No Surrender : For Some, War Will Never End Until MIAs Are Home

Barbara Robertson can’t let the past rest.

She’s tired of waiting, tired of having her hopes whipped up only to be dashed, and tired of wishing that her husband--an Air Force pilot missing in action in the Vietnam War since 1966--will come home.

Now Robertson, a 62-year-old activist pushing for the return of American prisoners taken captive during the war, is up in arms about the U.S. government’s plan to resume trade with Vietnam. She fears it will erase any chance of seeing her husband again.

“I’m afraid with normalization, there’s going to be no one out there fighting anymore,” said Robertson, a Santa Ana homemaker and mother of four. “People out there don’t know what what it’s like to have a husband who may be alive or dead--but nobody gives a damn.”

Like many family members, friends and comrades-in-arms left carrying the banner of those lost or missing in action, Robertson can’t forget the war and its human toll. The imminent thaw in business relations has these survivors passionately discussing, if not agreeing, how the move will affect an American psyche still scarred by losses more than 20 years ago.

Bob Kakuk, for one, is fighting back.

Kakuk, a U.S. Army machine-gunner who served in Vietnam in 1968, called the White House this week to say President Clinton is “selling families down the river.”

“When I was in basic training, they told us, ‘We never leave our men behind,’ ” said Kakuk, 47, of Huntington Beach. “Just think of the families. And here the government is saying, ‘Let’s put it all behind us,’ but it’s not right. Why should we just write MIAs and POWs off the planet?”

Kakuk said the war consumes him to this day. He still has flashbacks, especially when he sees a diesel truck or a helicopter. He visits local schools to tell young people about the war, recently joined protesters outside the Richard Nixon Library in Yorba Linda and founded a group called the Vietnam War Veterans of Orange County.

The retired landscaper, like many of those casting a cynical eye toward the lifting of sanctions, said money has taken the place of principle in the matter.

“Businessmen . . . all they see is dollar signs rolling in their eyes when they think of Vietnam,” Kakuk said. “Vietnam has a lot of minerals and a lot of oil there.”

Joseph Fox, another Vietnam veteran, said he’ll never forget the war. His wheelchair is a daily reminder: The 45-year-old Lakewood resident and onetime Marine Corps radio operator was wounded and left paralyzed at Khe Sanh, one of the hardest-fought battles of the war.

But he is ready to talk about healing.

“I don’t agree with everything that’s happened, with the cover-up of MIAs,” Fox said. “But 20 years later, it’s time to put things behind us.”

Fox, president of the California Paralyzed Veterans Assn., volunteers at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Long Beach to help his fellow soldiers recover. More than 100 Orange County veterans use the hospital.

Few remain from his own company, he said. Most were “wiped out” in the war.

“Vietnam is something that, except for the people who’ve carried the banner of POWs or MIAs, has fallen to the wayside,” Fox said. “The veteran isn’t in the public eye.”

Fox favors lifting the embargo. “But I would hope Clinton would look at his cards and make sure that before he lifts this embargo he has something to play his hand with,” Fox said. “We should have open communications, and have a team that could look into the possibilities of MIAs. We should open every avenue to bring them back.”

Vietnam veteran Robert Key, director of the Veterans Center in Anaheim, said he can see both sides of the debate, but added: “We can still have bad feelings about that time in our life, without trying pretend that the country doesn’t exist.”

Santa Ana’s Robertson isn’t ready to let go of the bad feelings--or the hope that with increased political leverage, U.S. officials could bring her husband home.

“If anyone would survive, my husband could,” said Robertson, whose spouse was an avid mountain climber. “Any time a family works this hard to bring him home 27 years later, he must have some special qualities.”

“We just can’t ignore the chance that our men are still alive.”