Napalm

I was too old for the Vietnam War but I remember it vividly because it was on the news every night as we counted the dead, 20 per over the eight years but when they announced the dead they always added that ten times that many Cong died so we felt victorious. We started in a typical patriotic manner assuming our leaders knew what they were doing never knowing until years later how wrong we were. The Generals were out in force saying how America was fighting for democracy and would win. How could we not win, we were the good guys. And then one day I changed and it was not gradual. It was five years into the war in 1972 when I saw on the evening news a picture that would later become infamous. There was a little Vietnamese girl about 10 years old running down the road slowly burning to death with napalm stuck to her skin. From that day on, I realize the whole war was a big mistake that we never really know what we were doing. Many people saw that same picture and the American people were fed up and wanted out. Nixon promised to end the war with honor in his 1972 re election and the number of dead soldiers dropped to almost zero so we cheered that but the stench of the war lingered on. 365,000 Vietnamese were killed in that war. Will this be the fate of the Ukrainians. As we look at the war in Ukraine my only hope is that the equivalent of the napalm girl will hit the evening news and wake up the American people.