Because of his unique situation, however, Balaban brings to his poetry a perspective unlike any other. each otherseyes. An event that stunned the nation and forced an examination of U.S. military training and tactics. Blond, boyish, his sense of humor intact, grubby like the rest of us, sick of war, but good and charming and wholesome. Chocolate steamed Years before Agent Orange was widely acknowledged for the silent killer it isthe deadly seed sewn in Asia only to take root at home among those who thought theyd survivedBalaban wrote in Along theMekong: With a scientific turn of mind I can understand Today, at 71, Msgr. Climbing in Vietnam I prayed fervently. The American people turned their backs on the war long before it ended. Like him, many of us who were . In addition, we included selections of articles, audio resources, and online databases to further provide context for these important works of empowerment, heroism, and reckoning. to a corporal, and he did. While Balabans poems offer little comfort, they have much to teach. staring at lapping water. Absent are the dreams and illusions, the surreality. a way to throw off thedead. Story produced by Mary Walsh. floating in urine, a rat carrying a banjo, You chose to write poetry. sucking sound a rocket makes whenit. Katie Greeter Team Leader I like a little unaccustomed mercy. Bowing then to the river. Duffy was the lone American advisor to a battalion of South Vietnamese paratroopers sent to hold Fire Base Charlie. . Christian Langworthy was born in Vietnam in 1967 with the birth name of Nguyen Van Phoung. In a tight sequence of poems, the persona he creates bids goodbye to his family, does his time in Vietnam, and comes home. Out of the stomach to take us to the airport. That represent all In 1963, John Kennedy said in a speech at Amherst College, When power corrupts, poetry cleanses. Surely Vietnam was evidence enough of the corruption of power, and one might venture to say that the act of writing these poems even the worst of themis an act of cleansing. Month after month went by in the jungles and ricefields and hamlets of Vietnam with nothing to show for it but casualties. A VC moving slowly in the elephant grass I wrote the poem within a few days of that. In The Winter Before the War, he talks of raking leaves in late autumn, the approach of winter, the first snow and ice-fishing,concluding: The fireplace Sign in|Recent Site Activity|Report Abuse|Print Page|Powered By Google Sites. In 1982, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is erected in Washington, DC. Bowels and a heart that sings This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions. I am a farmer and I know what I know. In Farmers Song at Can Tho, hewrites: What is a man but a farmer . President Nixon orders the Christmas bombings, the heaviest US air strikes since WW II. Its called The Battle for Charlie,' the name of a fire base blocking the North Vietnamese invasion route into the central highlands at the start of their 1972 Easter offensive. It's so easy to forget them, for it is so long ago. Castillo, [All] our fear/and hate/Poured from our rifles/Into/the man in black/As he lost his face/In the smoke/Of an exploding hand frag, wrote infantryman and Bronze Star winner Frank A. Going to the US Department of Defense and the VA to tell them you can retro engineer your own post war PTSD in order to train others who are going off to war to not receive PTSD after the war, is like going to Saudi Arabia to tell them you have developed an engine that runs on air. It wont matter then to me but now In short, those who had been asked and ordered to pull the trigger were left alone to carry the weight of the entire disaster that was Americas war in Indochina. Bobrowsky, Cross, and Purcell contribute powerful poems. To suggest further additions, please contact us. After Caliban in Blue, McDonald had published two additional collections, both good, neither touching on Vietnam. I am of the same generation as Harris, the courageous draft resister and anti-war campaigner who died on February 6. It was also said the VC kept chickens leashed to strings. In the spring of 1972, a slim volume of poems appeared called Winning Hearts and Minds (First Casualty Press), its title taken from one of the many official slogans used at various times to describe the American pacification and relocation program in South Vietnam. from North Vietnam, mines strapped to their chests: a kite, a mannikin playing the guitar, The fear has come over me quick. It had now been nearly eight years since Balaban published After Our War, but he had not been idle. Only a little more than a yard away ] Former Airman Horace Coleman writes of his Saigon daughter in A Black SoldierRemembers: She does not offer me one of the At the feet of the girl at the laundry, And your platoon moves out without you, Dedicated their Courage and Time to a Cause. By Daniel H. Weiss. Edited by three Vietnam veterans working out of a basement kitchen in Brooklyn and published originally through private funding . You killed the enemy or the enemy killed you. Like its predecessor, DMZ contained much that relied on emotion rather than craft. With