“I lived with this 24 Hours a day, seven days a week for one year fifteen days, eight hours, and ten minutes. I left country hollow, “dead”, and completely depressed. It was an esteem sucking emotional and physical meatgrinder which had no honorable purpose.” Arthur Varanelli. Arthur Varanelli, SP5 BN FDC Tactical Operations Centers, Di An, Lai Khe, Bear Cat, Cu Chi, FSB Gold, FSB Crook 1/7 ARTY, 1st Infantry Division 2/77 ARTY, 25th Infantry Division

By the late 1960’s and early 1970’s the outlook of both the American public and its troops in Vietnam was beginning to change. As one veteran said of the troops, “they believed and they went. They didn’t know any better But they learned otherwise rather quickly. The men who sent them there knew better along” (Rosenberg).

The jungles of Vietnam were brutal. Without going into the gory details it is possible to gain a picture of the situation from the mouth of returning veterans. These testimonies along with the picture of those long dead paint a grim and awesome picture of war.

One veteran Arthur Varanelli relates, “I cannot forget my feelings about how we actually fought the war on the eye to eye combat level. That’s where the action was. You have to realize that the mission of any soldier is to win, and to win by any means” (Varanelli). This testimony speaks volumes about the way that American troops gave their all and many their lives for the cause.

This cause that was embraced by the first combat troops was beginning to wane however. One veteran remembers, “…you could see the support for the war starting to slip. You could get trainees who would do anything to get out of going. They’d come up with the damndest stories like, “I’ve got a bad back.” You know all this kind of stuff to keep from going” (Burke 94).

Another veteran recalls his experience in Vietnam. He says, “there was no sense of winning. No territory was ever gained. The front line was the first strand of concertina wire around your fire support base or the perimeter of your LZ or NP. You were mortared and rocketed from any direction. An assault by sappers could happen at any time. We all knew that the “pacification” campaign was a real joke. Some retarded general decided we should give the local people jobs inside the wire. We really had the “enemy “all around us.” (Varanelli).

“We really felt that we were not supposed to win, with all the conditions and restrictions placed on the conduct of combat” (Varanelli). Another veteran recalls the same sense of restriction in a sobering account of a massacre of U.S. troops on May of 1970. In his opinion the U.S. government was using their own troops as part of a publicity campaign. He relates, “…the highly unusual order was given for everyone to turn-in every weapon into the armory. Rumors were going around that we were going to get “hit.” THAT NIGHT, at 11:35pm, we were! … you can’t imagine the scramble when Charlie hit. They came under the wire, got in, burned some BRAND NEW helicopters which had just “happened” to have been brought in earlier that day, killed at random, and left” (Betrayed). This is crazy. How did things like this happen? In his opinion, which was shared by many at this point in the government was betraying its own troops. He states, “We were ALL set up, Someone in Washington needed casualties in Vietnam that day, and were to be those casualties.”

Arthur Varanelli informs us, “Most of us realized soon after we arrived in country that this was not war that could be won.” The sheer number of the foe that they faces and the unconventional fighting practices also deflated the courage and fighting spirit of the troops. Mr. Varanelli continues, “Stories of children throwing hand grenades into busses, jeeps and trucks, were true. I recall a hand grenade tied to a mess hall tray at the 8/6^th ARTY which blew up at lunch, and blew away a lot of guys. The hand grenade did not get there by itself… I feared the legendary Dong Nai Ladies Mortar Platoon, as did most everyone else.