Vietnam {2}

 My overriding conclusion, having read this book on and off over a few months, is that it was completely crazy for so many people to have died needlessly over such a long period. So many more maimed physically and scarred psychologically and enormous destruction and pollution of property and landscape.

Probably millions of Vietnamese died over decades of conflict through active participation in war, collateral damage, friendly fire, execution, torture, starvation. A horror story. Fifty-five thousand Americans died. Billions of dollars wasted. Planes, helicopters, tanks, trucks, APC's, bombs, missiles, it's mind boggling. The suppliers of all this to the war machine on both sides, right down to small arms and uniforms and medical equipment were those that profited, as were those who benefitted by corruption and misappropriation.

That it went on for so long is hard for this reader to fathom. From memory the Americans knew they were to withdraw as early as 1968. President Nixon could well be accountable for more than 20,000 American lives lost after that year, as he prolonged the war to save face and make the withdrawal of America at a time when the inevitable victory of the North would look like a failure of the South Vietnamese Government. The peace talks dragged on and on in a political farce. Huge bombing raids were undertaken on the North and in Laos and Cambodia on the supply lines when it was known defeat of the South was certain, but political public image took precedence over any rationale.

As I recall these bombing raids were initiated from aircraft carriers off the coast, or from Guam, several hours away by flight before they got to drop their bombs on the target area. Dozens of planes a day, thousands of tons of explosives, most of it dropped with little accuracy in regard to civilian destruction. More tonnage of explosives than used in the entirety of WW11. The missiles and anti-aircraft systems of the North including MIG fighter jets were Russian supplied and vehicles, tanks, trucks and light arms were Chinese or Russian.

As I said the other day, I sent the book to Rickyralph so I can't check stats. One incident that I recall was on a US aircraft carrier, I can't remember its name. There were several of these huge ships off the coast of Vietnam, from which dozens of fighter bombers took off each day on their deadly missions. Many more, bigger bombers, flew from the US base in Guam, several hours flying time from their targets. In this accident a returning plane when taxiing to its hangar storage collided with a parked plane and a fire started which quickly escalated into a major emergency. Before it was extinguished 172 crewmen had been killed, many incinerated in their quarters where they were trapped. Millions of $ damage to the ship and planes. Mind boggling. These ships housed thousands of people and carried dozens of planes. Imagine the cost of such a thing.

I don't know how many of the 55,000 American deaths were by accident or friendly fire, but it was a substantial proportion. Not only that there were also numerous homicides committed in the American forces. In the later stage of the American involvement there was a serious drug problem involving drug running on an organized scale. Some soldiers went nuts while stoned and fired on innocent civilians and disliked officers of their own creed. Take out the drugs, there were still murders of officers who tried restoring discipline and punished misdemeanors harshly by withdrawing privilege. There was one instance of a young Australian female singer entertaining troops who was shot dead on stage while performing. It was said an American marine aiming at an officer in the background missed his target. 

Australian involvement was minimal compared to that of the US but just as horrendous on small scale. More than 500 Australians lost their lives. I recall reading somewhere once where half of these deaths were the result of accident. I recall also seeing somewhere that the first National Serviceman killed had only been in Vietnam a short time, maybe a week, and was shot by another Australian patrol who mistook his for enemy. It was his first day out on patrol. Recently I learned of a National Serviceman who was Killed in Action near Nui Dat on the 17th of February 1967. Vic Pomeroy went to the same school as me (before I was there), Camberwell Grammar. His birthdate was on a marble pulled out of a barrel. He played footy for Camberwell seconds before he left for Vietnam and was a clerk for a fashion warehouse in Flinders Lane. He was 21 when he died. He never got to be a father or grandfather.

The book Vietnam concluded in its final paragraph with a question for the US. What did it learn from Vietnam? 

It answered, " Not much it seems, or we wouldn't have invaded Iraq."

I'm reading an antidote book (novel fiction) now that Lib's sister Pat sent her for Xmas, "What Alice Forgot" by Lian Moriarty. Alice fell off an exercise bike at the gym in 2008 in Sydney and woke up thinking it was 1998 with no recollection of the ten years between, nor of the three children she was now the mother of, knowing nothing of their birth or personalities or changes to herself/lifestyle. Interesting.

I did go down the river and get those blackberries on Tuesday after my post here. I felt good that night, the exercise seemed to have freed up the back. But I have relapsed, very sore now. I have a remedial massage booked for this arvo, maybe need more chiro too next week. 

    

A Good Rain at Last

There was a significant rainstorm last weekend, much needed by our plantations in the River Reserve. It came in the early hours of the morning following some showers during the previous afternoon and evening. The warm weather of early May that caused me to delay sending the package that included chocolate to Elvie for Mother's Day*, has left after the rainstorm. Yesterday morning was frosty. Nights are now cold.

