antiwar09

=Student Activist=


 * Sam's Profile**

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John Kerry- Victoria

Dear mama,                                                                                                                                                                                                 August 10, 1966

I don’t know how to tell you this, what I am about to tell is probably one of your worse fears. I have just been informed that I am being drafted in the war. I’m only going to be there for a year, so start your countdown! We just got our stationary and threads that we have to use and wear for 360 days… I hope there are a lot of rivers in Vietnam or else I will smell raunchy…. Please don’t worry about me too much, if I know you’re worried and scared it just makes it harder for me. I know it will be extremely hard for you since you experienced this first hand in WWII. The things you saw are scarring to you I know…. But please, please hope for the best for me and all the others going. I have so many emotions swirling inside of me right now, I’m nervous, anxious, scared, excited… I have to go through boot camp to learn how to use the machinery and war guns which should be pretty awesome…. Oh and don’t be bunchin’ up your nerves if you do not receive a letter from me, I don’t know when I’ll have the time to write you or anyone else but please write to me anytime you can so you can update on how you a dad are doing. I have to go now but stay in touch! I love you. P.S. make sure dad plays fetch with Tiger once and a while, I don’t want him to become lazy while im gone! ( I’m talking about dad, not the dog! ) Your soldier, John

My dearest Jules,                                                                                                                                                                                    December 24, 1966

I am MISERABLE. I have been in this disgraceful place for 5 months now and I am barely hanging in. We don’t get to shower except when we pass through rivers and lakes which is basically never. All we have the comfort of our shaving tools but that’s it. We rarely get descent meals and the water here tastes like crap. My friends are dying right next to me left and right, I’ve trained myself not mourn anymore over them because I realized that that just makes me more depressed. This has got the worst experience I’ve ever had. I love being patriotic and fighting for my country, but I don’t even understand what we are fighting for anymore? The people of Vietnam want peace, they are sick of seeing their own innocent citizens getting blown up day by day while they are just working in the fields being against the war from the beginning. President Johnson keeps ordering us to drop bombs on anything that gets in our way. What good is this doing? How is killing everyone going to make everything better? “I don’t understand war. Period.” I miss everyone too much, I want to come home. Keep counting down days, I have tall marks on the side of my “bed”, like I told Ma please don’t worry about me if I know your worried it makes everything worse. Help Ma with whatever she needs and play with tiger a little. See you in no time. Love, John

P.S.- Merry Christmas…

Dear Pa,                                                                                                                                                                                 February 17, 1968

I’m done. I’m done with fighting, I’m done of not showering, I’m done with war. I’ve come to the realization that war is POINTLESS. I honestly don’t even know what I am fighting for anymore. Pa, remember Richard? Richard Pershing from Yale? He died today. He was K.I.A. killed in action. He was fighting for the United States of America and he died. I don’t know what to do anymore; I’ve been transferred to Cam Ranh Bay and hopefully leaving Vietnam as soon as possible. No one has any idea of what’s really going on here by the fields… soldiers are going insane. I have seen things that someone should never see for as long as they live. But I did. It’s disgusting. “The country doesn’t know it yet, but it has created a monster, a monster in the form of millions of men who have been taught to deal and to trade in violence and who are given the chance to die for the biggest nothing in history.” (Kerry a people divided Chapter 6). Soldiers are raping innocent women, destroying human bodies in ways you can’t even imagine, shooting animals for fun to let the time past faster…. It’s repulsive. Something has to be done, no one will ever find out about any of this unless someone takes a stand. Men will become angry… outraged… Something is going to happen, after what hundreds of thousands of men have been through; we are now just plain angry. We are not only angry because we have all become murders but “we are angry because we feel we have been used in the worst fashion by the administration of this country.” (Kerry a people divided Chapter 6) men are wondering as to where we go from here? We finally finished serving and time to come home. Oh but you can just wait when we get back home, war will not be kept a secret from my nation. They need to know what really goes on so we as a whole can take a stand and protest against war. It’s stupid, absolutely unnecessary. Seriously, what is the point? To show that we are stronger? To prove to everyone we are the top dog? What really came out of this was hatred towards our country, a creating more threats to everyone around the world. I don’t believe that’s what we stand for as a country and this will all soon end. I promise. Much Love. Your son, John