Scheer on Vietnam Responsibility

* Re “Presidents, Not Kerreys, Bred Horror of Vietnam,” Commentary, May 1: Take away Robert Scheer’s political spin lumping Republican presidents who refused to enter the Vietnam War (Dwight D. Eisenhower) or ended it (Richard M. Nixon) with those who blundered into it (John F. Kennedy) and then criminally escalated it into a hopeless war of attrition that handcuffed and betrayed our own soldiers (Lyndon B. Johnson). Now add to the moral equation what Scheer deliberately omitted, like the countless atrocities committed by the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army during and after the war. Then remember the plight of the desperate boat people and the millions slaughtered in the Cambodian killing fields.

Now you can see the obvious. Scheer has simply concocted a sanctimonious polemic designed to cover up the guilt he and the pacifist left bear for being so deadly wrong about the good intentions of Ho Chi Minh. How appropriate, then, that The Times published this shameless propaganda on May Day.

HYATT SELIGMAN

Orange

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Scheer blames U.S. presidents and their advisors for Kerrey’s murder of Vietnamese civilians. In a democracy, it is the people who are ultimately responsible for our government’s actions. We elected our leaders, and we must bear the burden of their misdeeds. As for Kerrey’s being misled, that’s a cop-out. There were millions of Americans who weren’t duped into thinking that there was any valid reason for us being in Vietnam. It is incumbent upon every citizen in a democratic society to become informed of events, domestic and foreign. It is no excuse to say our government lied to us.

WILLIAM McCALL

Arcadia

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The Kerrey massacre was insignificant compared to the massacres of Japanese and German civilians from the air by American bombers in World War II. Wars started by politicians set the stage for, and invite, massacres. The politicians were to blame for Vietnam massacres, not Kerrey.

ROBERT Q. CUNNINGHAM

San Marino

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Some lessons we should learn from the sad Kerrey revelations are that a person’s life cannot be judged by the worst thing that person ever did and even a person who has engaged in an admitted act of savagery may have much to contribute to our society. These are useful points to remember in a country that seems to be rethinking its embrace of the death penalty.

JOHN HAMILTON SCOTT

Sherman Oaks

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Who says that nothing has changed since the Vietnam War era? Back then, we sent our military to fight an unwinnable war against the scourge of communism and, incidentally, slaughter scores of local civilians. Many Americans were also killed. Now, we merely send our military advisors to finance, train and assist indigenous killers to fight an unwinnable war against the scourge of drugs and, incidentally, slaughter scores of local civilians. Few Americans are killed, so public consternation is minimal. That’s progress!

EITAN BEAR

Santa Monica