Daily Press
Ali Rockett
November 14, 2015
While the battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan have been more urban than the jungles and rice paddies of Vietnam, the issue of being able to identify an enemy combatant from civilians remains.
Many Vietnam veterans see similarities between their war and those fought in Iraq and Afghanistan — and the comparison is tragic.
Hugh Bassette served in the Army as a clerk and in theinfantry in 1969-1970 in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam.(Jonathon Gruenke / Daily Press)
Five decades later and still weary from the war that was never officially declared, many of these veterans know all too well how extended fighting, waning public support, and an unrelenting enemy can end.
"We certainly didn't win in Vietnam," said Hugh Bassette, an infantryman during the war in Southeast Asia, "and we're not going to the win in Afghanistan and Iraq, either."
Vietnam was America's longest conflict, spanning 12 years between 1961 and 1973, until our involvement in Afghanistan continued into its 13th year in 2014. There are still nearly 10,000 U.S. services members there advising and training a reluctant home force against the Taliban, a fundamentalist Islamic political movement accused of allowing terror groups such as Al-Qaeda safe haven.
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Great article with the wrong facts. Vietnam is still the longest war in US history. It was almost 20 years long. This is from the Vietnam Memorial Wall PageBut if you ask a Vietnam veteran when he was there, the answer is usually "Last night."
Richard B. Fitzgibbon, of North Weymouth, Mass. is listed by the U.S. Department of Defense as having a casualty date of June 8, 1956.And these were the last
1975 was the year that the last 18 casualties (Daniel A. Benedett, Lynn Blessing, Walter Boyd, Gregory S. Copenhaver, Andres Garcia, Bernard Gause, Jr., Gary L. Hall, Joseph N. Hargrove, James J. Jacques, Ashton N. Loney, Ronald J. Manning, Danny G. Marshall, James R. Maxwell, Richard W. Rivenburgh, Elwood E. Rumbaugh, Antonio Ramos Sandovall, Kelton R. Turner, Richard Vande Geer) occurred on May 15th during the recapture of the freighter MAYAGUEZ and its crew.
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