European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 29, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse Wednesday june 29, 1994 commentary the stars and stripes Pago 15vietnam vets should be honoured not pitied Harry g. Summers for the past month television has honoured the veterans of the second world War especially those who went ashore in Normandy on june 6, 1944. They were quite properly held up As heroes who had Laid Down their lives for their country. To the appreciation of All who had served in our nations wars cd so 60 minutes also held up for scorn several contemptible phonics who had falsely claimed to have won the medal of Honor americans highest award for Battlefield bravery. Despite the fact that some 4,900 of the american Canadian and British soldiers who stormed ashore on a Day were killed on that first Day and another million americans would be killed or wounded before that War came to an end no one would Ever Call a world War ii Veteran a some would argue that a because world War ii was the last of the a Good wars Quot where the stakes were Clear and the enemy truly evil. But As a korean War Veteran where 33,651 americans were killed in action and another 103,284 wounded no one has Ever categorized us As a a victims either. This is despite the fact that the War was seen by Many As Little better than a defeat since it did not fit the a total Victory Model set by world War ii. While we korean War veterans have not been particularly honoured we have not been dishonoured either. But almost 20 years after the fall of Saigon Vietnam veterans continue to be dishonoured at every turn. Even during the impressive memorial Day ceremonies Here in Washington they were not so much praised As were the veterans of other wars but pitied As hapless victims with the Reading of a Lach Remose poem. To cameras searching for Vietnam vets invariably single out an unshaven wretch in his a scam Mien fatigues still trying to milk Public sympathy. Rarely do they show Washington Post owner Don Aid Graham a former combat photographer with the 1st Cav div in Vietnam. And they done to focus on rep. Randy Cunningham a Vietnam War Ace or on Vietnam Veteran a1 Gore either. In red Thunder Tropic lightning Westview Pressman exceptionally Well done look at the . 25th inf div in combat in Vietnam Lincoln University professor Eric Bergerud found that the division a fought a fierce and determined enemy. And ultimately crushed but the Price was High Quot the 25th division suffered 4,240 men killed and 30,000 wounded during the War. A combat Soldier w Ould probably have had about a 75 percent Chance of being killed or Hau Ngi iia province in Vietnam might not have been Normandy but for an infantryman it was t much of an improvement. But instead of being honoured the typical portrait Bergerud says is of a a generation of damaged veterans who because of their horrid experiences and inner conflicts became neurotic or pathological wrecks a which in turn a spawned a sad and ridiculous cottage Industry that panders to phony veterans who try to look and act the Parton the embittered Vietnam one Vietnam Veteran who is trying to Correct that false image is . Burkett of Dallas reporting on Burkett a efforts in the May 1994 readers digest Malcolm Mcconnell noted that a far from being violent time bombs Vietnam veterans. Are More Likely to have higher incomes than those who did not go to Vietnam More Likely than their Peers to own Homes and they Are just As Likely to have stable marriages a but that a not the image the Media portray. One of the worst examples of such stereotyping says the article was the Wall within a 1988 lbs special with Dan rather. Featured were six Vietnam veterans so traumatized by their Vietnam experience that they had gone wild in the Washington state Woods. One said he had massacred Vietnam civilians and burned their villages. Another shown a howling at the sky like a stricken animal a told of skinning alive some 50 vietnamese men women and babies. But they were lying through their Teeth. Thanks to Burkett both were exposed As phonics who had served in routine rear cd halon assignments. One was drawing a pension As a paranoid schizophrenic. But instead of issuing a rebuttal As Abc did last year when its investigative reporters were found to have dummies a truck crash scene lbs says it a stands by its in so doing it Dis honors not Only itself but also Dan rather a respected War correspondent in Vietnam. Making lbs decision particularly despicable is that this documentary is part of a Multi hour video history of the Vietnam War that is being bought by schools across the country. A whether motivated by greed or ignorance a Bergerud says referring to the Media portrayal of Vietnam veterans in general a the creators of this colossal lie deserve the contempt of everyone who respects historical truth a c los angles Timon for a wife beater this is not the Story of a fallen idol. It is the Stoier of a Man who like Many Many other men beat up his wife and did no to think there was anything the least bit wrong with it. In 1989, according to police reports . Simpson came to the door of the House in which he had blackened the Eye of his wife Nicole and split her lip and choked her and told the officers a this is a family matter. Why do you want to make a Deal of it a and with those words he spoke for thousands upon thousands of other batterers who think it is unworthy of Public notice that they assault the women they live with bully them with words silence them with looks finally shut them up with their fists we Are not talking of crimes of passion but of a Way of looking at the world and the women in it. He was not special this Public face. He was Ordinary. He was typical. The quasi suicide note he left last week was practically a textbook example of batterer baloney. A if we had a problem it s because i loved her so much a he wrote. So much that Nicole Simpson told the cops according to the 19s9 police report that she had called them eight times before. They took pictures of her injuries and although she was pretty the photographs were not. The Only people not surprised by what has happened Are advocates for battered women. A they i Lave heard so often about the charming and successful Man the love affair the Devotion a and the violence. They have worked with battered women who became homicide victims. They know that this often happens after the woman has walked out or refused a reconciliation. If of. Simpson is found guilty As charged of killing Nicole Brown Simpson and her Friend Ronald Goldman that will not Surprise them either. A according to unofficial statistics from the coroners office we re witnessing a Domestic violence killing every Day and a half a said Alana Bowman head of the los Angeles City attorneys Domestic violence unit. Gail Pincus who runs the kind of program in California that . Simpson might have been forced to attend had he been treated As a wife beater instead of a football legend says its difficult perhaps impossible to change the batterers who cannot differentiate Between control violence and love. The men she works with have been convicted of choking their wives into unconsciousness beating them bloody breaking their noses. All misdemeanours. A they All come in thinking she a the problem that she made him do it a says Pincus. A and sometimes he convinces her. My measure of Success is whether we be made her understand that he May never change and that she May really be in danger of her Anna Quindlen instead of the 30 Days in jail and the yearlong batterer s program the prosecutor demanded when Simpson was sentenced five years ago the judge gave him no jail time and Simpson was permitted to phone in his counselling sessions because of his terribly Busy schedule. But societal attitudes Are As skewed As those of any Jurist. If . Simpson had pleaded no contest to drug charges instead of spousal abuse is there a snowballs Chance in hell that Hertz would have used him in commercials and Abc employed him As an on air analyst his supporters lined the freeway june 17 to cheer him on and commentators talked of his tragedy. Did those people see the photographs of the crime scene and the great blackening pools of blood seeping into the sidewalk did battered women watch All this on television and realize More vividly than Ever before that their lives were cheap and their pain inconsequential a if men Start holding other men accountable for this and not being part of a conspiracy of silence it can be ended a said Bowman. This is not the Story of a fallen idol. It is the Story of a woman who was brutally murdered while her children were just on the other Side of the door. If her former husband is convicted of her murder and that of her Friend remember that his children were orphaned by his own hand. Remember Nicole Brown Simpson. This is her Story. And remember what she said to the police when they arrived at her House a a he a going to kill
