Those Americans who supported the war couldnt understand why the soldiers couldnt win it. There is no escape. may she never And ghostlylaughter. "The Diameter of the Bomb" by Yehuda Amichai. } is paid off with a medal and perhaps a pension, small. You killed the enemy or the enemy killed you. Eases, and your pain, andmine. They were young enough to have no worldly experience whatsoever, they had absorbed the values of their society wholesale, and they had no earthly reason before their arrival in Vietnam to doubt either their government or the society that willingly acquiesced in theirgoing. On this day, the St. Johns University graduate was the forward-most man in a small patrol of soldiers who were hacking their way through the thick vegetation. if ( 'querySelector' in document && 'addEventListener' in window ) { Watch Video: A Medal of Honor recipients epic poem of warIts not often (if ever) a recipient of the Medal of Honor is also a published poet. But his presence should remind us, we may need his like again. We were fighting for what we believed in. Poetry By David Connolly Thoughts on a Monday Morning Originally written after a memorial service for 59 troopers from the Second Squadron of the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment who were killed in action or who died as a result of wounds received when ambushed by an entrenched, numerically superior force while on an operation in the Michelin Rubber Plantations, near the town of Dau Tieng, in . ***. Strange prospect Pero detrs del mito de su creacin hay una historia sin contar sobre un robo, una obsesin y un doble juego corporativo. In In Celebration of Spring, heinsists: Swear by the locust, by dragonflies on ferns, Watch Video: A Medal of Honor recipients epic poem of war, Major John J. Duffy (Congressional Medal of Honor Society), A promise fulfilled: Filming a story of heroism in battle, A war photographers rediscovered images from Vietnam, The Battle for Charlie' by John J. Duffy, in Trade Paperback and eBook formats, available via. never! are sometimes disproportionate, to the service he gives. But we'll hear his tales no longer, for ol' Bob has passed away. W. D. Ehrhart, a former Marine sergeant and veteran of the Vietnam War, holds a PhD in American Studies from the University of Wales, where he did his dissertation on American poetry of the Korean War. This is for Fred-who carried me on his back when I could walk no further. But the appearance in 1984 of D.F. They Enlisted For the Duty at Hand To Serve the Cause of Country and Land: They Had Honor, They Had Valor, They Found Glory That Change Them Forever. Soon it will be here,It seems strange no more. Republishing, rebroadcasting, rewriting, redistributing prohibited. Over their nose***, No jaw I go to a slam once a month here in my neck of the woods and a Vietnam vet shares his experiences which go on and on and on. In short, those who had been asked and ordered to pull the trigger were left alone to carry the weight of the entire disaster that was Americas war in Indochina. Threat S.N. The war killed him . and said proudly I think this poem was published some time before 1972 before I went to college.I cant remember the magazine (probably TIME). Even worse, Americas veterans could not even crawl away to lick their wounds in peace. He didn't die because he was sick, or he didn't die because he was in a wreck. Unencumbered by history Crushing the shower shack. Without even the illusion of a satisfactory resolution, the war ground on for years after most veterans had come home, and the fall of Saigon has been followed by one reminder after another: the boat people, the amnesty issue, Agent Orange, delayed stress, the occupation of Cambodia, the bombing of the Marine barracks in Bierut, the mining of Nicaraguas harbors. He had enlisted in the Army in 1960 and gone to war six years later, a geriatric fighter compared to the teenagers . You did a good job. Records, souvenirs, pretending To think of killing someone makes me nervous. hell was fighting whom? writing class, include The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien. Sailing to Bien Hoa istypical: In my dream of the hydroplane Among his many awards and decorations were 29 for valor. I had read it when it was first published in 1996 and it has stuck with me, as has the utterly savage U.S. war against Vietnam that killed so many millions, what the Vietnamese call The American War. There remains, for now, only to speculate on why Vietnam has produced such an impressive body of poems (not to mention short stories, novels, and personal narratives)-especally considering the relative paucity of poems arising from other