Vietnam War Veterans Dissed Again on ‘Longest War’ Line RE Afghanistan

George Will writes of Afghanistan that “America’s longest war is entering a surreal stage.”

Have we forgotten the Vietnam War already? That 20-year police action?

Joe ‘Ragman’ Tarnovsky sets the record, and George Will straight.

By Joe ‘Ragman’ Tarnovsky

Dear Mr. Will ([email protected]):

In your column today, where are you and other journalists getting your information, statistics and facts when calling Afghanistan America’s longest war?

I have read in newspapers and heard on television other journalists and reporters doing the same thing, calling ‘Afghanistan America’s longest war,’ and it simply is not true. I would like to know what kind of journalist’s jargon and manipulation of the facts are you using to justify this claim?

The Department of Defense Knowledge Base list casualties from the Vietnam War from November 1st, 1955 to May 15th, 1975.

For the sake of argument lets use the dates on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, 1959 to 1975, and that makes the war 16 years, which omit’s the first casualty on that wall recognized by the Department of Defense, Richard B. Fitzgibbon, who is listed as KIA on June 8, 1956.

Lets break it down further, Mr. Will, when John Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, there were approximately 16,000 United States military advisers serving in South Vietnam and we all know that they were engaged in ground combat during the time they were acting in an advisory role. If we use 1963 as a starting date then that makes the Vietnam War 12 years long, so just how long in your opinion, Sir, did the Vietnam War last? What terminology are you using to state that Afghanistan is America’s longest war and when you do that, what war did the Americans die in prior to the date you are using to justify the starting date of the Vietnam War?

Let’s get one thing straight from the start, Mr. Will, I could care less if Afghanistan goes down in history as America’s longest war, although I can not stomach the fact that more and more of my fellow citizens and military brothers and sisters will lose their lives and be disabled in that god-forsaken place.

Vietnam Veterans will gladly step aside and relinquish our place in American history but what we, Vietnam Veterans, will not tolerate, are journalists that manipulate statistics and terminology to distort the truth in order to fit their political columns, their reasoning and their personal opinion. We had that done to us by your counterparts that preceded you in the news business, they turned the TET 1968 military victory by the United States into a political defeat and propaganda victory for the communists and Vietnam War protesters (in reality they were protesting the draft), but we are older and wiser now and will not tolerate you, nor anybody else, spinning and manipulating the facts which in reality, bring disrespect to those names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial that you omit when speaking about Afghanistan being America’s longest war.

Those names on that memorial, Mr. Will, are the brothers and sisters to those of us that still survive today and we have a duty to those men and women to make sure the people of America never forget their sacrifices! We all know that you are highly educated and you trump my little Bachelor Of Arts Psychology degree many times over, Sir, but maybe if you took time out to serve your country in a military uniform, you might be able to understand why Vietnam Veterans get so irate when we read and hear journalists twisting and manipulating the facts.

Quit denigrating the sacrifice and memory of those on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial that do not fit into your timeframe for what is America’s longest war, by doing so you and your cohorts continue to inflict mental and emotional pain to the families of those heroes and to the many of the Vietnam Veterans that are still here today!