To the editor: The summary of Thanh Nguyen by Thanh Nguyen of all things that does not go with the involvement of America in the Vietnam War is, quite simply, the most precise representation of this period of 1954-1975 (“Americans always learn bad lessons from Vietnam”, “ April 30). From Eisenhower presidents to Kennedy via Johnson and finally Nixon, we had the ultimate in bipartite dishonesty and pride in the pursuit of a classic imperialist strategy to extend American economic and political influence in Southeast Asia. Gas enlightening the American people with calls to defend democracy by sending advisers and more than 500,000 soldiers at the end of Johnson's mandate was the greatest arrogance and imperial ambitions.
Nguyen is perfect with regard to the total failure of this company to adapt to this level of embezzlement of the government. There was nothing noble with our misadventure from Vietnam. And our media, our public education system and our representative government have failed citizens, as well as the 3 million deceased Vietnamese.
Bob Teigan, Santa Susana
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To the editor: This veteran of Vietnam agrees with each word of the beautiful summary of Nguyen of the lessons that we should have learned from our erroneous conduct in Vietnam. A feeling often understood expressed by American troops was: “We are not willing, led by the incompetent to make the impossible.”
Bill Smart, Santa Barbara