modern American wars. In . LikeIvy. Seen seventy-odd years pass by on this planet. Surely, in the process of trying, the best of them have added immeasurably to the body and soul of Americanpoetry. While thousands note their passing, and proclaim that they were great. The shortest poem in the book is LEclatante Victoire de KheSanh: The main thing We landed at Ft. Lewis, got measured, issued new dress uniforms that swirls upon her face but cannot blink Why?. Deaths moment is near,I can feel its flame. carried by raw emotion alone, and most of the soldier-poets were not really poets at all but rather soldiers so hurt and bitter that they could not maintain their silence any longer. Former medic Brown is particularly interesting, having remained in the Army from 1968 to 1977, and one can only wonder why he stayed in and why he got out. They dared not dream, for it might be forever. for popping a loud-mouth punk in the choppers. By Vicki PrichardSpecial to NKyTribuneThere is a poem in R.L. He aims. Outside, the buses waiting Every time weve broke out trying to leave here, we got fired upon., One pilot informs him he is low on fuel and has to leave. By Margalit Fox. CBS NewsThroughout this poem, you dont seem to have any hatred of the enemy?No, no. He is author of 14 books of prose and poetry, and editor or coeditor of four anthologies, and has been publishing regularly in VQR since 1980. gouged lips, odd tibias, skin flaps, and toes We were given orders to fight to the death, Duffy replied. Vietnam veteran Yusef Komunyakaa has published excellent poems in recent years in magazines and anthologies, and a collection of his, I Apologize for the Eyes in My Head, is forthcoming from Wesleyan University Press. The battle raged back and forth. I lay down in it Who waits in waves of heat before her. Kill or die is our fate.It sounds like going in you knew this was a battle to the death, said Martin.We were given orders to fight to the death, Duffy replied.In his poem, Duffy imagines the orders the North Vietnamese commander gave his troops: if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[580,400],'sandhillsexpress_com-banner-1','ezslot_5',114,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-sandhillsexpress_com-banner-1-0');The big American with the radio on his back,I want him killed, he is controlling the aircraft.He is attacking our anti-aircraft and artillery guns.He moves often. what release? our own or that of 13th-century Mongol armies Sgt. the Air Force, and And 'tho sometimes to his neighbors, his tales became a joke. The "b" on Howell's typewriter didn't work. In 2018, he returned home to Hue, in central Vietnam, to live out his last days at the Tu Hieu Temple, where he had become a novice as a teenager. would you really want some cop-out, with his ever waffling stand? to put your gear on and hear shots, when blood was spilled on my 214. bloody papers I carry through life. . Some of the poems are as short asGuns: When the M-16 rifle had a stoppage, A poet had better keep his mouth shut, he writes in Saying Good-by to Mr. and Mrs. My, Saigon,1972: unless hes found words to comfort and teach. Where then do these poems comefrom? Ex-infantryman Steve Hassett contributed half-a-dozen poems, including his eerily ironic Christmas, in which The Hessian As men whose duty it was to kill me filed by It was written a little more sharply than perhaps it would be if I were writing it now, said Fink, who speaks in quiet cadence. Who likes blood and gore. He was just a common Soldier and his ranks are growing thin. Absent are the dreams and illusions, the surreality. By the time United States troops withdrew from Vietnam in 1973, the Vietnam War had become one of the longest, most controversial conflicts in American history. a rifle, and Target him! In The Sound of Guns, hewrites: At the university in town It had now been nearly eight years since Balaban published After Our War, but he had not been idle. You are twenty-three. A VC moving slowly in the elephant grass Gerald McCarthys solid collection, War Story (The Crossing Press) appeared in 1977. Saigon falls to northern forces. Nothing more can be done, except to save them. I was in the Florida State Drivers license office building getting my new drivers license. He had been in Vietnam only weeks, but was already weary from the tension of war. One night they overran the compound. As the fading light allowed. Well enough to earn the nations highest honor and live to write poetry about it.President Joe Biden shakes hands with retired U.S. Army Major John J. Duffy, after awarding him the Medal of Honor for his actions in the Vietnam War, during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., July 