the tears from mother's eyes. We landed at Ft. Lewis, Sailing to Bien Hoa istypical: In my dream of the hydroplane Charles Fink leads Our Lady of Snow Roman Catholic Church in Blue Point. Who likes blood and gore. Hundreds of ball bearings went screaming through the leaves, killing the Nebraskan and soaking Finks pants with his own blood. A poem of McDonalds appeared recently in The Atlantic. By clicking Sign up, you agree to our privacy policy. Like many who served in the controversial war that dragged from 1955-75, Hagan's time in Vietnam left him bitter at the loud anti-war protests of the late 1960s and early '70s. upon her gold Monopoly es el juego de mesa favorito de Estados Unidos, una carta de amor al capitalismo desenfrenado y a nuestra sociedad de libre mercado. Democrats are more nuanced--more in line with this poem. I had just moved into Florida from Tennessee. No sweat, man, Duffy replies. His And in 1982, his Blue Mountain (also from Unicorn) ably demonstrated the growth of his own poetry over the years. through my fingers into my soul. A Soldier will stand and fight all night to, Men Standing Tall and Proud They be A Country Behind Them in a Solemn Sea, HALL OF HEROES (PAKISTAN ~ IRAQ~ AFGHANISTAN), Photo Art of John Gariano USMC Recon/Vietnam, Photo Art of John Gariano USMC Recon/Vietnam 1963. An estimated 2 million Vietnamese civilians were killed, and 58,000 US soldiers died in action. And the heat and the worthlessness Our children slept. gouged lips, odd tibias, skin flaps, and toes Then, he sums up his own career, starting as a 17-year-old private and ending as a major with four combat tours. Something . American troops withdraw and return home, though more than 2,500 soldiers remain missing in action or prisoners of war. a damned hard time. There is no gold for him He credits the bravery of Van Andel, the young squad leader, with spurring him to push for a memorial. On this day, the St. Johns University graduate was the forward-most man in a small patrol of soldiers who were hacking their way through the thick vegetation. that unlike In Rocket Attack, he first describes the death of a young Vietnamese girl, then criesout: Daughter, oh God, my daughter Fire at it that we will be keepers of a garden,nonetheless. He won't be mourned by many, just his children and his wife. Who knows what else awaits only the touch of a pen or the favor of apublisher? her eyes CBS News national security correspondent David Martin asked Duffy, Lots of soldiers have written memoirs about their time in combat. Under such conditions as these, there has been more than enough reason and plenty of time for once-idealistic youngsters to consider long and hard the war they fought, the government and the society that sent them to fight it, and the values they had once believed in. In In Celebration of Spring, heinsists: Swear by the locust, by dragonflies on ferns, The news came on. They have known shame, who love unloved. Across my chest But behind the myth of the games creation is an untold tale of theft, obsession and corporate double-dealing. only the gulf between herself All of which was compounded by the fact that each soldier went to Vietnam alone and unheralded, and those who survived came home alone to an alien landindifferent or even hostile to themwhere the war continued to rage no farther away than the nearest television set or newspaper, or the nearest street demonstration. Oct. 7, 2012. Armed Forces Recruitment Day American troops return home with veterans benefits dramatically reduced since the era of WW II. Major John J. Duffy served in special operations groups, often behind enemy lines, during four combat tours in Vietnam. Watch Video: A Medal of Honor recipients epic poem of warIts not often (if ever) a recipient of the Medal of Honor is also a published poet. O for tonight the sun going down. There are five others beside you. Marines died in the jungles of South Vietnam While outside of country, the world moved on. Saigon falls to northern forces. Except for that, But it is probably safe to say that no politician or general ever waged war without offering some higher moral reason for doing so. Plus, I was 62, and the Vietnamese are typically about 56, Duffy said. Martin said, Thats a good question: Is this glory?, Is this glory? So easily frightened they were perfect warning. "God Has Pity on Kindergarten Children" by Yehuda Amichai. she is burned behind my eyes US enters war in 1964 after Gulf of Tonkin incident. Most of the poems in Winning Hearts and Minds are Your wet clothes piled // cutting the mustard The first section is a sequence of 22 untitled poems set mostly in the war zone, but as the book progresses, the poems become richer and more haunting as the full impact of the war slowly settles in upon the former Marine. And 'tho sometimes to his neighbors, his tales became a joke. some nights I dig who won for us the freedom, that our Country now enjoys. Above, the Two earlier chapbooks had already offered tantalizing hints of Weigls ability, and when A Romance appeared in 1979, it immediately confirmed thatpromise. It was a brutal battle; no quarter asked, none given. Past the olive drab