To the Editor:

Why? Such a ubiquitous word.

Why? Why did we fight this war?  Why did we go to war for our country when our friends overseas fell apart anyway?  Why did we oppose the other side when our people said we were in the wrong?  Why does this fight matter?

One could be talking about the Iraq War, now that ISIS [Islamic State of Iraq and Syria] has bisected the country, and conquered most of Syria, and Russia has entered the war on Bashar al-Assad’s side.  But, in truth, I’m talking about the Vietnam War; a war that holds surprising parallels to one fought by our soldiers from a previous age.

At the time, the liberals, hippies, and socialists decried it as an unjust war against a people who didn’t want us.  They spit on and ridiculed our soldiers who volunteered and our soldiers who were drafted alike.

It was a war by the conservatives who would face anyone who threatened their way of the world; it was war fought by McCarthyists who saw the “Reds” as everyone who thought it was un-American in Hollywood or the arts scene.  It was a war fought for “the Man” and the establishment that “He” represented.

As a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom VI and Operation New Dawn, I can truthfully say that Vietnam was a war worth fighting.

Did we lose? Yes, in the truest sense of the word.

Our aim was to make the Republic of South Vietnam a democracy and a country able to stand alone.  When Saigon fell, it was the realization that our men had died in a foreign country for nothing.

Or did they?

True, victory was within our grasp when the Tet Offensive crippled the North Vietnamese Army, and a counter-attack would have defeated our adversary.  But, when North Vietnam succeeded in their demonstration to our media that the war was unwinnable, our administration began pulling out, and finally settled for peace in 1973.

Our Vietnam veterans returned home; they tried their best, they fought for freedom, and they were not given their due because of the political war being waged at home.

Not unlike the conflict I came home from.  I remember the controversy waging at home.  “Bush lied, and people died.”

I remember being overseas, and hearing about the atrocities that Saddam Hussein committed, like finding school bus-loads of victims being born a different religion or orientation.

But the true testament was coming home, and hearing how proud veterans of our last long war were of us; being told of how we answered our nation’s call, and how, despite the ridicule at home, we volunteered anyway.  Because we were all volunteers.  The draft ended with Vietnam.

The Vietnam veterans are one of the primary reasons why I hold my head high when I say I served in Iraq.  We’re proud of you.  That’s the sentence that the Vietnam veterans wanted to hear, but were denied because of politics and ideology.

We’re proud of you; so simple and yet so meaningful.  What son or daughter doesn’t want to hear their parents say that of them?

I stopped a Vietnam Veteran outside the CVS on Western and Route 146 with my daughter and told him, “Thank you for serving.”

He told me, in the years since he returned from Vietnam, a war that ended in 1973, he had only heard that once before in his life.  I told him that I was raising my daughter to respect veterans.

So many Vietnam veterans I have met bear scars from that war.  Physical scars, mental scars, Army scars, Marine scars, Navy scars, Air Force scars, and even Coast Guard scars.

One thing they have in common is pride in our soldiers who went to Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as our other contingency operations across the world to fight the war on terror.  I tell every Vietnam veteran I meet, “Thank you for serving; thank you for answering your country’s call;  and thank you for everything you have done after, be it liberal or conservative.  It is because of you, the Vietnam veteran, that our service members today have the pride that we do.  It is because the Vietnam veteran fought and was wounded, and died for our country, that I have no regrets that I served.  Your experience, large and small, horrific and gentle, is why our current soldiers can find peace in this world.” 

Their answer, denied to them, is why I am proud to be a soldier.  We are proud of you.  To the Vietnam veterans, I am proud of you.

May we never fight another war.  May our nation know only peace.  But know that I, and many other Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, are proud of you, and thank you for welcoming us home again.  It is the veteran who prays hardest for peace, and it is the veteran who will never rest until we all come home.

Captain Joshua Letko

Georgia Army National Guard

Editor’s note: Joshua Letko grew up in Guilderland. His parents, Peter and Kathleen Letko, and his aunt and uncle, Becky and Billy Letko, live in Guilderland.