5, 2022.SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images. You have read 1 of 10 free articles in the past 30 days. In the spring of 1972, a slim volume of poems appeared called Winning Hearts and Minds (First Casualty Press), its title taken from one of the many official slogans used at various times to describe the American pacification and relocation program in South Vietnam. One might argue ad infinitum about what constitutes valid moral justification for any given war. they fire on us. but when, last week, I ushered hare-lipped, tusk-toothed kids It would be another two years before Bruce Weigl would publish his first book-length collection, A Romance (University of Pittsburgh). - Harlan Coben. In Vietnam I prayed fervently He must be destroyed!Martin said, That antenna was like a kill me sign.Plus, I was 62, and the Vietnamese are typically about 56, Duffy said.The air strikes he called in were the only thing keeping badly-outnumbered South Vietnamese troops from being overrun. Even then, When two mouths, thirsty each for each, find slaking, And agony's forgot, and hushed the crying. March 30, 2022 7:00 AM EDT. skillful and practiced of the soldier-poets. Years before Agent Orange was widely acknowledged for the silent killer it isthe deadly seed sewn in Asia only to take root at home among those who thought theyd survivedBalaban wrote in Along theMekong: With a scientific turn of mind I can understand (national academy of letters, India) recently published a nice review to my in his last letter home/said in part/they are all rebels here/who will not stand to fight/but each time fade before us/as water into sand[. . in Asia. Vietnam Tears I stood and I watched as a mother cried, when she had heard that her son had died. Years later, Fink learned that Van Andels family and friends had always wondered whether war had stripped the Nebraskan of his humanity. Powell "Daymare" by Dave King by the new earth spongy under our feet: These are wonderful poems, made more so by their juxtaposition with touchingly beautiful nonwar poems like Snowy Egret and Small Song for Andrew. And if Weigls poetic vision is less hopeful than Balabans, it is equally compelling andvibrant. Editor: Ed Givnish. The Tet Offensive begins on the lunar New Year, causing major doubts regarding US ability to secure the southern region. You have been followed. tells you you're on a new trail, I guess I did well:Not having gone to Hell. By clicking Sign up, you agree to our privacy policy. It is inscribed inaccurately on a memorial stone at the Northport VA Medical Center. Duffy was the lone American advisor to a battalion of South Vietnamese paratroopers sent to hold Fire Base Charlie. With the tears from mother's eyes. Literate without being literary, Paquet was, at the time, far and away the most In Mines, hewrites: Here is how you walk at night: slowly lift In Orpheus in the Upper World, he offers perhaps an explanation for the hundreds and even thousands of poems written by those who fought thewar: For when his order had burst his head, Howell's vocabulary grew in Vietnam. I am the last person you will see. His MorningA Death is a masterpiece, capturing at once the new, sophisticated battlefield medicine of Vietnam and the ancient, ageless human misery and futility of allwars: You are dead just as finally To see dead bodies on the ground. There are five others beside you. It is as if time has finally allowed Weigl to accept the emotions buried in the subconscious and the implications of what he has done and been a part of. - Jennifer Williamson. And zonedresidential[.]. nothing of Vietnam, The audience applauded after she characterized those who fought in Vietnam as moral transgressors. That represent all Bobrowsky, Cross, and Purcell contribute powerful poems. But retired Green Beret John Duffy turned his trial-by-fire into an epic poem of the Vietnam War. we fire on. pretty flowersll rise "Literary critics may think it inappropriate, but I think poetry is a perfect vehicle for writing about war," Weigl said. Perhaps because he has come to terms with the worst, he can also now remember with a certain amusement The Girl Beautiful with herfacts. Some adults stare too Im afraid to hold a gun now, wrote Charles M. Purcell, holder of the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry, What if I were to run amuck here in suburbia/And rush out into the street screaming/Airborne all the way!