Propping Up The Dominoes

We were wide-eyed and trusting as we pledged allegiance every day. We placed our faith and our trust in our young new president. Our country would do the right thing and protect us and the world from all that was ugly and evil. President Kennedy began his first term in office with a covert operation against the Cubans, and it ended badly, an embarrassing incident that had no chance of succeeding. Here in December of 1961, Fidel Castro would declare himself a Marxist-Leninist, and Cuba would join the Communist world of nations, just 90 miles from our shore. Maybe now that the pretense was over, the tension between our countries would ease up a bit and we could forget about Cuba for a while.
Another part of the world was creeping into the news more and more, and our involvement there was growing. President Kennedy was determined to support the government of South Vietnam, however illegitimate it may have been. The Communists were growing stronger, and American military aid and "advisors" were heading over there in increasing numbers. Vietnam was a world unknown to us. They looked Chinese, but their language was different, and a lot of them spoke French, a legacy from their former occupiers. The Vietnamese were tough; they fought the Japanese in World War II and then they defeated the French, and now the Communists in the north were giving the South Vietnamese and us a very difficult time. For many years now we were just giving aid and advice to South Vietnam, but here in December it became a war for us. Troops and helicopters were going in to conduct combat operations as an independent American army.
It was another war against the spread of Communism. We were told that Southeast Asia was a row of dominoes waiting to be toppled over by the hand of the Communists, and we would be the ones to stop them. It was a war we did not understand. It was a war that would test our patriotism and our faith in government, and we'd watch it all on TV.
We had faith in our army and we were convinced we'd win the war easily.
Here in 1961 it was just beginning, and I and every other American boy never imagined that eventually we'd have to wonder, "will it take me?"
Vietnam would enter our homes and add new words and phrases to the national vocabulary, and put pictures in our minds we wished we never had to see.
Charlie
Saigon
VC
Huey
Click
M-16
DaNang
Mekong
Firebase
Haiphong
ARVN
Napalm
Hanoi Hilton
Goodyear Sandals
Hue
Black Pajamas
Khe Sanh
Green Berets
Diem
Tet
Body Bags....