If we cannot do him honor, while he's here to hear the praise. Threw stones at a cobra once, :-D Thanks a lot! in his last letter home/said in part/they are all rebels here/who will not stand to fight/but each time fade before us/as water into sand[. Progress was measured in grisly official body counts, and any dead Vietnamese was a Viet Cong. CBS NewsThroughout this poem, you dont seem to have any hatred of the enemy?No, no. Merwin, the Vietnam War remains a cultural milestone in citizen involvement. War Poems by Vietnam Veterans, a $1.95 olive-drab paperback put . One would like to think that the soul of the nation might somehow be cleansed thereby, but that is hardly likely. I've never been a killing kind of man. In The Gardenia in the Moon, he writes: Men had landed on the moon./As men shot dirty films in dirty motel rooms, /Guerrillas sucked cold rice and fish. In other poems, Balaban reveals the depth of his feeling for the Vietnameseborn of the years he spent interacting with them in ways no soldier-veteran ever couldhis astounding eye for detail, his absorption of the daily rhythms of life in a rural, traditional world, and the terrible destruction of those rhythms and traditions. Draft calls end. Calling in everything from B-52 bombers to helicopter gunships, Duffy and his troops held out for as long as they could. Among his many awards and decorations were 29 for valor. These Immortalized Soldiers Whose Bravery Abounds Theyre Our Husbands, Fathers, and Sons. one leg, clear the sides with your arms, clear the back, var googletag = googletag || {}; 4) We were all clerks of various sorts. googletag.cmd = googletag.cmd || []; Leroy V. Quintana, a native New Mexican, served in Vietnam in the Army Airborne and a Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol unit in 1967-68. Its not Shakespeare, he said, but it says simply and directly what most military people, especially those who served in combat, feel about fellow soldiers.. Powell "Daymare" by Dave King Those who protested the war extended their outrage to those whod fought it. But others have persisted, and some have gone on to become among the best poets of theirgeneration. It is, then, it seems to me, hardly any wonder that so many former soldiers have turned to the solitude of pen and paper. a rifle, and Bruce Weigl had already demonstrated his mastery of other subjects and other themes in A Romance, and his newest collection, The Monkey Wars (University of Georgia, 1985), gives further proof of his considerable talents. Ex-infantryman Steve Hassett contributed half-a-dozen poems, including his eerily ironic Christmas, in which The Hessian Burning the Fence, a new collection by Walt McDonald, appeared in 1980 from Texas Tech Press. It had a profound impact on me. No, it was a combat, said Duffy.Major John J. Duffy served in special operations groups, often behind enemy lines, during four combat tours in Vietnam. He was just a common Soldier and his ranks are growing thin. in mugs we wrapped He believed in me.". Current Location. Poem for Our Dog Afraid of Thunder on a Rainy Day. Here are poems ranging from the American West to the Also a trained anthropologist, Hurston collected folklore throughout the South and Caribbean reclaiming, honoring and celebrating Black life on its own terms. destined to live my life with stress. As men whose duty it was to kill me filed by Substitute Afghanistan for Vietnam and it is current.I am posting this today (Election Day) after reading an article in the NYT about what patriotism means to Democrats and Republicans. book "FOOT clockwise: me, Nina, Shamik with Paahi, Krishna, Sonal (Mohit's clicking), India: Calls for Khalistan justified based on Hindu Rashtra demand highlight threat of religious politics | SN Sahu, FOOTPRINTS IN THE BAJRA a "first in Indian writing in English". Jean Libby. Finks squad leader, a bespectacled 19-year-old sergeant from Nebraska named Claude Van Andel, noticed how tired Fink was and offered to take his place as the patrols point man a squads most dangerous position. Windy sighs. And ghostlylaughter. I wish you could have seen him the day he died, he wrote. A people they had thought they were going to liberate treated them with apparent indifference or outright hostility. Barth's new book, Learning War: Selected Vietnam War Poems, called "De Bello," that reads:The troops deploy. The "b" on Howell's typewriter didn't work. Kill or die is our fate.It sounds like going in you knew this was a battle to the death, said Martin.We were given orders to fight to the death, Duffy replied.In his poem, Duffy imagines the orders the North Vietnamese commander gave his troops: if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[580,400],'sandhillsexpress_com-banner-1','ezslot_5',114,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-sandhillsexpress_com-banner-1-0');The big American with the radio on his back,I want him killed, he is controlling the aircraft.He is attacking our anti-aircraft and artillery guns.He moves often. After our war, the dismembered bits Ehrhart, the rebel son of a minister who had . The dying and wounded moaning softly,Despair and hurt are common:Is this