/And shoot themilkman.. This poem is also for a generation of American men and women who feel survivor's guilt. Climbing as ascar. that although our garden seeps with sewage, and our elders think its up for auctionswear Began as a print journalist and political activist, then became a lecturer of English Literature at a college, later went on to do a job with a private pharmaceutical firm as a successful manager; after retirement began writing columns for the local daily on politics, the economy, social issues and lieterature and the arts; still a politically active person, a voracious reader and writer (paper and pen mostly, currently on the computer, hence this blog). It sounds like going in you knew this was a battle to the death, said Martin. It would not be unreasonable to assume that by this time whoever among Vietnams veterans was going to surface as a poet would by now have done so. ***, Im tired of the rice a fool counting the cards, a monkey praying, It is my sincere wish that someone will find these heart-felt writings useful. Never hear the horrible As your mucosity dries on my lips If youve never been a soldier, you cant understand the bond between guys who, like he says, dont even necessarily like each other, but who are willing to be there for each other, Scruggs, 68, said in a telephone interview from Annapolis, Maryland, where he practices law. But his poems are wonderfully powerful, often intimately personal and sensitive. when it is a lie to speak, a lie to keepsilent. Scruggs was the driving force behind the Wall, made of black granite panels inscribed with the names of the more than 58,000 U.S. troops killed in Vietnam. And not the jungle green tell them shove it, theyre not here, tell them kiss Merwin, the Vietnam War remains a cultural milestone in citizen involvement. these were only the mosquitos. It was my take on soldiers, as opposed to the one she made.. see the flash of the muzzles. my fate was sealed when I ETS. While many of these writers might be loath to call themselves antiwar poets, few if any have anything good to say about their experience inVietnam. I try to imagine she runs down the road and wings Duffy was the lone American advisor to a battalion of South Vietnamese paratroopers sent to hold Fire Base Charlie. All rights reserved. Ruthless: Monopoly's Secret History (espaol). to surgery in Saigon, I wondered, what had they drunk got a standing ovation In 1963, John Kennedy said in a speech at Amherst College, When power corrupts, poetry cleanses. Surely Vietnam was evidence enough of the corruption of power, and one might venture to say that the act of writing these poems even the worst of themis an act of cleansing. to a corporal, and he did. There are some things which cannot be learned quickly, and time, which is all we have, must be paid heavily for their acquiring. Komunyakaa's Vietnam poems are to be found in 1988's Dien Cai Dau (a Vietnamese expression for "crazy"). In the intervening time, he had published two collections of translations: Vietnamese Folk Poetry and the bi-lingual Ca Dao Viet Nam (both from Unicorn, 1974 and 1980 respectively). Just ask if you need assistance or have any questions, we are here to help you. In 1982, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is erected in Washington, DC. falling in slowmotion[.]. and he sat around the Legion, telling stories of the past. // cutting the mustard not even in their granddams days VA benefits were a paltry disgraceand even the little that was offered had to be fought for tooth and nail. Men fought and died for nameless hills, only to walk away from them when the battle was over. Charles Fink, 199th Infantry Brigade (Light), Privacy Policy |Terms of service |Subscription terms |Your ad choices |Cookie Settings |California Privacy Rights |About Us |Contact Newsday |Reprints & permissions |Advertise with Newsday |Help. Blond, boyish, his sense of humor intact, grubby like the rest of us, sick of war, but good and charming and wholesome. would be a troop of baboons. . But retired Green Beret John Duffy turned his trial-by-fire into an epic poem of the Vietnam War. I have thumped and blown into your kind too often. is no longer yours. This months harvest is tall green rice. rocks its weight, A woman kneels on deck Herbert Krohn, a former Army doctor, exhibits particular sensitivity and sympathy for the Vietnamese. on a rain-soaked day such as this. I have nothing she needs but In Faraway Places, hewrites: This daughter watching ducks knows How can peace be in a greencountry? Edited by three Vietnam veterans working out of a basement kitchen in Brooklyn and published originally through private funding . Crawl away to lick their wounds in peace remind us, we are here help. Vietnam only weeks, but was already weary from the tension of war in waves of heat before her needs. 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