A Soviet Prayer Against War : Veterans of Afghanistan, Vietnam Talk About Recovery

Alexander Nemeshaev, a veteran of the Soviet army whose war stories were forged in Afghanistan, stood on the sidewalk in downtown San Diego on Sunday afternoon, surrounded by Americans who fought in what they call a similar hell--Vietnam.

To anyone who didn’t know better, Nemeshaev looked like any other San Diegan paying a visit to the Landing Zone, a 46-bed recovery home for veterans troubled with alcoholism and drug addiction and the memories that won’t go away.

The 27-year-old man with short, dark hair wore a natty sport coat and a Padres baseball cap. He said he had come to San Diego to tell Americans that he, too, believes war is madness and to offer a prayer that neither of the superpowers ever again ignites in conflict, especially not with one another.

Nemeshaev is one of three Soviet veterans of the war in Afghanistan--they call themselves Afgantsy --who are in San Diego this week to meet with, counsel and be counseled by Vietnam veterans. He said the talk will be not of mortars and air raids or memorable offensives, but of prosthetics, 12-Step programs and what to do to learn to love again.

“I was against the war in Afghanistan,” Nemeshaev, who fought there from 1984 to 1986, said through a translator. “And I see many parallels between Afghanistan and Vietnam. We should not allow war to ever occur again. War benefits no one. None of us needs the problems that war causes.”

Nemeshaev and his colleagues--Igor Morozov, 23, and Nicholai Chuvanov, 29--are being hosted by the Vietnam Veterans of San Diego, who will take the three men to the VA Medical Center in La Jolla. Other activities include a visit to Sea World and Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, as well as a wreath-laying ceremony at the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial in Old Town.

The men are part of a delegation of 20 Soviet veterans who arrived in Washington on May 24. The three are accompanied in San Diego by a nine-member Moscow film crew and Soviet journalist Inna Rudenko, who reportedly wrote the truth about the war in Afghanistan and was relieved from harassment, Nemeshaev said, only after Mikhail Gorbachev took power and glasnost became a workable concept.

The thaw in the Cold War has changed “a lot of things,” he said, not the least of which was his being able to stand on 11th Avenue near G Street and cavort with American war veterans. That alone “blows my mind,” said Robert Van Keuren, executive director of the Vietnam Veterans of San Diego.

‘This Is Incredible’

“I was wounded with Soviet weapons, they were wounded with American weapons,” said Van Keuren, who from 1969 to 1970 headed 203 combat missions as a machine gunner on a river patrol boat that snaked through the waters of South Vietnam. “To have a dialogue with them in San Diego, in the hope that their children and mine will never have to taste the horror of war, is fantastic.

“If you think about it, this is incredible. If the big one ever goes off, it’s gonna go off right here, man. This is the biggest military bull’s-eye this side of South America and Alaska. And here we are standing on the sidewalk smiling with three Russians. This is proof of what Emerson once said, that war will never accomplish what peace can in an instant. A handshake, a smile, a laugh . . . You can see how it works.”

The Soviets arrived at the Landing Zone shortly after 4 p.m., having been driven in a van from Los Angeles. Minutes later, an armada of 250 motorcyclists from around the county and consisting mostly of Vietnam veterans wheeled in with a roar to greet them. Most wore scraggly hair and leather jackets and Vietnam-era patches. Everyone got a hug and a bowl of chili with corn bread, and more than a few laughs greeted the comical attempts to understand each other with only two translators shuffling between voices.

At one point, Van Keuren gave the Afgantsy patches bearing the label River Patrol Force. When one of the Soviets looked puzzled, Van Keuren imitated the sound and hand motions of a machine gunner.

“You know, machine gun,” he said.

For a second, the Soviet looked startled, and then he burst into laughter.

Shad Meshad, the official chauffeur for Sunday’s drive, predicted that soon the men would share parallels that run deeper than the barrel of a gun. Meshad is executive director of the Vietnam Veterans Aid Foundation.

Sharing War’s Lessons

He said he was approached in 1987 by the Seattle-based peace collective, the Earth Stewards Network, to assemble an American delegation that would journey to the Soviet Union to share with the Afgantsy the lessons of Vietnam. The territory ranged, he said, from advancements in prosthetics to post-traumatic stress syndrome to the trauma of alcoholism and drug addiction.

Meshad’s trip took place last year and included among its delegates the Rev. William Mahedy, chaplain at both UC San Diego and San Diego State University. Jack Lyon, who with Mahedy co-founded the local Vietnam veterans organization, completed his own good-will mission later on. He and Mahedy were also in attendance Sunday.

Meshad said the youth of the Vietnam veterans and Afgantsy called into combat was startling, as was the terror of readjusting to life back home in countries that didn’t seem to want them and made every attempt to shun them.

He noted that an estimated 1.5 million Soviets fought in Afghanistan and that casualties, depending on the source, ranged between 18,000 and twice that figure. More than 3 million Americans fought in Vietnam, and more than 58,000 were killed in action.

Meshad said the Soviets had handled some things better, others much worse. He said that Afgantsy traveled to Afghanistan in units and always returned in units, making the postwar stress easier to handle. Americans journeyed to Vietnam as individuals and returned the same way.

Meshad said the Soviet government is so intent on aiding the Afgantsy that he has been asked to move to Russia for a minimum of five years to set up and champion the same kind of programs he’s worked with here for 18 years. He said he can’t make that kind of commitment, but will make frequent visits and try to implement as many programs as possible.

‘We’re Gettin’ There’

One of his aides, John Keaveney, a native of Belfast, Northern Ireland, fought with the U. S. Army in Vietnam and has been in the Soviet Union trying to initiate U. S.-style 12-Step programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous. It’s been slow going, he said, because of a conflict between “AA spirituality and godless communism . . . but we’re gettin’ there. They can see that it works. Once you show them, they listen.”

Bill Douglas, a 42-year-old Vietnam veteran who rode in on a German-made chopper Sunday afternoon, said he’s “the biggest believer” in AA and that he and the Afgantsy have much in common.

“We got the shaft,” he said.

He said that for him, Vietnam has been a “hell on earth” that continues. He said he’s able to handle it by keeping clean and sober and telling his children he loves them.

He also took up motorcycle riding, a pursuit he described by saying: “If you’re gonna be scared all the time anyway, why not have a reason? Ask these Russians--they’ll know what I’m talking about.”