Letter from Vietnam

The other day I was thinking about something Eldridge Cleaver said in one of his speeches. You’re either part of the problem, or you’re part of the solution. I knew there was something wrong with that statement, although not being a thinker of his cosmic proportions I couldn’t put my finger on it right away. Then I got to thinking of an incident that happened while I was in Vietnam and it occurred to me it might have some bearing on what Cleaver had said and I thought you might possibly be interested in it at national review. So I’ve included it for your perusal. —C.C.

We were making a series of amphibious raids along the coast of South Vietnam. Operation Dagger Thrust, the Navy called them. We were billeted on three ships. One of the ships had been in the Iwo Jima invasion in 1945. We were making raids like that. Like World War II. Except it wasn’t World War II.

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Charles Coe

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The other day I was thinking about something Eldridge Cleaver said in one of his speeches. You’re either part of the problem, or you’re part of the solution. I knew there was something wrong with that statement, although not being a thinker of his cosmic proportions I couldn’t put my finger on it right away. Then I got to thinking of an incident that happened while I was in Vietnam and it occurred to me it might have some bearing on what Cleaver had said and I thought you might possibly be interested in it at national review. So I’ve included it for your perusal. —C.C.

We were making a series of amphibious raids along the coast of South Vietnam. Operation Dagger Thrust, the Navy called them. We were billeted on three ships. One of the ships had been in the Iwo Jima invasion in 1945. We were making raids like that. Like World War II. Except it wasn’t World War II.