I was caught out by the storm, I had intended to clean the spouts before the weather broke, it was on my list last week, but last Wednesday evening I hurt my back pulling a big African daisy down the river. I didn't have my handsaw and dabber bottle of herbicide as I went down to that area just to check on Cape Ivy regrowth. I hadn't been in there for some months. Yes, there was quite a bit of Ivy. I enjoyed getting it out, easy before it mats and takes over. I came across some African daisies and they were easy too, until the big old one held on. Stupidly, I keep pulling without adjusting my stance, bending my knees and gripping the stem lower. I knew straight away I'd done damage; it felt like a strain in the side across to my left hip. Walking home was most uncomfortable. I realized I'd put my lower back out.

I drove to Seaford with Gord the next day to attend to some registration payment paperwork for his purchased Mazda that he couldn't do at the PO here. I picked up a Kiwiberry plant I had ordered at Perry's Nursery in McClaren Vale on the same trip. I'd tried to make an appointment with my chiropractor here in Victor Harbor, but the office was unattended. I was put through to an affiliated practice in Bendigo who told me Friday was booked out and made an appointment for me for 3.30 last Monday. I spent 4 painful days and saw Louis Monday. He clunked me around a bit and reckoned I was fixed but would be sore for a while. Well, I'm still sore, not sure I'm "fixed", but I'm taking analgesics and trying to convince myself I'm coming good. 

In this last week I've done little, the discomfort robs you of enthusiasm for any task. The spouts will have to wait, so will any gardening. I am determined though to go down the river later today and 'cut and paint' blackberry regrowth I saw in the same area last Wednesday before I left to come home. They are only small and are easy to get at now following the months of dry weather we've had and the die off of annuals, which will sprout again with wet weather and warm towards spring, making the area hard to get into. It's close to the billabong and is moister than other places, hence the blackberries holding on reshooting after I cut and painted them last year. 

 Excuse me if this is boring to anyone reading. Somehow it reassures me that I'm not totally redundant because of my back, to write about it. Gives me feeling of still having some control and optimism that I won't be useless for long. It can be a bit scary, for all of us, that your life can change in the blink of an eye, a silly act, an accident. No matter who you are, or how old.

I forgot to mention in my last post that I finished the epic book on Vietnam by Max Hastings. I meant to write about that in conclusion but didn't get around to it. I've sent the book to Ricky Ralph so I can't refer to it in detail and comment will be from memory but again I feel a need to write on it. It will be next post, maybe this afternoon before I tackle the blackberries, as Gord wants me to go shopping with him now. Hell of a good fellow is Gord boy. Hell of a good wife is Lib gal too. It's nice to have good people around you when you are crook or suffering pain and discomfort. I had a massage by Julie from the Joyful Path last Saturday. Lib gave me a voucher for my birthday. It was a good time to use it under my circumstances. An hour of bliss. It didn't fix my back but made me feel so much better about life for a while. Then the Demons knocked off Brisbane in Brisbane on Sunday. Loved that.

*Meredith messaged me to say the package got there.

Flashbacks

A good thing about being in your seventies and still reasonably intact mentally, is that there are so many memories of people, places and events. Having been writing in this blog forum for nearly twenty years gives me ability to look back over those years. I rarely do. I don't feel need to. I have flashbacks in my mind every day to past events and people, triggered by the slightest thing, an object, a song, a crossword clue, a scene, a tree, a flower, something on TV or radio, I could go on and on. The flashback maybe fleeting, just seconds, or last some minutes as I indulge in a cup of tea or a coffee. Occasionally, it sends me into long contemplation that may last hours.

Mostly it's good. My memories of people are vivid, warmer in this retrospectivity than perhaps I felt about them in real time. The same about incidents, even bad ones, the pain of things I may have felt then is diminished to almost nonexistence. It's easier to recall good than bad. Pain is eased. I can think over things that happened at school, on the football field, in my employment, family situations - it's all easier to accept as part of a big evolving picture. All normal life stuff. There's comfort in the realization that I've made it here, successfully enduring whatever was thrown my way or what trauma I walked into - wittingly or self-inflicted, or unwittingly, accidentally.

With that comes an ambivalence to a lot of media. For example, all this election drama. It gives average Aussie Joe a chance to think he has some say in the direction of the nation, some control over how the country is run. I can listen to all the campaign bullshit, accusation and blaming, with knowledge that it will all roll on after the election much the same. Let me think. Menzies was PM all my early life. Holt, (McEwen) McMahon, Whitlam, Fraser, Hawke, Keating, Howard, Rudd, Gillard, Abbott, Turnbull, Morrison, Albanese. I have no feeling of need to discredit any of them. 8 Libs, 6 Labor. For all the debates and arguments, everything rolls on. From my position, of insulation by experience, I think the most important thing is care for the environment for future generations. I have no grandchildren, my time in this mortal plane is coming to an end. But when I see women (mainly ladies but also families) in the street or shops with babies or toddlers I think how wonderful life is and how grand they are to face the future with optimism. 

