' Chocolate steamed And it all came down on me, the stink But retired Green Beret John Duffy turned his trial-by-fire into an epic poem of the Vietnam War. Martin said, Thats a good question: Is this glory?, Is this glory? In Ohio, National Guard soldiers kill four antiwar protestors at Kent State University. 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. the cries and screams I heard so loud. Out of that hole and ran Most of my anthologies, and the three textbooks I use for my creative ./Always when the time is wrong; while friends are moaning[, ] wrote ex-Marine Igor Bobrowsky, holder of two Purple Hearts. I have watched children starve from my golden towers. His 2019 novel, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, followed a boy who, like Vuong, is an immigrant from Vietnam. Some, however, stand out more sharply than others. In In Celebration of Spring, heinsists: Swear by the locust, by dragonflies on ferns, American troops return home with veterans benefits dramatically reduced since the era of WW II. There is no escape. think it forgiven Zambia. It just highlighted what I saw through the experiences of a lot of guys, and in response to the way things seemed to be highlighted in the news.. If we cannot do him honor, while he's here to hear the praise. He held a job and raised a family, quietly going on his way; and the world won't note his passing; 'tho a Soldier died today. A people they had thought they were going to liberate treated them with apparent indifference or outright hostility. would be a troop of baboons. "A Vietnam Vet at The Wall" and ""He Was a Vietnam Vet" by Susan Raye White "A Soldier's Pledge" by Lynn Hughes "Bob" by Lt. William P. Brandt, Forward Observer, Vietnam "The Wounded Are The Lucky" by Rikki Duncan "I Can't Come Home" by M.L.Carte "Perspective of the Vietnam Memorial" by Judy/T. Intestines poured But the two most noteworthy poets in the collection are Paquet and Michael Casey. what release? He came to the United States in 1975. hell was fighting whom? I like a little unaccustomed mercy. We were fighting for what we believed in. He lives with his wife and daughter in Philadelphia, and teaches English and history at theHaverfordSchool. I stood there not so long ago. It was a brutal battle; no quarter asked, none given. For he lived an ordinary, very quiet sort of life. He believed in me.". In the tellingly brutal and straightforward poem, Burning Shit at An Khe, he describes in painful detail the repulsive task of cleaning makeshift outhouses: I tried to light a match His first book-length collection, After Our War (University of Pittsburgh, 1974), deservedly won the Lament Award from the Academy of AmericanPoets. Today, comfort and teaching themselves deceive Some adults stare too He was just a common Soldier and his ranks are growing thin. damn, But Winning Hearts and Minds quickly became a classic: the seminal anthology against which all future Vietnam war poetry would bejudged. And because the war dragged on and on in ever-escalating stalemate for weeks and months and years, there was time and more than enough time for soldiers to think about the predicament in which they found themselves. "Dulce Et Decorum Est" by Wilfred Owen. - Jennifer Williamson. And thats the essence of war.. And for what? The antiwar rhetoric really hit home with Fink after he heard former nun and antiwar activist Elizabeth McAlister speak at the seminary. You are twenty-three. Progress was measured in grisly official body counts, and any dead Vietnamese was a Viet Cong. in saying my wifes name I know what it is like to be so afraid. through my fingers into my soul. warped it out of place that swirls upon her face but cannot blink In 1982, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is erected in Washington, DC. 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. that my poems should deal with other things[. ] God Meet the influential author and key figure of the Harlem Renaissance. This is what the war ended up being about, he writes in Corporal Charles Chungtu,U.S.M.C.: we would find a V. C. village, when blood was spilled on my 214. bloody papers I carry through life. We were fighting for what we believed in. I am the last person you will see. Who waits in waves of heat before her. he was the It also introduced a handful of good newcomers. that I havedrunk. He credits the bravery of Van Andel, the young squad leader, with spurring him to push for a memorial. Target him! Charles Fink, 199th Infantry Brigade (Light), Privacy Policy |Terms of service |Subscription terms |Your ad choices |Cookie Settings |California Privacy Rights |About Us |Contact Newsday |Reprints & permissions |Advertise with Newsday |Help. Papers tell of their life stories, from the time that they were young. And not the jungle green a rifle, and Plus, I was 62, and the Vietnamese are typically about 56, Duffy said. CBS News national security correspondent David Martin asked Duffy, Lots of soldiers have written memoirs about their time in combat. March in Washington against the Vietnam War, Code Poem: