President Reagan’s Tribute to Vietnam War Veterans

President Reagan’s speech at the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington did little to assuage the bitter feelings many veterans have toward this Administration’s policies, both foreign and domestic (Part I, Nov. 12). It is difficult to remember that this is the President’s personal cause, to heal the wound left by that war. One has to wonder how much is gained waging similar proxy wars in Afghanistan and Nicaragua. Do we pull a suture tight every time the state vehicle pulls up to a house in Moscow, and the grim-faced military officer walks to the door? Do we heal our nation by financing the murder of foreign nationals on their home soil? Is it possible that the invasion of Grenada cancels the fall of Saigon?

Now the ideologues are pointing to Soviet recalcitrance in Afghanistan as just another example of the Kremlin’s insincerity. Perhaps Soviet troops would withdraw completely--they began the process in earnest--if only the rebels would allow their retreat. When the last Americans withdrew from Saigon they were followed by NVA troops, sometimes within sight of each other. But Vietnam was a war fought on pragmatic rather than symbolic grounds, and the President-elect believes in the symbolic nature of military action.

Perhaps there is a link between the symbolic deaths we inflict on our enemies around the world, and those written on the wall in Washington. Opposition to the Vietnam War did not begin until the bodies came home, until everyone knew someone else who had been touched by that war. It’s too bad President Reagan wasn’t there to turn the tide with one of his sham wars. But as a veteran myself, there is no pleasure in knowing that the Soviets are getting a wall of their own.

DAVID C. REUTTER

Vista