Fighting Men, Then and Now: Part 2

Part 2 of 3
Editor’s note: Captain Donald Hansen served in Army Air Corps and later the Air Force as a B-24 bomber pilot during World War II and Korea, flying more than 150 combat missions. He wrote this piece sometime in 1968 during the peak of the Vietnam war. Captain Hansen died in 2007 at the age of 86.

The most soul-searching problem that I have faced is  to combine Christian heritage and beliefs with the terrible but practical necessities of serving my country in times of war. The Ten Commandments, the Golden Rule, the Beatitudes versus destruction, suffering, death. As clues to the conciliation, may I offer:  the battle of the Israelites in the Old Testament; Jesus, in anger, driving the moneychangers from the temple; and His command “Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s.” All indicating to me a dual nature to man’s existence, i.e. the secular versus spiritual  man.

Believing that our basic pattern of Christian democracy  best allows the development of humanity in this world, it is necessary that we survive to further this development.

We are opposed by an opponent who has the openly acknowledge  aim of “burying us.” We can never have peace with a system which has as a major aim our destruction and which views negotiations as a form of war to further this aim.

Why war in Vietnam? I say why not? The roads, harbors,  airports, buildings, industries, business systems, and political awareness that they are gaining from us compensate to a great extent for the degradation of the war around them.

I warrant that there is an increase in the average life span in South Vietnam, even with the war-caused deaths. [emphasis  added] The alternative, Viet Cong control, considering the Oriental attitude to human life, would bring a bloodbath of spectacular proportions.

“Our boys are dying in Vietnam.” Yes, however I believe  anything worth living for is also worth dying for. To put death somewhat into perspective consider the statistics of highway casualties, the war is hard-pressed to keep up with the carnage of our highways, but yet, there is no great outcry or evident concern  over the toll of maiming and death on our highways.

“It is not our boys’ war, they did not cause it, they do not believe in it.”  I believe it is “their” world, “their” future, that is at stake. It is already too late for us. They have an obligation, a responsibility to support actively the system that nurtures them. The fact of birth does not entitle them to a life of ease and security any more than it did for you  and me. [emphasis added] They are entitled to a reasonable opportunity to define and meet their own goals, no more.

Soviet missiles are shooting down our aircraft. Soviet and Chinese artillery, handguns, grenades, and rockets are killing our troops. In Vietnam we are now facing a combined effort, troops from both the Viet Cong and North Vietnam; financing, advising, and materiel from Russia with substantial assistance from China and other satellite countries. The efforts we have made have been balanced by the combined enemy into a prolonged war of attrition.

Unfortunately the issues are clouded, confused, poorly defined. Our political system with its public trials and purges (at the polls) leaves us with a problem of continuity in national policy and objectives. Newly- elected office holders, in gaining experience, make mistakes. Security needs must be met when disseminating information publicly. The necessity of being re-elected, and party considerations, tend to demagoguery. Thus blurring the efforts of our elected leadership, and blunting their statesmanship.

What can we do but persevere — neither hawk nor dove — meeting each development of pressure throughout the world with all the integrity we possess, maintaining a non-emotional, mature, intelligent response to the position of world leadership to which our internal growth and prosperity has thrust us.