The Wives of the Vietnam Era: What We Learned and What's Different Today

The poet John Milton writing in the 17th century got it right when he said that “They also serve who only stand and wait.” No better description could be written to capture the essence of military families.

Today, as a nation, we have acknowledged that service. We have some, but still not enough understanding and services for those waiting at home. But back during the Vietnam war, when those serving did not represent a true cross-section of America, when the opportunities, especially for the wives back home were very limited, the price our soldiers, and we as a nation paid for that was high.

As we struggle to serve the soldiers and veterans of today's Iraq and Afghanistan era, it’s a history we best heed. A history captured eloquently and powerfully by Andrew Wiest in Charlie Company's Journey Home: The Forgotten Impact on the Wives of Vietnam Veterans.

My conversation with Andrew Wiest:

The Vietnam War and Why It Still Matters

For those us that were alive and aware in the 60’s and 70’s there was no greater division than Vietnam. Perhaps, other than the Civil War it was America's greatest division. Isn’t it ironic then that for the past several nights, after folks have been watching Maddow or Hannity, reading Drudge or the New York Times, that we have come together in the unity of watching Ken Burns and Lynn Novick’s The Vietnam War

When Burns and Novick set out on this project, they might of had a sense, but certainly could not have know exactly how divided we would become today. And yet his Vietnam documentary might be a kind of shock therapy, as it takes us back to the events that once before, tore us apart.

Thousands of worlds have been written about The Vietnam War, but some of the most profound and wise have come from Alyssa Rosenberg at The Washington Post.
She had access to Burns and Novick in the process of his making the film and has interviewed and written extensively on it.

My WhoWhatWhy.org conversation with Alyssa Rosenberg: