Show 4 $ ’I f - : V- -' - November 15 1972 Pag 5 Reprinted from SF Chronicle Hoping Against by Herb Caen KMMMMMMMMMWNMMMMMMMMtMIMWMWMMMMMMMWWMIMMWMMWMM Editor note: The following column Is reprinted from the San Francisco Chronicle with permission of Herb Caen AFTER ALL these years of despair Is It really almost over? Walk down the street and talk to the people and you get the same reaction ranging from cynicism to apathy “Politics' sneers the neat newsvendor at Fifth and Mission “An election gimmick ventures the bootblack up the block “ltll go on and on like the predicts a Thirty Year War doctor “From a business standpoint’’ chips In an Oakland businessman “not too bad a war ' 1 i It has been part of our lives for so long now You wake up in the morning feeling pretty good for a change and look out the window at the glorious city on a beautiful day — and a few seconds later something starts gnawing at you again some grim and shapeless thought that removes the joy and darkens the sunlight Of course: the goddam war There are children 10 years old who’ve lived with it all their lives There are young men who were 10 when it started and who died in places that aren’t listed on map to this day “The awful geography lesson” as Hans Kaltenbom once called it Tonkin more than half the time in this Gulf Cam Ranh Bay Long Binh losers war Ben Sue My Lai — oh especially HoChlMlnh My Lai — Names that rose out of that dark - starred land to burn like napalm But like Vimy Millions of lives billions of without Ridge Kasserine Pass Pusan dollars misery and the other bloody lessons they measure all this obscene spilling will be forgotten of blood and guts to turn the clock back to Geneva In lt54 to keep American chicken Ho Chi Mlnh from getting elected President of a unified Vietnam Peace at last? Well maybe That part worked Vietnam will that’s asking too much here near eventually get someone less the end of the war nobody civilized and Intelligent than Ho declared few wanted and hardly that Is our great contribution TfiifTnemorles that tear and anybody understood but a cease fire is better than nothing claw: Mr Nixon suggesting we Besides “peace” is a tainted send nuclear weapons to the word probably Communist-inspire- d French at Dlenblenphu Mendes-Franc- e We who marched for vowing to end the In peace as far back as 1965 were dochlna War In 39 days If elected reviled as reds and traitors and (and apologizing becauselt took spat upon We who wore the a little longer) the Green Berets peace symbol and gave the "V” the wild man with the Pedemales sign got the middle finger in accent who called us “Nervous return from the 100 Per Centers Nellies’’ An American Flag decal on Save face your possibly American car meant “I support the war and hate hippies” People who have We learned a lot we who are never been closer to combat than fortunate enough to survive this a pro football game sported nightmare trip through Insanity bumper stickers describing the Fair The United States suddenly peace symbol as “The Footprint became Oriental and had to of the American Chicken” — the “save face” Dean Rusk became peace symbol worn on the helmet more inscrutable (and inof grunts in action Black grunts tolerable) day by day eyes slanting and cold McGeorge Bundy Walt Rostow Schlesinger — if history is fair and just one shivers at the fate awaiting them Anybody who wasn’t a “Nervous Nellie” had to be crazy or drunk but prefereably the latter inevitably the former didn’t shout loudly enough Those who supported it were the good Germans in an experience that will receive history’s harshest judgement Many of those who went to fight especially those who were out on the point — were the poor the black the friendless not too many of the young men of rich and powerful families ended face down in a rice paddy Around Pacific Heights dinner tables hawks who flew desks in World War II drew expansively on their smuggled Havanas and said “Hanoi should be nuked out of existence” About the tortured Vietnamese people they turned into Colonel Blimps substituting “gooks” for “wogs” The new imperialists a century late — Tonkin Gulf any and degradation was depredation to prove our permissible the we committed credibility incredible The night air was filled with the roar of planes whose missions we learned about months later if at all Troop ships slipped in and out of port in dead of night as if the United States was ashamed The CIA’s After secret armies Air America heroin deals with tinpot dictators Ending the strangest war the war to “contain communism’’ as the President flew off smiling to the capitals of communism A New Imperialist It may be ending but the scars war without songs without are deep enough to outlast this heroes without troops marching generation On the most trivial off to glory or marching home to local level the old freindships the kisses of pretty girls and the that were scuttled over Vietnam cheers of the patriotic multitude A war that nobody won and are legion “No amnesty!” cries we were all the President but everybody lost Only one haundraft dodgers all guilty Those ting question remains: have we who spoke out against the war learned anything? mmmmEBmvrn ‘I i n 'C 2 (I n rj fJ & f2 G 1 0 V o 5® 53 SEATS STILL AVAILABLE o Rosfo’iiflod Vision Soate — $250 Avoilobb $300 Ssato-SWIj: v p -- ?£ 'V?' ' 'I’g fJ t-- 'tvs |