I hope the political entities can make it so, that Mother Earth will remain habitable for humans to live healthy clean lifestyles, so that the children and babies everywhere can reach my age and look back as I do with pleasure and happiness. And with some optimism for their children and grandchildren.

Keep the Mind Open

"Conformity leads to mediocrity. If the individual is to grapple with life, it's intricacies, it's miseries and sudden demands, he must be infinitely pliable, and therefore free of theories and particular patterns of thought."    KRISHNAMURTI

This quote struck a chord with me while I was having a cappuccino in Ara's Cafe in Victor Harbor's main street yesterday (April 4). I pop in for a coffee or green tea once every few weeks. Proprietor Deb is a friendly lady who has my admiration for the long hours she puts in, not just in the shop but preparing the food, requiring early morning work well before opening hours. There's a shelf with books that patrons can read while they partake, and I usually pick up one to read while I'm there.

The quote is from a book of selected quotes from all manner of sources, even the bible. I think maybe it's titled 'Little Book of Jewels', or similar. I went there today because Gord had some banking business to do nearby - he's buying a car and needed to do a transfer of money to a chap in Adelaide. We looked at the car when we were in Adelaide recently. It's a ten-year-old Mazda 2 with only 73k on the clock. We're picking it up next Monday, if all goes to plan. It looked a good clean little unit, but in truth there's always an element of risk buying a used car.

But I do like the quote. I'd not heard of Krishnamurti. It seems relevant at this time when a federal election is imminent. The media is saturated with cliched garbage as well as trade tariffs and recession talk. A good time to have an open mind, be flexible, be ready for the unexpected.

If Trump could have a second go as US president, anything is possible. 

*Gord bought the car. We picked it last Monday. He now needs to sell his Skoda Roomster. 

I turned 73 yesterday. I had a chiropractic session in the morning, then a haircut, followed by one of Deb's yummy pasties with coffee at Ara's Cafe. Gord and Lib made delicious homemade pizza for my birthday dinner. Chiro worked a treat, I'm feeling FANTASTIC!

I'm Back

 I didn't go anywhere; I just took a break from this blog. Didn't feel like writing. I think little Pip's poor health had something to do with it. She had been off her food for a while and I tried different approaches and types of food which worked maybe once or twice, then not. Depressing it was to see our little mate losing weight and leaving her food bowl hardly touched. Sometimes she'd come back to it for another mouthful but often it was left untouched. She could no longer jump and struggled a bit to get up the step here and there, as well as much reduced vision and hearing. I went to the vet and bought some special soft food. I was relieved she ate some enthusiastically that night, but she spewed it up later.

Knowing she was nearing the end I took her to the vet to confirm that it was time. The vet agreed, saying her kidneys were failing. I made an appointment for the next afternoon to return for her euthanasia. Coincidentally Robbie was coming from Victoria that very day, so we all had a final night together to say our goodbyes to her. Lib and I took her back to the vet the next day, the boys didn't come; they didn't think they could handle it. She's buried in our back yard where she spent the last almost 4 years of her life.

 

It was a tearful time for all of us, I had a lump in my throat many times when she came into my thoughts through daily routine of feeding etc. A wonderful family companion she was for nearly 18 years. We grieved. We grieve still, but it's easing. We were so lucky to have her for so long. She survived being poisoned by eating snail bait in my van when she was young, anal gland infection and operation, toe amputation following an infection, snake bite and several near misses from traffic. Once she disappeared down a wombat hole and I couldn't get her out. I thought the wombat must have crushed her to death but just when I was about to give up all hope, she came gingerly trotting after me, covered in red dirt. 

I took a break also from my Vietnam book. I borrowed 'Capricornia' by Xavier Herbert from the library and had four weeks to read it before returning it. It's a long book, a novel, set in Nth Australia from say WW1 time to about the late 1930's when it was written. I'd read it some 30 years ago and loved it and wanted to read it again after telling friend Geoff up the road about it. Geoff was raised in Darwin which is essentially the hub of the story. It illustrates the hardships and inherent racism that existed at that time when blacks, half castes and yeller fellers had little chance in life. The racism was not just reserved for the indigenous, it extended to Chinese, Japanese and Filipinos, all of which were plentiful. The boom and bust of the cattle industry and the cruel climate of floods and droughts affecting agricultural pursuit show that life in the top end wasn't easy.

I'm back into 'Vietnam'. I find it - in a word - disgusting. The corruption, the atrocities and brutality by both sides, the stupidity, costing countless thousands of lives. A political war based on ideology. I won't overload you with statistics but by the end of 1966 there were 385,000 Americans in Vietnam and it was announced there would be many more coming. The cost of the war had been budgeted for $2billion for 1966, but the final bill came in at more than $15billion and would rise to $17billion in 1967. Thousands of tons of bombs and defoliants were dropped wiping out villages and food supplies. Hard to comprehend.

