From: drk@cs.uiuc.edu (David Kohr)
Subject: Re: FOREVER GONE
Organization: University of Illinois, Dept of Comp Sci, Urbana, IL
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 21:55:52 GMT


In article <1glctvINNk2c@gaia.ucs.orst.edu> Monte Olsen
<olsenm@ucs.orst.edu> writes:
>You honestly don't understand the depth of feeling expressed in Larry's
>posts or the history behind it do you?

I honestly don't understand why it is that he is lashing out at those
(including other veterans) whose opinions differ from his own.

>To be honest, I don't think you have the capacity to understand.

My comment above applies to you also.

If you can't keep your posts civil, then don't post at all.

>For some reason you've developed a blind spot, which, in my opinion, is
>not entirely rational.

What "blind spot" is this?  An intolerance of people who leap to false
conclusions and hurl insults upon reading opinions which differ from
theirs?  Seems pretty damn justified to me.

>You feel others who continue trying to bring their missing relatives home
>or to reach some acceptable closure--even after 20 years--are irrational.

Yes.  If after 20 years without a shred of evidence that any GI's are being
held in VN, you can't accept the virtual certainty that a loved one is
dead, then you have a serious psychological problem that goes well beyond
just the loss of your loved one.  In my opinion.

But once again, I will say that that is just my opinion, and that people
are certainly free to feel however they feel about the issue.  This is
fine, so long as this feeling of a small pathological minority doesn't
dominate national policy, as it has in the past.

>But, again, you don't understand their depth of feeling.

Since I regard them as "irrational", I don't think there's much to
"understand", except from a psychiatric point of view perhaps.  But they
are certainly welcome to feel any way they please.  

What I object to is the fact that this "feeling" has been the determining
factor for US policy toward Vietnam for some time now.  I have made these
distinctions (among my opinion about the irrationality of people who can't
let go, their freedom to feel that way, and how this feeling shouldn't
dominate national policy) several times already, but both of you you (Monte
and Larry) seem to be ignoring it.

>It wasn't that long ago a Japanese emerged from the Phillipine jungle,
>decades after WWII and was greeted as a hero in his homeland. Or have you
>conveniently forgotten that? Yet no one saw "a single trace" of him during
>that time.

But were people LOOKING for him for 30 years?  Did Japan base its foreign
policy toward the Philippines on cooperation in finding MIA's?  Was finding
MIA's a national obsession 20 years after the war was over, or did Japanese
veterans concentrate on rebuilding their country?

> Why should Vietnam veterans be any different in you mind? 

They shouldn't be any different.  20 years after the end of the war, they
should be able to accept the fact that their lost comrades are almost
certainly dead, and get on with life, as the Japanese have done.

> Why are you so willing to write them and their experiences off?

In what way am I doing this?  You seem very fond of making accusations
without even trying to justify them.

> You've accused Larry of being "wildly over-emotional." His final
> statement certainly didn't affect me that way. Why are you so defensive
> about what he says?

Let's see: I say I think that the MIA/POW business gets way too much weight
in determining US relations with Vietnam.  I don't say it shouldn't get
any, I don't say I think people should be stopped from searching for MIA's,
I don't say I think the memory of the MIA's should be utterly erased.

In reply, Larry says, in effect, "I hope you burn in Hell" (the St. Peter
bit).

Silly me.  His reply was simple cold logic.  No emotion in there at all.
How could I have misunderstood?
-- 
Dave Kohr     CS Graduate Student     Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Work: 3244 DCL, (217)333-6561  Home: (217)359-9350  E-mail: drk@cs.uiuc.edu
                   "One either has none or not enough."
Newsgroups: alt.war.vietnam