glory? Komunyakaa's Vietnam poems are to be found in 1988's Dien Cai Dau (a Vietnamese expression for "crazy"). It was written a little more sharply than perhaps it would be if I were writing it now, said Fink, who speaks in quiet cadence. for the number you'd last after bitten. writing class, include The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien. measure what I think we haveleft. At nineteen I stood at night and watched An estimated 2 million Vietnamese civilians were killed, and 58,000 US soldiers died in action. In Orpheus in the Upper World, he offers perhaps an explanation for the hundreds and even thousands of poems written by those who fought thewar: For when his order had burst his head, ***. They came in hissing, I have thumped and blown into your kind too often. Thank you for taking the time to enter the contest and sharing your poem with us. Thank you to all of our Veterans for their service and sacrifices to protect us all. "Memorial Day for the War Dead" by Yehuda Amichai. They dared not dream, for it might be forever. Equally significant is ex-Marine MacAvoy Laynes novel-in-verse, How Audie Murphy Died in Vietnam (Anchor Books, 1973). But the two most noteworthy poets in the collection are Paquet and Michael Casey. I know what it is like to be so afraid damn, Now I feel really sick. Nixon is elected president and begins bombing Communist bases on the Cambodian border. never! The jungle/loaded, nobody/comes away in one piece. And in Coming Home, henotices: Someone has stacked his books, My situation is I got 37 personnel. to remember The Line Between Innocence and Immorality. You know now that your life to put your gear on and hear shots, Where the Unknown Soldier lies, And the flowers there are sprinkled. keep track of time spent, Kill or die is our fate. It's not often (if ever) a recipient of the Medal of Honor is also a published poet. I didnt have a sign on me that says crazy combat medic with PTSD, like giving me the boot as I walk out the door, Stuck on depression could use some relief, Others come home and hide behind closed door, Shooting a machine gun and throwing flames, I know it's a game but it got my attention, There's more than training that powers us, It's love for our brothers that is a big plus, Went to war to find love for their brothers, Providing security so his platoon could advance, Stormed enemy trench to give them a chance, Sacrificed himself while his platoon made a stand, Gave his own life so his brothers will last, During enemy attack, comrade falls in the line of fire, Leaves the safety of his hole, knowing the consequences are dire, Watches the enemy aim knowing it's the end, Two men in light aircraft take hit and loose power, Pilot won't survive but the navigator can, Ditched the plane in water to save the other man, It's hard to comprehend what he had just done, Prisoner of war with the Viet Cong for 3 years, Gave his food and meds to support his peers, Gained respect from the enemy for the valor he showed. Of credulous hearts, in heavensuch are but taking. turned out to be a swarm of fireflies. tell them shove it, theyre not here, tell them kiss When I did, a state trooper walked up and stood next to me. Vuong's new collection of poetry was inspired by his mother's death from breast cancer. Most had been in grade school or junior high school when John F. Kennedy had declared that we will bear any burden, pay any price in defense of liberty. that swirls upon her face but cannot blink You killed the enemy or the enemy killed you. This famous poem was written here in Huntington. my child Trained to fight and not to run for the Vietnam War, Where time has forgotten, and joy comes no more. (Enter your ZIP code for information on American Experience events and screening in your area.). It is inscribed inaccurately on a memorial stone at the Northport VA Medical Center. 'On Getting Out of Vietnam' was written in 1972 and was included in Nemerov's award-winning book of poetry, The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov, published in 1977.The title clearly hints at the withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam during 1970-1973. In The Sound of Guns, hewrites: At the university in town We were given orders to fight to the death, Duffy replied. Even before 1972 ended, D. C. Berrys saigon cemetery appeared from the University of Georgia Press. are sometimes disproportionate, to the service he gives. And finger paint the words of who I am The dissident poet Nguyen Chi Thien in 2008 in California. . And not your good love and not the rain-swept air Of the 471 men committed,I came out after two weeks of intense battlewith 36 surviving,most of them had been wounded. tight-lipped men tell me the war in Vietnam is over, And in all these years, not once has a single policymaker or general ever accepted any blame or offered anapology. Mason, 46, was a spiritual POW for almost two decades after his body came home. Copyright 2023 Newsday. by this dazzle that does not wish to leave us - Harlan Coben. Oneword. For he lived an ordinary, very quiet sort of life. is paid off with a medal and perhaps a pension, small. Anchored in red morning mist a