A Delayed Reaction to ‘The Fog of War’

As a Vietnam veteran, profoundly affected by by the movie, “Platoon,” I read Charles Krauthammer’s article (Editorial Pages, Feb. 22), “The Fog of War . . .,” with more than passing interest. My initial reaction was positive. Here’s some balance, I thought, a perspective counter to my emotional reaction.

The fact that I’m writing this at 3 a.m. the Monday following my reading is an indication of the strength of my delayed reaction. The major flaw in Krauthammer’s analysis is his neglect of the fact that in Vietnam the “Fog of War” was as strategic as it was tactical. It was not confined to the grunts hassling in the jungle. It was evident that this fog extended to the highest echelons of command, not just in Da Nang and Saigon but in Washington as well.

We just didn’t know what the hell was going on. That’s how I felt then, April 1967-May 1968, and that’s the best way to describe how I feel now. We at the lowest levels, at the platoon, knew with absolute certainty we didn’t know what we were doing. I mean, a war in which battlefield “success” is measured in “body counts,” come on! That’s not mad? That’s not absurd?

Have we forgotten the 1968 Tet offensive when the enemy “we had on the run,” remember we had begun to see “the light at the end of the tunnel,” kicked our ass from the DMZ to Saigon! And the most telling fact, in 1975, those we went to stop, won. I can’t speak for the battles at Agincourt or Waterloo, but I know that I knew, and not in retrospect, that Vietnam was a complete waste of everything--time, money, and especially, lives.

As I thought on, however, the really terrifying message from “The Fog” is how quickly we forget. It’s been less than 12 years since 1975, but here’s someone saying, “look at the context.” The old saw still cuts true, those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it. Vietnam was different, and it was wrong. If we neglect the fact, and seek to justify it by seeking to “place it in context,” my God are we going to allow ourselves to repeat it? My suggestion to Krauthammer, you put “Platoon” “in context” and watch it again. Vietnam was mad and absurd. No more Vietnams.

MICHAEL R. MILLER

Mission Hills