Debate Over U.S. Policy in Persian Gulf

I read with interest the words of Ellsberg, Martin, Robert Hunter and Rosen.

To Martin, a young man not old enough to remember Vietnam, and Hunter, a gentleman who can: Your points make the most sense. To Ellsberg and Rosen, bull.

If we wait out the embargo, the only lives in jeopardy are our hostages and those of other nations, along with those Kuwaitis left behind. We hated Iran for taking hostages. We wish we could go into Lebanon and retrieve the hostages held by terrorists. But as we said in Vietnam, “That’s tough.”

Ms. Rosen, I fought there and because Congress felt there were more votes in the streets than in the jungles of Nam, I and my fellow soldiers came home losers, not because we were, but because we weren’t allowed to use the power we had by people afraid of their own political futures. People like you and Jane Fonda branded us as “one of them,” something heard often on college campuses by those of us on the GI bill. You found it fashionable to romanticize the Viet Cong, and looked down on us. You should never raise your voice again.

I hope to God war will not be inevitable, but if it is, I hope Congress will back our men 100%.

DON CAPES

Carson