

Toby

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