This week the United States is marking the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War in 1975.

That war had a great, indelible impact on my life, an impact which endures even until today, as every now and then I learn about more Belizeans who went to Vietnam when they were my age and while I was the beneficiary of a scholarship from a prestigious American university between 1965 and 1968.

As fate would have it, I went to America in August of 1965, which was around the same time that the United States had begun to escalate its war effort in Vietnam. 

At the school I attended in New Hampshire, as indeed throughout the world of American universities, American students were doing everything they could in order to avoid the compulsory military draft. American students were aware of the deadly physical and psychological dangers of the war, so they ran away to Canada, did everything to get into graduate school (which protected you from the draft), or sought to be excused from the draft on medical grounds, as Donald Trump did.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military was searching for bodies to train and send to the war. This situation created opportunities for poor young Belizeans who managed to reach the U.S. by different means.

In my single room at Dartmouth on the second floor of Bissell Hall, although I felt under various kinds of pressure, that pressure was nothing compared to what was happening to Belizeans who fought in ‘Nam. The list has never been compiled or published. Belizeans I heard of who were killed in ‘Nam include one Nelson Neal in 1967 and Lino Dillett in the early 1970s. An American military funeral was held for Dillett in Belize City, the only such burial I know about. A Brooklyn friend of mine, Ronald Sainsbury, was shot in ‘Nam, but survived. Howard Tillett, younger brother of Steve “Boot” Tillett, was shot and incapacitated for life. Some other Belizeans I know, or have heard of, who survived include Michael Gill, Gerald Patten, Eugene Jex, and Horace Stuart. Harvard graduate Dennis Young served briefly in ‘Nam, but not in the combat zones.

Knowing that Belizeans my age were in such terrible danger and faced their crises with courage, gave me incentive to withstand my personal challenges in UBAD, which were trifling compared to what my Belizean brothers had to deal with in Southeast Asia.  

Between 1965 and 1975, there was a huge uprising amongst young Americans of European ancestry, who were afraid of being sent to Vietnam. The situation became so violent that the American National Guard shot and killed four Kent State students, in 1970 I think. The United States was very divided during that period, and sometimes seemed to be on the verge of fracturing.

   In ending this brief column, I give maximum respect to Kenny Morgan and his recent publication. I was fortunate enough to hear Morgan recite on KREM Radio a poem he wrote about Belizeans who opt to fight for America, but are unwilling to fight for Belize.

I think Kenny was a little harsh on those of our people who decide to join the American military, because the benefits in America are so huge if you are fortunate enough to survive. By the same token, the poem underlines how patriotic Kenny Morgan has been his entire life. The brother is a gem. Big respect. 

Postscript:

   Production-wise, last week was an unusual week at this newspaper because of the Thursday holiday. One of the casualties of the unusual production cycle was a column I had written about Belizeans who fought in the Vietnam War, last week marking the fiftieth anniversary of the end of that war in 1975.

I was quite disappointed at the column’s absence, of course, but at some point afterwards realized that I had messed up and left out the name of probably the first Belizean who achieved battleground fame in that war. His name was Vernon Alcoser, and in Belize he had been a sailing and fishing protege of my Uncle Buck. Hence, Vernon was someone I knew well and with whom I was friendly.

Vernon served two tours in that war, and was badly wounded during one of those tours. He was shot in the lower abdomen, and told me that in the trauma of the moment he feared that the injury had been to his private parts. Fortunately, it was not, and right there on the battlefield, he packed the wound himself with morphine from his battle equipment.

Vernon died in his middle fifties after joining the New York City Police Department after his Vietnam tours.

 There was a Belizean named Clare who was killed in Vietnam, but I’m not sure of his first name.

Another Belizean we used to call “Lou Rawls” also fought in the Vietnam War. 

To digress a bit, I think “Bato” Perdomo, a younger brother of Travellers’ founder Omario Perdomo, may have fought in the Korean War in the early 1950s.

The Amandala columnist known as “Smokey Joe” (the late Selvin Wade) told me that he had served in the U.S. military in Germany at the end of World War II in 1945. A contingent of young Belizeans, including C. L. B. Rogers and Maclovio Scott (my father-in-law), had left British Honduras in 1944 to work in the forests of Georgia or some other Southern state. Remember, in World War II fighter planes were still being made of wood.

And finally, to digress even more, I note that the new Canadian prime minister, one Carney, is expected to meet with U.S. president Donald Trump in Washington soon. The meeting is not expected to be totally cordial, since Trump has been claiming Canada as America’s 51st state.

One interesting historical aspect of the relationship between Canada and the United States is that there were Native Americans, like the Nez Perce under Chief Joseph and elements of the Sioux under Sitting Bull, who took refuge in Canada in the nineteenth century from the U.S. Army. The U.S. had declared its independence from Great Britain in 1776, assisted by the French, while the British had remained in control of most of Canada except for areas where the French ruled.

This is not a history with which I am well acquainted, but the world is becoming so small, it seems sometimes that everything today is related to something yesterday.  

Postscript to a postscript:

By this past weekend, I realized I had forgotten another well-known Belizean who had fought in the Vietnam War. That is Sergeant First Class Mike Bouloy, who returned to Belize to live after the war and died a few years ago. 

Mike was featured in the September 1979 issue of Fun & Games, a magazine published for six months in 1979 by Amandala Press. 

(AMANDALA Ed. Note: Our sincere apologies to Evan X Hyde and to readers for Friday’s second major “slip down” in our failure to print the Publisher’s column, which was received very early in our news cycle on Wednesday, April 30, his birthday, at that. Unpardonable! The fault is at this desk, and our pledge is: there will not be a strike three. That column is printed above, followed by his “Postscript”, which we received yesterday morning, May 4, and a second “postscript” this morning, May 5. Peace!)