Readers Write: Turmoil in Iraq mirrors Viet Nam war aftermath

The Island Now

During the Viet Nam War, various USAF air bases in South East Asia hired Cambodian civilians who were sympathetic to the United  State’s cause to assist the American military with various tasks required for our war effort.

At the conclusion of the U.S.’s involvement in Viet Nam in 1975 these folks went home to their country just when the communist revolutionary Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot came to power and created havoc in the country. 

Many in the military who worked side by side with them or knew them only casually still hope and pray that they made it out of Pol Pot’s “killing fields” alive.

I was reminded again of the plight of these Cambodians when I saw the newspapers and watched the TV reports of the bloodshed going on in Iraq and especially when I heard the barbarians claiming they executed 1,700 Iraqi Soldiers.

I wondered how many of our military had worked side by side with these troops or knew civilians who died in this massacre and ongoing killings. 

Unfortunately, like the generation before them, most of them will never know.

Bill Viggiano

Williston Park

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