War in the 21st century has become a pushbutton business of delivering remote-control death and destruction via missiles and drones, but not so long ago, real flesh-and-blood troops on the ground carried out the brutal dirty work of foreign policy, and among them are those who are dedicated to telling the stories of face-to-face combat.
The Vietnam Veterans of America are the graying vanguard of ensuring that one of America’s most grueling and polarizing armed conflicts and those who sacrificed in the service of the nation are not forgotten.
Members of the organization venture into classrooms to relate their personal odysseys and reflections of the Vietnam War to a generation of students more than a half-century removed from their own school days.
Bill Dixon is the education chairman of VVA Chapter 787 in Riverview, and he said the lessons he presents to students balance the misinformation that has dominated the narrative about America’s involvement in Southeast Asia.
“Most of the history the American people know about the Vietnam Conflict, and the men and women who were there is wrong,” he wrote in an email.
Dixon, who served a yearlong tour of duty in Vietnam from June of 1967, cites media inaccuracies from the Gulf of Tonkin episode that greatly escalated America’s involvement to the chopper-choked evacuation of Saigon that finally ended it. Dixon added that it is also an effort to acknowledge the sacrifices of the men and women behind the 58,281 names etched in the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall.
“Vietnam Veterans of America, Chapter 787, Tampa feels that we owe it to those whose names are on The Wall in D.C., to those who have died from their Vietnam service since they came home and to all surviving veterans of the Vietnam Era as well as the American Citizens to tell the real, honest story of our conflict,” Dixon said.
He has spoken to about 700 high school students in the past year and hopes the program will grow beyond classrooms.
Speakers from VVA can help teachers meet Florida education benchmark requirements about the history and consequences of the Vietnam War and relate to the legislated mandates to teach about the grim perils of communism, which include required in-class observance of Victims of Communism Day each November 7.
To learn more about the local Vietnam Veterans of America activities, you can visit https://vva787.org/.
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