Today, Memorial Day, marks the beginning of the commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of combat in the Vietnam War, at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC, to be continued over the next thirteen years, through an initiative of President Barack Obama and actor Tom Selleck, a sign itself of bitpartisanship, since Selleck is a well known Republican.
58, 282 Americans died in Vietnam between 1962 and 1975, and the veterans were not received well at home when they returned.
This was a miscarriage of justice, and it is important that we recognize and honor the sacrifices of those who died, and those who lived on, often suffering in silence, as they felt rejected by the American people.
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial,. one of the most impressive memorials ever built, is itself now thirty years old, and no one who visits the Memorial, whether one knows any of the people listed on the Memorial, can leave the site without experiencing a tear while at the site.
Whether the Vietnam War was popular or not at the time, we owe a debt of gratitude to those who served and sacrificed!