WE WARRIORS FOUGHT TO WIN OUR WAR - BUT OUR POLITICIANS DIDN'T

It's funny how people here in the USA would demand that they be defended by us
We the warriors who have always answered freedom's call throughout our history
They would always want us to save their own lives and their family's lives too

But when it came to saving the lives of others overseas they would say no
When we did they would label all of us as the baby killers and murders too
We were told that we were wrong for trying to save them and their families

Communist VC forces killed many but our fellow citizens turned against us
They considered us and our efforts to be the only real problem in Vietnam
Who would've thought people would turn on us for saving those attacked

When we were viewed through their own eyes and their own minds back then
We were damned by one half of our own countrymen and women for fighting
Defending South Vietnam as they were under attack by the communist VC

But then too if we hadn't gone there to help them defend their own freedom
We would have been condemned by most others here for not helping them out
It seems that we were damned if we did and damned if we hadn't gone there

So I ask you this question that has haunted me for decades since my return
"Who was right and who was wrong"? Funny that's what I had thought all along
And for many decades I've been dealing with the way I was welcomed back home
 
The reactions of my our fellow citizens and their attitudes was shocking
The anger they had directed at us when by the grace of God we made it home
Home to our own families after our long year serving over in South Vietnam

It was upsetting too as we never lost a single battle or fight with the enemy
It's a real shame and a pity that our own fellow citizens and our politicians
Had given up on us before the fight was ever over after we lost many brothers

What's even worse is knowing what the leaders of North Vietnam stated later on
In the years since the war ended they said they were beaten and ready to surrender
But then Nixon decided to stop bombing North Vietnam itself so they fought on

Nixon's decision to stop the bombing allowed them time to resupply their troops
They rearmed all of the Viet Cong troops already fighting down in South Vietnam
And because of that fact 58,325 of our own brothers in arms had died for nothing

In the end the war was lost because our politicians didn't have any back bones
They just walked away not finishing what they'd started to do in the first place
And we who had fought with honor and great courage were labeled as baby killers

So we became the first warriors to lose a war in the United States of America
They screamed at us and they spit on us as we returned yet we held our heads up
Nixon had chosen to walk away from that long war and left us with all the shame



SGT. Terry Sasek - U.S. Air Force (Binh Thuy AB, South Vietnam Nov. 1968 - Nov. 1969)
                        
                  

This was one of the first poems I had ever written about Vietnam way
back in 1972 just before I was Honorably Discharged after four years
service on active duty and I then returned home facing two more years
with the ready reserves in the U.S. Air Force knowing that I could be
reactivated and recalled to active duty at anytime if there was any
national emergency until I had completed my total six year enlistment.

Comment On This Poem --- Vote for this poem
WE WARRIORS FOUGHT TO WIN OUR WAR - BUT OUR POLITICIANS DIDN`T Select a comment or add your own Great Work! Awesome Site! Love It! Two Thumbs Up! looking forward to more!