I will read on.  

Vietnam

 I'm making slow progress on the current book I'm reading, Vietnam, by Max Hastings. It's important for me to finish this book, despite the large amount of detail in diplomatic and political spheres over a long period. I am getting the gist of it. I'm feeling compelled to write briefly about it. 

As I was about finish primary school, President Kennedy was assassinated. Kennedy had been mindful that his government's decisions on policy in Vietnam would have great significance at the election to follow in November 1964. Early November '63 Kennedy was shot dead and shortly after, President Diem in South Vietnam was murdered in a coup by military generals and a new President installed. The new guy didn't last all that long and in turn was murdered and there was another murder and change over, and maybe yet another before '64 was out.

My mate Graeme Forster and I started secondary school at Malvern Grammar that year. I met my great mate Rickyralph that year. Our focus was certainly not on Indochina as 12-year-olds, as we each grappled with the newness and the idiosyncrasies of our particular family circumstances. As Graeme and I played on the beach at Lorne in the summer of '64/5, Lyndon Johnson basked in glory following a huge landslide victory in the US election in November.

Skirmishes between Communist and South Vietnamese forces escalated during '64: a mini sea battle in the Gulf of Tonkin when a US destroyer fired upon North Vietnamese patrol boats after "imagined" torpedo attack, later resolved as turbulence (by sudden change of direction by the destroyer) picked up on radar, precipitated a bombing raid by the US on targets in the North. A show of might and power meant to deter and cower.

It was an extraordinary aspect of the war, that the American people and their legislature acquiesced with little remark in a vast military commitment to a faraway country, heedless of the fact that the rest of the world including Britain, France, Japan, Canada - almost every developed democracy except Australia - thought US policy foolhardy in the extreme.

Prior to 1965, most of the direct American assistance to South Vietnam was advisory and in training ground forces and pilots. American helicopters ferried South Vietnamese to conflict zones and covert US operatives were parachuted into remote areas to gather data on the strength and movements of communist forces. There were as many as 26,000 US personnel advising the regime government and the military. The South Vietnamese seemed to lack the will to fight with desperation and urgency. Many defected to the Vietcong. The American involvement was seen by the North as Imperialism, similar or worse than the colonialism they had suffered for many decades. American planes and helicopters were shot down, pilots captured. The bombing of the North steeled the iron will of the communists.

It seems the ego of the new President and those around him entwined with the nation's global prestige. Coordinated assaults by the Vietcong culminated in an attack on the Brink Hotel in Saigon on Christmas Eve, leaving two Americans dead and 58 wounded. Late in December VC regiments mauled a Vietnamese Marine battalion leaving 60% casualties and most of the officers killed. Four American helicopters were shot down. Patriotism helped stifle debate when American boys were dying.

A dramatic expansion of America's war in Vietnam had become inevitable.

A Year on.

 Last January I was in hospital. It was an adventure starting on 18 Jan and concluding 28 Jan when I was discharged from Flinders Hospital following a carotid artery clean out operation a couple of days earlier. 

I posted on this, also some follow up, last February in A Stroke of Luck (4 posts) and I've read them through to refresh the sequence of events and my feelings at the time.

Earlier this month,13 Jan, I received a FB message from a lady, Sarah, I met at Flinders Hos.

Close to one year since meeting you Carey. Thinking of you at this time. Hoping this New Year brings continued health and happiness. x 

I responded thanking Sarah for her kindness in Flinders and her message and offering reciprocal best wishes for '25. She replied.

Thank you, Carey, your words are just so beautiful, they really mean a lot to me

I'll never forget that time and like you said, with many plusses. Your kind wishes for '25 are not taken lightly, love and peace💚 I love this, thank you. So happy to hear that you are enjoying life, I pray that this continues; even more joy is to come.

Go gently at this time, sending lots of smiles and prayers😍.

Sarah is wonderful. A diamond. She was in hospital suffering from symptoms diagnosed as MS. She was so caring and helpful to others in the shared ward, mostly elderly gents. She has a young son who started school last year. We are friends on Facebook and it's my great pleasure to see her posts now and again. And indeed, to have met her a year ago.

I'm pleased that my health since that incident has been good. I have been physically able to continue my assault on weeds in the Hindmarsh River Reserve, including olive trees, boxthorns, boneseed, watsonia, African daisy and cape ivy in the main, but also some sweet pittosporum, English ivy and nightshade here and there. This second half of summer and autumn I'm moving into sections I have spent little time previously. I pray my health and strength in back and legs continues so that I'll be as satisfied with '25 as I was with my substantial achievement in '24.