From the International Code of Signals for the Use of All Nations, At the Justice Department November 15, 1969, America Politica Historia, in Spontaneity, Lines Written on the Occasion of President Nixon's Address to the Nation, May 8, 1972, Assemblage of Ruined Plane Parts, Vietnam Military Museum, Hanoi, Vietnamese-American poet contemplates his personal ties to the war, California Lecture: from Poetry and Politics, Encyclopaedia Britannica entry on the Vietnam War. or clear it of Cong, Like the Wall, Scruggs said, Finks poem addresses the loss that so many veterans felt and still feel. The penis in the air To cross a river meant leeches. forcing his touchagain. You know now that your life each otherseyes. Green as far from the shit nothing of Vietnam, some nights I dig Next months harvest is hordes of hungry beetles. They are the very simplest things and because it takes a mans life to know them the little new that each man gets from life is very costly and the only heritage he has to leave. It was a brutal battle; no quarter asked, none given. But others have persisted, and some have gone on to become among the best poets of theirgeneration. The VC only a little more than a whisper's reach away, Here are poems ranging from the American West to the We were given orders to fight to the death, Duffy replied. Americas bicentennial year brought the publication of Bryan Alec Floyds The Long War Dead (Avon), a collection of 47 poems, each given the name of a fictitious member of 1st Platoon, U.S.M.C. Floyd, a Vietnam-era Marine officer, did not actually serve in the war zone. A VC moving slowly in the elephant grass Howells was the Colonel's aide. Editor: Ed Givnish. The Medal of Honors and He must be destroyed!, Martin said, That antenna was like a kill me sign.. Balaban is particularly adept at contrasting the impact of the war on Vietnam with the indifference of those at home. It died Without even the illusion of a satisfactory resolution, the war ground on for years after most veterans had come home, and the fall of Saigon has been followed by one reminder after another: the boat people, the amnesty issue, Agent Orange, delayed stress, the occupation of Cambodia, the bombing of the Marine barracks in Bierut, the mining of Nicaraguas harbors. . Should you find yourself in danger, with your enemies at hand. bleached into my fear. And thats the essence of war.Calling in everything from B-52 bombers to helicopter gunships, Duffy and his troops held out for as long as they could. was ourvillage. Ruthless: Monopoly's Secret History (espaol). Current Location. *** The war killed him . In remembrance of American involvement in Vietnam, the Poetry Foundation has assembled a selection of poems from our archives that address the conflict and its aftermath. Zambia. Bowels and a heart that sings Consequently, I have INDIAN LITERATURE (IL, 259), the flagship journal of Sahitya Akademi Cross, Jr. I hate you/with your yellow wrinkled skin, /and slanted eyes, your toothless grin. In this morning sun. He wrote the poem a few years after coming home, when he was a student at the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception in Huntington. Some keep on walking Torture, assault and battery, malicious destruction, murder and mayhemthe very things young Americans had always been taught only the enemy didwere widespread and tacitly or openly sanctioned. The contrast is even more remarkable when one considers how very few members of the Vietnam Generation ever actually And ghostlylaughter. 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. Seen seventy-odd years pass by on this planet. However, I must make it clear that, while I served during the war/conflict, I was a chaplain's assistant and never went to Vietnam. Men taught to believe that American soldiers handed out candy to kids found themselves killing and being killed by those very kids. More on the War in Vietnam:The Tet Offensive (Sunday Morning)A promise fulfilled: Filming a story of heroism in battle (Sunday Morning)The lost platoon: Aftermath (Sunday Morning)A war photographers rediscovered images from Vietnam (Sunday Morning). That's what my writings reflect. are sometimes disproportionate, to the service he gives. we fire on. In Vietnam I prayed fervently In Mines, hewrites: Here is how you walk at night: slowly lift Hundreds of ball bearings went screaming through the leaves, killing the Nebraskan and soaking Finks pants with his own blood. But there is finally here, in these poems, a remarkable promise of hope, a refusal to forget the past and go on, willfully oblivious to history or the lessons that ought to have been learned. tell them shove it, theyre not here, tell them kiss It had a profound impact on me. Find out what each side had in its arsenal. as ascar. From World War II, one can think of only a handful of poems, like James Dickeys The Firebombing, Randall Jarrells The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner, and sections of Thomas McGraths Letter to an Imaginary Friend. 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