Vietnam War

YOU CAN make the argument that any year between 1963 and 1969 was pivotal in our nation's history. For instance, '63 saw the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.-led march on Washington and, of course, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The Beatles arrived (and "American Bandstand" left Philly for Hollywood) in 1964, '65 marked the beginning of years of race riots and '69 included Woodstock and the Apollo 11 moon landing. But for sheer breadth and scope of epochal events - not to mention horror - 1968 has no rival.

Next month marks the 25th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War. Whether you were alive during that time or have learned about it since, we'd like to hear your answer to the following: What did that era - the war, the protests, the changes both brought about - teach you about America, its people and its values? Send essays of about 300 words to Community Voices/Vietnam, The Inquirer, Box 41705, Philadelphia, Pa. 19101. Send faxes to 215-854-4483 and e-mail to inquirer.

In the years since the end of the Vietnam War, movies on the conflict have divided neatly between the peacetime experiences of returning veterans and more traditional depictions of soldiers in combat. Cinematically, the difference between Vietnam and our previous wars was that the order was reversed. Because of the lingering, bitter controversy over Vietnam, the films about veterans preceded the movies dealing with the war itself. A new film to be added to the growing and generally distinguished ranks of Vietnam movies will fuse these elements in a fresh way. In movies such as The Deer Hunter, we have seen combinations of war and peace, but Missing in America takes a new tack.

We have been told repeatedly in recent weeks that the ghosts of Vietnam have been laid to rest in the Persian Gulf. But I still hear them in the night, and I bet I'm not alone. In 1968, when I was 12 years old, I was injured and then saved by American soldiers during a battle in my village south of Da Nang. My father was beaten to death by South Vietnamese soldiers as he demonstrated outside an American base against the bombing and shelling of our village. A few months later my mother and grandmother were killed when a GI threw a grenade into our bomb shelter; the grenade severed my esophagus.

After many years of pointed neglect, the Vietnam War has become a fit subject for the entertainment merchants. Although most movies and TV shows have maintained a high-minded gloss, one wonders how long it will be until that period is so distant, or cliched, that it can admit its own Hogan's Heroes or McHale's Navy. If that day ever comes, every viewer in the country should first be given a chance to see an unassuming but powerful little video called Kindred Men of a Dark War (28 minutes, $24.95)

Some people may feel they don't want to see even one more film about the Vietnam War. They should make an exception for "Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam," an exceptional Home Box Office film that premieres on HBO at 9 p.m. Sunday. The movie consists of real letters that were written to loved ones and friends by men and women stationed in Vietnam during America's long, ruinous war. Actors and actresses - including Robert De Niro, Robin Williams, Elizabeth McGovern and Sean Penn - read the letters on the soundtrack over footage of life in the field, some of it taken by the GIs themselves.

If it's not too late, the Republicans ought to add another plank to their party platform. It should read something like this: "We believe in a strong military and are dedicated to stopping the spread of communism. We believe that if the circumstances become sufficiently grave, we should commit troops to this purpose, as we did in Grenada. "However, there should be certain exceptions. "We do not believe the son of a rich and prominent Republican should be required to take part in such dangerous military activities if he doesn't want to. " That would be appropriate, based on what I'm hearing Republicans saying about J. Danforth Quayle.

Although American involvement in Vietnam ended in March 1973, a symposium Tuesday night at Delaware County Community College demonstrated that the issues of the war still burn strong for many veterans. About 80 people, many of whom served in Vietnam, attended the session, called "Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Vietnam But Were Afraid To Ask. " It was sponsored by Delaware County's Chapter 67 of the Vietnam Veterans of America. In an intense four-hour session, a six-member panel gave personal recollections of the Southeast Asian conflict and then fielded questions on such topics as veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome and Agent Orange.

"Full Metal Jacket," a drama starring Matthew Modine, Vincent D'Onofrio, Lee Ermey and Arliss Howard. Directed by Stanley Kubrick. Screenplay by Stanley Kubrick, Michael Herr and Gustav Hasford. Running time: 115 minutes. A Warner Brothers release. At area theaters. 'Full Metal Jacket," Stanley Kubrick's new Vietnam picture, steps into the box with two strikes against it precisely because it is Stanley Kubrick's new Vietnam picture. Through no fault of his own, Kubrick was beat to the Vietnam punch by "Platoon.

