I don’t know what I would have done had not the draft ended the year that I graduated high school. I had a lottery number, and it was very low as I recollect. What I do know is that many of our best clients served bravely and with honor in Vietnam. Fifty years after the end of the war it is fitting that we should acknowledge them.
Vietnam veterans have often explained to me how the war made them better people. My experience is that this is true. The war forced people from every region and every economic class to care for and to protect each other in united purpose. In this, Vietnam did for our country what war always did. After all, Americans became Americans, as opposed to Virginians or New Yorkers, when they fought together during the French and Indian War. George Washington became the man who could be president while a lieutenant colonel in the Virginia Regiment. The Vietnam War may be the last instance where military service became the crucible for forging an American identity that knows no race or class. The Korean War holds the title as the first to include race, so no need to write me on this.
Today I have a message for all of our clients and for everyone who served during the Vietnam Conflict.
Thank you and God bless you all.