The old American warriors return to Vietnam to request forgiveness

Half a century after the end of the war in Vietnam, a group of American warriors spent two weeks on a journey through Vietnam on the bus.

They were previously soldiers, and now they were looking for forgiveness for them, and they started visiting them with a tour of the role of orphans and graves in which their former enemies were buried, they spoke with the veterans of Vietnamese warriors, praised the South China Sea, and they talked about what Vietnam did to them and what they did with them.

The tragedy of the Vietnam War

This year coincides with the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, which was between 1955 and 1975, when about 58,000 American soldiers died, along with what was estimated at two million Vietnamese, the Communist North fought against the capitalist south, a proxy war, where the great powers were placed in that era in the face of some of them: the Soviet Union and China on the one hand, and the United States on the other hand.

It was a war that attracted an entire generation even in the countries that were not involved. And with a torn skin, following an attack with “Nabalm” bombs.

The defeat of America

The Vietnam War is the first war lost by the United States, as Segon fell on April 30, 1975, and the south and north united under a communist government, defeated a poor country the strongest military power in the world, and the United States made everything in its power to win the war.

The Americans dropped bombs during the Vietnam War more than they brought down during the entire World War, and used a weapon that has been chasing the region for many years after the defender was silent, herbal pesticides not only stripped trees from their papers, but also poisoned the residents in Southeast Asia, as well as the poisoning of American soldiers themselves.

The “orange factor” is the most famous tree leaves, which led to a high rate of cancer, as women suffered from a dead fetus, or their children were disabilities, and some of them with six fingers in one of his hands.

The Vietnam war changed the world’s view of the United States, and America’s view of itself, thus changing a nation that was convinced of its infallibility.

The veterans of that war were not the first generation of Americans who fought the war, but they were the first to ask whether it was true.

Soldier pain

For this reason, the former American soldier, Craig Edgerton, and others returned to Vietnam, where Edgerton covered his face in his hands and cried.

The last time he visited Vietnam, he was a heavily armed young man, and today 55 years after his return from the forest became an old man.

Memories flow on his mind, from sand bags to hideouts, upper table peaks, and hearing artillery roar escalates in the air, while the lights flash in the sky.

Edgerton was one of about 2.7 million American soldiers sent by the United States to Vietnam, and as an asset led six Hautezer defender, although he had not released any of them himself, he says.

He was sitting in the hideout and headphones on his ears, and issuing orders such as: one cannon shot .. Four cannon fired.

He says: «We never knew what we were shooting, we were pressing only on the trigger, and today I think: Oh my God, how much did you kill? How many soldiers were killed? How many civilians were killed?

“If the Vietnamese forgives me, does this mean that I will forgive myself? … I want to forgive myself, but it is difficult,” Edgerton added.

He continued, “Before I went to war, I held a party with my friends, and I said if I go back, it would be a savior of the world, or so I think.”

Seven months later, he returned to Texas, but he found himself confused, as it was in 1969, and the United States had just learned of the “My Lay” massacre, during which it was slaughtered by the American forces of the entire village.

The late boxer Muhammad Ali Clay had refused the compulsory recruitment, saying: “The true enemy of my people is here” and not in Vietnam, and for the liberals in the United States, he was a fatal Edgarit, while for the conservatives it was losing.

A difficult visit

According to 17 people, including eight of the Vietnam warriors, and members of their families and others, Edgeron arrived in Vietnam.

On this difficult visit, organized by the “Architects of Peace” organization, the Americans spent two weeks around the country, from Hanoi to the north to the city of Ho Hui from it in the south, through the latitude 17, which was dividing Vietnam into two separate states.

In Hanoi, the bus, full of Americans, crosses the red river flowing across the city, and among the passengers a steel worker from Auckland, arrived in Vietnam before most of the soldiers to create the infrastructure needed for operations, including barracks, fuel tanks and barns.

They also have a former ammunition expert from New York City, and a pedestrian soldier from San Jose, who saw his companion being killed by a hostile sniper.

