Opinion : A perspective on Vietnam from someone almost as old as the war

I only have one personal Vietnam story. It's about my dad's cousin, Mike.

As a kid, I only met Mike once, and was in awe of him. He had been to this mythically awful place and come back with an injured knee. I remember him using a cane or crutch. He seemed so tall.

I was born in 1965, when Vietnam was still early in its phase as an actual war. The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution had been passed the previous summer, as my parents planned their wedding. My dad was not eligible for the draft; he had very poor vision in his left eye. My parents were still announcing my pending arrival in the spring of 1965, when the first U.S. ground forces went to Vietnam.

When President Lyndon Johnson made the decision to send in the first Marines, 80 percent of Americans supported military involvement in Vietnam. Four out of five adults thought it was a good idea. Those of you old enough to remember Vietnam -- about 20 percent or less of all of us -- remember how quickly that 80 percent decreased.

But for most Americans, all we know, and feel, about Vietnam, we get from what we read.

Knowing all we know now, I do not believe that 80 percent of us would say our military action in Vietnam was a good idea. I still do not really know how I would have felt about the war, had I been old enough to understand it. Probably, I would have been among the 80 percent.

I think there are some lessons that Vietnam can teach us, if we pay attention.

My favorite columnist, Mike Royko, at the end of Vietnam, wrote that he hoped that in the future, before sending Americans off to fight and die, our leaders would think it through and very clearly explain where our soldiers are being sent, and why. I would add: Tell the people what the military mission is and is not, and why America should give war a chance. And before going to war, please make sure there is not a better way to accomplish our national goals.

Another lesson: Understand that at times, modern warfare has come to mean that young men are asked to go places and fight under a set of very strict rules, even though their enemies do not follow those rules. We cringe every time we see a soldier on trial for a mistake he made, but I think we need to understand more just how much we have been asking of those who wear our nation's uniforms and pull our nation's triggers.

The last time I saw Mike, he was a grandfather of a U.S. soldier; his granddaughter joined the Army. He didn't seem so tall. I asked him how his knee was. He laughed and asked which one. Turns out he had more trouble with the knee that he hurt in high school than the one that got shot up in Vietnam.

But like the many veterans of that war, he gave up a lot, and received little in return. All of us, owe it to them to spend an evening saying thanks. Find out where to be, and when, on Wednesday, HERE.