Posted on 11/10/2009 10:40:00
Thank you, Paul, well said.
A long time ago (right after Vietnam) a young Marine captain (USMC Retired) who had distinguished himself and been badly wounded leading a platoon in VN published an article in a veterans magazine. The title of that article:
GET INVOLVED, DAMN IT! He went on to accomplish a great deal.
The author's name? Jim Webb. I think he would say the same thing today.
Posted on 11/09/2009 20:43:35
TO Scott (SAC Warrior)
Great post! Or as my son would say,
"EXCELLENT, DUDE!"
Posted on 11/09/2009 20:32:30
I remember East Berlin well -- especially empty streets. But in te late 1980s, it was so obvious that the Soviets were losing their grip. In 1985, an old lady in Czechoslovakia told me she admired Ronald Reagan. You could get West German television (if you had a set) and see what things were like in the west. In Hungary, people really despised the Soviets and defied the state in some clever ways. They openly spoke of "taking down that damned red star" from the parliament building. By 1990, there were lots of Trabant autos in Budapest that had been left by East Germans fleeing to the west. In Romania, the state currency controls were coming apart at the seams -- the black market for dollars was about 5 times the official rate, and the railway stations were full of black market money changers, but the food stores were characterized by empty shelves (you could get vodka, slivovitz, mineral water, and garlic but food was scarce. Gasoline was rationed -- if the stations had any. A guy I met in Brasov wrote me a year later -- he had swam across the Danube (an enormous risk -- patrol boats would shoot on sight) to Yugoslavia and freedom. He got status as a political refugee and today lives in Seattle.
In 1990, we all went to the wall and hammered at it, taking pieces for souvenirs. In west Berlin, East Germans set up tables and sold Soviet uniforms, hats, etc. They were all new items, fresh from Soviet quartermasters -- no doubt sold by Soviet military who saw a chance to cash in. Those were heady days, just before reunification. You could go to dinner in the east for very little money. Americans were supposed to cross at Checkpoint Charlie, but I persuaded border guards to let us cross at openings in the wall. About a dozen of us had a magnificent dinner at the Moskau Restaurant -- the total bill came to less than a hundred dollars for the group. Historic moments, everybody was excited by reunification. Freedom was in the air.
Posted on 11/09/2009 19:54:16
DOD has not been contacted for one reason -- a bill was pending and we did not have anything to ask them about. Now we do -- asking them to support the CWSM legislation. BUT our first move should be to contact the WHITE HOUSE. If Obama wants to o it, then DOD will not fall back on "It's our policy."
In addition, Senator Jim Webb has his name on this bill, and he is chairman of the subcommittee that writes the personnel section of the NDAA. We are not home yet on the CWSM, but DOD knows who Jim Webb is and they pay attention to him. Right now, we need to get him all the support we can (i.e., co-sponsors for S.2743, the Cold War Medal Act of 2009). There are 96 senators who have not signed on yet. So call, e-mail, and send them the CWSM postcards (available free by e-mailing me with your name and address at
ftims@aol.com.)
In addition to your senators, send postcards to PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA. Many of these will be forwarded to DOD for reply if you include your name and address with your (brief) message. If they get these from enough people (you, family, friends, Legion/VFW/AMVETS members), they will PAY ATTENTION.
We have a window of opportunity. The first objective is to get co-sponsors and make the White House aware of the bill and how important it is to CW vets
ftims@aol.com.
Posted on 11/09/2009 15:41:16
Joe, I hear you. We wanted a more inclusive bill, but we didn't write this bill. That said, it is on the table and we need to get it passed. Reservists did their chare, and deserve recognition (more than a certificate). I even remember they flew supply missions from CONUS to Vietnam, and during the 1968 buildup in Korea, they ferried F-4s AND served at Kunsan AB -- I had a beer with some of them at the O Club in summer of that year. An infantry company of Indiana NG served in Vietnam. Air NG flew Bear Watch. So they earned recognition. That said, I don't know what we can do except push for the bill we have in play now.
We aren't giving up un a more inclusive version, but we do need to push for a live bill as opposed to no bill at all. Obviously, it's not ideal but it's the best we can do at this time. On the positive side, it does somewhat validate Cold War service, even for those who served but did not qualify for CWSM under this version. In 1989, the wall came down -- there are plenty of folks who like to pretend that we the troops had nothing to do with winning the Cold War. But it will be nice to have our country finally recognize the part we played.