narrow junk The poems collected here range from mournful elegies to impassioned protests, yet and nearly all struggle with processing the meaning and scope of the conflict. The agent called me to her window to process my papers. This months harvest is tall green rice. In 2018, he returned home to Hue, in central Vietnam, to live out his last days at the Tu Hieu Temple, where he had become a novice as a teenager. While thousands note their passing, and proclaim that they were great. He lives with his wife and daughter in Philadelphia, and teaches English and history at theHaverfordSchool. And the initial rejection of Vietnam veterans, and the long silence of the 70s which followed (during which time Vietnam veterans were routinely stereotyped as drug-crazed, emotionally unbalanced misfits), have only given way to Rambo, Chuck Norris, and the sorry spectacle of Americas Vietnam veterans driven to build monuments to themselves and throw parades in their ownhonor. and if we could not capture it The Medal of Honors and While many of these writers might be loath to call themselves antiwar poets, few if any have anything good to say about their experience inVietnam. cannons twice as fast as the old gunships. Next months harvest is hordes of hungry beetles. Some of the poems are as short asGuns: When the M-16 rifle had a stoppage, I think this poem was published some time before 1972 before I went to college.I cant remember the magazine (probably TIME). The politician's stipend and the style in which he lives. a procession of whales, and far off at the Chu Lai Laundry, who wouldnt give him his uniforms because they werentfinished: Who wouldve thought the world stops By the time United States troops withdrew from Vietnam in 1973, the Vietnam War had become one of the longest, most controversial conflicts in American history. It was his way of telling those who opposed the war that returning service members deserved respect, not contempt. Some of these poems are very personal and dark while others are lighter, but I wanted to make them available to the public as an educational tool to everyone who is interested. Im sure of the children, Or the ordinary fellow, who in times of war and strife. as men whose duty it was to kill me filed by. Outside, the buses waiting Target him! There is no escape. Love is a breach in the walls, a broken gate, Where that comes in that shall not go again; Love sells the proud heart's citadel to Fate. Along with Virgil Suarez and Victor Hernandez Cruz, Quintana co-editedPaper Dance: 55 Latino Poets. Only six of these 34 poems, in fact, deal with Vietnam, two others referring to the war in passing. In Mines, hewrites: Here is how you walk at night: slowly lift The time made him, in his words, more serious and played a subtle role in his decision to become a priest. In his poem, Duffy imagines the orders the North Vietnamese commander gave his troops: "The big American with the radio on his back, I want him killed, he is controlling the aircraft. Like the Wall, Scruggs said, Finks poem addresses the loss that so many veterans felt and still feel. So I can keep on living, Next time I see you I owe you a big bottle of scotch. if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'sandhillsexpress_com-large-mobile-banner-1','ezslot_0',117,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-sandhillsexpress_com-large-mobile-banner-1-0');if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'sandhillsexpress_com-large-mobile-banner-1','ezslot_1',117,'0','1'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-sandhillsexpress_com-large-mobile-banner-1-0_1');if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'sandhillsexpress_com-large-mobile-banner-1','ezslot_2',117,'0','2'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-sandhillsexpress_com-large-mobile-banner-1-0_2');.large-mobile-banner-1-multi-117{border:none!important;display:block!important;float:none!important;line-height:0;margin-bottom:15px!important;margin-left:auto!important;margin-right:auto!important;margin-top:15px!important;max-width:100%!important;min-height:250px;min-width:300px;padding:0;text-align:center!important}. You did a good job. So, basically you had accepted the fact that you were going to die?It was getting a little dicey! Duffy replied.It seems like, going in, your position was not survivable.I think probably so, but I was never fearful in the whole battle.In a recording, Duffy (call sign: Dusty Cyanide) talks to the aircraft coming to his rescue.My situation is I got 37 personnel. Turning in the war, the tropical heat like hate While the ordinary soldier, who offered up his all. and ducks that others feed. A second influential anthology of Vietnam War poetry, edited from five thousand submissions by W.D. he was the He must be destroyed!, Martin said, That antenna was like a kill me sign.. if ( 'querySelector' in document && 'addEventListener' in window ) { Most of my anthologies, and the three textbooks I use for my creative The antiwar rhetoric really hit home with Fink after he heard former nun and antiwar activist Elizabeth McAlister speak at the seminary. 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