YOU CAN make the argument that any year between 1963 and 1969 was pivotal in our nation's history. For instance, '63 saw the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.-led march on Washington and, of course, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The Beatles arrived (and "American Bandstand" left Philly for Hollywood) in 1964, '65 marked the beginning of years of race riots and '69 included Woodstock and the Apollo 11 moon landing. But for sheer breadth and scope of epochal events - not to mention horror - 1968 has no rival.

For some visitors, the black wall of names slanting across a Mount Laurel field Thursday was too painful to approach. Still others stepped so close to the traveling Vietnam Veterans Memorial model that it seemed they would enter into it if they could, touching one or two among its 58,000 names of the Vietnam War's combat dead and gazing for many moments. "Even though it's so long ago, I still remember the two soldiers coming to say he's dead," said Jean M. Murray of Mount Laurel.

A replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, an acclaimed work of architecture and a solemn reminder of the human toll of the Vietnam War, will make its way Tuesday to Mount Laurel, where it will remain through the weekend. Nearly 250 feet long and bearing the names of the more than 58,000 servicemen and women who died in the war, the "Wall That Heals" is due to cross the Delaware Memorial Bridge about 8 a.m., travel north on I-295, and arrive with a motorcycle escort in Moorestown two hours later.

James Patrick Kelly was killed in war nearly 50 years ago. But on Sunday, Kelly, an Army second lieutenant from Hatboro, finally got recognition that will last for years to come. In a ceremony at the Wings of Freedom Aviation Museum in Horsham, a mile-long stretch of County Line Road in the township was officially dedicated as the James P. Kelly Memorial Highway. Scores of family and friends gathered at the ceremony to remember Kelly, killed Sept. 27, 1965, at age 23 in South Vietnam.

HANOI, Vietnam - Nearly 40 years after hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese fled the country's Communist regime by boat, a growing number are taking to the water again. This year alone, 460 Vietnamese men, women, and children have arrived on Australian shores - more than in the last five years combined. The unexpected spike is drawing fresh scrutiny of Hanoi's deteriorating human-rights record, though Vietnam's flagging economy may also explain why migrants have been making the risky journey.

Having devoted much of the last decade to making paintings and painted ceramics that explore the aftermath of the Vietnam War and transform the writings of American veterans into visual poetry, Jane Irish is looking at Vietnam through a different lens. The paintings that make up her fourth solo show at Locks Gallery, "Sông Hu'o'ng Withdrawing Room," took her to France and the interiors of malouiniéres , 18th-century manor houses in Brittany in which the decoration of a drawing room, in particular, was key to expressing its owner's worldliness.

Isaac Meyer "Mike" Sletson, 86, an antiwar activist in Philadelphia in the 1960s and 1970s, died Monday, March 18, at a nursing home in Bellefonte, Pa., of complications after a fall. Mr. Sletson was a member of Americans for Democratic Action and the National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy, a nonprofit focused on ending the arms race. After moving to Philadelphia in the early 1960s, he began his activism by lobbying government officials to place a traffic light at a dangerous intersection in Lower Northeast Philadelphia.

Joseph Crescenz called it "humbling. " Pennsylvania's two U.S. senators, Pat Toomey and Bob Casey, introduced a bill Monday to have the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center renamed after Michael J. Crescenz, the city's only Medal of Honor recipient from the Vietnam War. Joseph Crescenz was 12 when his brother Michael, 19, was killed while single-handedly taking out enemy machine-gun bunkers on Nov. 20, 1968, in South Vietnam. U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah (D., Pa.) also introduced a bill Monday to change the facility's name to the Cpl. Michael J. Crescenz Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

Joseph Crescenz called it "humbling. " Pennsylvania's two U.S. senators, Pat Toomey and Bob Casey, introduced a bill Monday to have the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center renamed after Michael J. Crescenz, the city's only Medal of Honor recipient from the Vietnam War. Joseph Crescenz was 12 when his brother Michael, 19, was killed while single-handedly taking out enemy machine-gun bunkers on Nov. 20, 1968, in South Vietnam. U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah (D., Pa.) also introduced a bill Monday to change the facility's name to the Cpl. Michael J. Crescenz Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

Stanley Karnow, the award-winning author and journalist who wrote a definitive book about the Vietnam War, worked on an accompanying documentary and later won a Pulitzer for a history of the Philippines, died Sunday morning. He was 87. Karnow, who had congestive heart failure, died in his sleep at his home in Potomac, Md., said son Michael Karnow. A Paris-based correspondent for Time magazine early in his career, Karnow was assigned in 1958 to Hong Kong as bureau chief for Southeast Asia and soon arrived in Vietnam, when the American presence was still confined to a small core of advisers.