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OPEN LETTER TO ANTI-WAR
PROTESTERS
As a Prisoner Of War in North Vietnam for over seven years, I
had to not only resist the efforts of the Communists to exploit me for military
information and for propaganda, but also keep faith in our mission in South
Vietnam in the face of near constant communist propaganda, the most effective of
which was actually drawn from our own media . We heard the details of every
anti-war riot and demonstration, every anti-war statement by opportunistic
politicians and Hollywood celebrities--the same statements we were taking
torture to not make.
In spite of that depressing input--or perhaps because of
it--each passing day my convictions were strengthened that we were right to be
there and that our cause was just. Experiencing Communism up-close-and-personal
allowed me to know it as the evil it is; an ideology and political system based
upon lies, slander, and deceit--not to mention the tens of thousands of lives
terminated in North Vietnam alone just to impose it. I realized the people on
the outside of the prison walls there in downtown Hanoi were no better off than
I was on the inside.
The Communist officers and interrogators doted on the
anti-war news from America, and considered the anti-war protesters as their
allies, hence Jane Fonda's queenly reception there. They would often say to us,
"Even if we are not able to win this war in the jungles of the South, we will
win it in the streets of America." Ironically, that was the only truth they ever
spoke.
This hoped for victory on the propaganda front contributed
significantly to the tenacity and longevity of their military effort in South
Vietnam, even in the face of horrendous defeats--most notably the 1968 "Tet
Offensive" which was hastily hailed by our media as a watershed victory for the
Communists. The longer war resulted in more casualties on both sides, no matter
the outcome. This strategy was validated in the post-war memoirs of North
Vietnam's highest leaders.
Fast forward to Iraq and the present. We are again fighting
an evil, despotic regime based upon lies, slander and deceit, and which also
owes it's survival to the elimination of tens of thousands of lives. But in this
case, the justness of our cause is even more clear. International terrorists--Al
Qaeda or otherwise--have been standing in line for a Saddam Hussein produced
chemical or biological WMD for use against more innocent Americans; an attack
that would be devoid of Saddam's fingerprints. So much for "containment". Every
day that Saddam Hussein has been allowed to remain in power has been another day
this could actually happen. And again--as futile as in this case it may
be--Saddam and his War Council are depending upon the anti-war movement in
America and around the world for their salvation. After his interview with Dan
Rather, Saddam expressed to Rather his deep interest in the effectiveness of the
American anti-war movement. Even while losing, you can be sure he will fight
harder and more tenaciously to prolong the war unit his own propaganda and his
"allies" in the streets of the world can have their effect.
So all you protesters out there, whatever your individual or
collective motivation, I have no problem with your right to protest peacefully,
thereby not diverting law enforcement from the more critical priority of real
security. But just keep one thing foremost in your mind. Regardless of your
naive pronouncements about wanting to "save the lives of innocent Iraqis and to
bring American soldiers home", just as in Vietnam, you are encouraging our enemy
to fight harder and longer, and more people will die. Get it? MORE PEOPLE WILL
DIE!
Our strategy in the earlier gulf war--"Desert Storm" and our
projected strategy for this war--"Iraqi Freedom"--proves our political and
military leaders learned "the lessons of Vietnam". It's just a shame that you
didn't.
Gerald Coffee, Captain, US Navy (Ret.)
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