Edgerton came here with his wife, and says that for many years he did not want to admit what he did in Vietnam, and that at that time he was excited to go to war. On the German “Dershbig”

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Return to the theater of death

It is a crazy idea to return to the place where I saw death, but Chuck Sercy, a 80 -year -old man, wears a straw hat and a jacket a little more than him, believes this is the best decision that ancient American warriors can make.

Sercy also served in Vietnam, but he had never been sent to the fighting, just like many Americans stationed there, was based in Sigon, and after nearly 30 years he installed a plane returning to Vietnam, because he wanted to know how the country appeared in times of peace .. It is a crazy idea.

Sercy was afraid of his life in Vietnam, but today he finds the idea of ​​death here enjoyable, and he says: “When I returned to the homeland I was angry and confused.

He soon realized that by doing his role in reforming the relations between the United States and Vietnam, he was also correcting himself, this is the idea behind this trip: “Whoever tests the new Vietnam will find it easier for him to forget the old Vietnam, and who helps in healing the wounds of the war will heal his wounds as well.”

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“My Lay’s massacre”

Vietnamese remembers how the American army killed her mother and daughter in “My Lay”. Archive

Early on March 16, 1968, a secret from the American squad soldiers was landed by a helicopter to launch an attack on a village known as “My Lay4”, in the strongly disputed Quang Nagai Province on the northeastern coast of South Vietnam, and 100 soldiers and village officers stormed in a traditional military style, advanced in factions, and the forces expected to engage with the 48th battalion of the local Ficoling Local force, One of the most successful units of the enemy, but instead they found women, children and elderly, many of whom are still cooked breakfast rice on outdoor fire.

During the next few hours, civilians were eliminated, many were collected in small groups and shooting them, and others were thrown into a drainage on one of the outskirts of the village, and many were fired randomly in their homes or near them, and some women and young girls were raped and then killed.

After the shootings, American soldiers burned all the houses systematically, destroyed livestock and food, and spoiled the water supply in the region.

The secrecy was not officially informed of its workplace headquarters in any of this, but rather claimed that 128 Vietcong kill them and the seizure of three weapons, and there the news was transferred to the international press as a brilliant victory.

The case remained until a former soldier wrote letters to the US Department of Defense, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the White House, and 24 members of Congress, describing the murders in the “May Lay4”, and within four months the army’s investigations revealed the details of this terrible crime.

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The story of “Nabalm Girl”

Photographer Nick Ott and the girl Van Thi Kim Fook. Archive

The horrific image of children fleeing the deadly “Nabalm” attack has become a distinctive image not only for the Vietnam War, but also for the 20th century, as black smoke is escalating behind them, and they are drawn on their faces of horror, pain and confusion, and soldiers from the 25th Division of the South Vietnam are followed by a confusion of their affairs.

The image was taken outside the village of Trang Bang, on the eighth of June 1972, and the trauma and random violence that accompanied a conflict that killed one or more million civilians, according to some estimates.

Although the image is titled “Horror of War”, it is more known as the “Nabalm Girl”, which was called the nine -year -old naked girl, who has severe burns in the middle of the picture.

The girl, who was later known as Van Thi Kim Fook, survived her injuries, thanks to this partly to the Associated Press photographer, Nick Ott, who helped the children after taking that picture that became a symbol.

After 50 years of that fateful day, the photographer and the girl are still in constant communication, and they use their story to spread a message of peace, and Fook, who is now residing in Toronto, says: “I will never forget that moment.”

The village of Trang Bang, less than 30 miles northwest of Saigon (the city of Ho Chi is currently from), was occupied by the communist forces from the north of the country, and according to a report published by the New York Times at that time, the South Vietnam Army spent three days in an attempt to expel them and reopen the nearby highway, and in that morning the Southern Air Force sent “Sky Ryder” aircraft to throw “Nabalm” Bombs caused extreme burns and stuck to the targets. Fook and her family had to take shelter with other civilians and southern Vietnamese soldiers in a Buddhist temple, and upon hearing their army planes flying in the sky, the soldiers urged everyone to flee for fear of an attack.

“I turned and saw the planes, and I saw four bombs landing, then suddenly the fire caught everywhere, and my clothes were burned … at that moment I saw no one around me except the fire.”

. The Americans dropped bombs during the Vietnam war more than they brought down in the entire World War.