Posted on 11/08/2009 18:41:25
Wow! I finally cracked aimoo's code and managed to sign in! The length of service requirement was a problem for us -- I knew guys getting commissioned out of college in the early 1960s, but the army had too many officers (how's that for irony!) but then there was Vietnam. So guys who expected to do their obligatory 2 years started getting early outs.. In the 1950s, it was SOP for to request an early out if you weren't going to re-up. So a lot of guys drafted for 2 years wound up "only" putting in 21 months of active duty. So we asked that the service requirement be cut -- tried 18 months, but no go. So we suggested that Congress authorize SECDEF to determine what other folks (i.e., less than 24 months and non-deployed) are eligible. We hope that is a loophole DOD will use. But too much push-back if it gets scored off the charts. Once we get it passed, we can try to widen eligibility at SECDEF's discretion.
Now the guard is a different item. I know this sounds like a technicality, but until NG unit is federalized, they belong to the governor. So it may be that governors will take their cue from CWSM at the federal level (LA and Alaska already have created CW medal or ribbon).
Regarding co-sponsors, all senators are important on S.2743, but we really need to press members of the Armed Services Committee to come on board. Michigan and Arizona (Levin and McCain) are super-important. I hope Webb's influence will carry the day in the committee, but it would be so great if Lieberman (CT), Akaka (HI), Lemieux and Nelson (FL), Nelson (NE), Collins (ME) Wicker (MS), Chambliss (GA), and Graham (SC) can sign on. Others, of course, but personnel subcommittee is key, and Webb's leadership is crucial.
We have postcards to use in lobbying for this bill. I can send you a handful if you write me at
ftims@aol.com with your mailing address. IDEA: Your Legion, VFW, AMVETS, DAV post are good places to get folks to sign up and provide postcards (pre-addressed to your senators). Design for the postcards is shown on the home page, right below the VFW magazine links, if you have not seen it already.
Thanks to Jerry, Sean, Scott, and the gang -- we have momentum. Let's get 96 more cosponsors. Also push the members on the new House CWSM bill. We will win in 2010.
Posted on 08/20/2009 13:42:31
GREAT IDEA, Jerry. A Cold War service medal needs to be on the agenda of DOD -- it will pass Congress if DOD asks for it, though they could just create it themselves. Gates himself has acknowledged the victory, and served at a missile base back in the 1960s. He understand the role the US Armed Forces played in the Cold War, and what the stakes were. I believe all he and his fellow missile troops got out of it was an NDSM -- no recognition for their part in defending the United States against a very real threat.
Posted on 08/20/2009 13:31:31
The DOMINO THEORY was correct in a very limited way. Vietnam fell, Cambodia fell, and Laos fell, but not then the "historical dialectic" turned on itself. What Hegel and Marx had not factored in was national and ethnic ideologies. No sooner was Vietnam in control of Cambodia than the Khmer Rouge turned on them. Moreover, while the Russians had supported North Vietnam but the Chinese had supported the Cambodian communist regime. Very soon after the US was out of Vietnam, China went to war with Vietnam. Vietnam is today "communist," but I didn't see very many Russians there 30 years after their "victory" (I was asked whether I was a Russian scientist by a few people in the north -- must have been my grey beard). I the south, I have friends who went through "re-education" and had a hard time, but now things have shifted so much. Private business everywhere, even though they have red flags and statues of Lenin in parks. Communism is an anachronism in Vietnam -- though you can't quite say that yet, but everybody knows it. You join the party to get a job, but they like Americans -- most Vietnamese were born AFTER 1975. My nephew, an officer in the US Navy, has a meeting in Hanoi this October. I had a meeting at the Ministry of Health in Hanoi -- nobody mentioned the war, we had other things to talk about. Out in the countryside, people are growing their rice and working at the Japanese factories.
Most of those who fought in the Vietnam war are in their 50s and 60s, some older. Chris Noel (remember the sexy lady on armed forces radio) is old enough to get Social Security.
The Domino theory scenario played out -- but it stopped at the SEATO frontier (Thailand and Maylasia), then turned on itself. You could make a case that SEATO -- weak as it was -- stopped the dominoes, just as NATO stopped the Soviets. Insurgencies in the Philippines and Malaya (mainly ethnic conflicts) pretty much petered out, though some nuisance conflict persists in the Philippines. But communism? Poor guys who found themselves persecuted by the Cultural Revolution -- the grandchildren of the Red Guard have gone into investment banking.
So you see why we have a hard time making the case for the Cold War -- people die and memories fade. But we are a persistent lot. The whole story has never been told, but we intend to keep it alive.
