China Beach
Trip Start
Jul 15, 2007
1
135
195
Trip End
Jul 16, 2008
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Da Nang,
Vietnam
Monday, March 10, 2008
Driving from Hue to Hoi An today, we passed through Danang, location of one of the key concentrations of American military power during the Vietnam War.
On one side of the road a long line of new high-end resorts are either open or under construction, along the strip of white sand that was known as China Beach back in the day. On the other side is the old American helicopter base, sitting empty behind the barbed wire, gray and tired, with weeds growing on the runways and up the sides of the old concrete and steel hangers, which look very much like the enormous halves of concrete drain culverts.
I know two guys who flew choppers in Vietnam. Both work for the brokerage firm my small investment company clears through. One runs it, and the other is a senior guy at the firm's trust company. Obviously, both are very successful, highly competent guys.
Thinking about Dick and Jack makes me think of an article I read once about the image of the Vietnam veteran - tortured, dysfunctional, more than usually likely to be a drug-addict, murderer or homeless person. Back in the 1980s one Vietnam vet, a successful attorney, was troubled by the frequent stories in the press about yet another criminal or murderer whose life was derailed by his Vietnam service. Yet none of the other veterans he was in touch with had such problems. All were leading unremarkable American lives, free of conspicuous demons or disturbances.
The next time he saw a story about a troubled vet he followed it up. He checked the guy's name against military records. Turns out he had never served in Vietnam, never even been in the military. Further research showed he was just a garden-variety thug who'd been in and out of trouble since high school. Vietnam had nothing to do with it, though his supposed service trauma, complete with ragged fatigue jacket, got him leniency at the trial and some television time.
Checking out stories about troubled veterans became a hobby and ultimately a full-time job for this attorney. He carefully documented each case, and over the years he reached two conclusions.
First, most of the "veterans" who claimed postwar trauma were nothing of the sort. Second, the press was eager to report stories about wacko Vietnam veterans, but entirely uninterested in reporting on his work, either in general, or by correcting their own reporting about specific individuals. They were deeply attached to the myth of the traumatized vet, and unwilling to set the record straight when their reporting was untrue.
Sorry for the digression in what is billed as a travel blog. The whole American experience in Vietnam is on my mind these days, for obvious reasons, and I'm still trying to make some sense of it all.
