Letters to the Editor: I’m conflicted about my Vietnam service. It makes me worry about Iran

To the editor: Given President Trump’s penchant for continually threatening the entire Iranian population, contributing writer Jacques Leslie’s op-ed about a little-known and mostly suppressed American military operation that resulted in the deaths of thousands of Vietnamese civilians could not be more timely (“Almost-forgotten atrocity in Vietnam War holds lessons for the Trump era,” May 27).

As Leslie states, the new Dutch film “Soldiers Bones” documents Operation Speedy Express, which likely resulted in the deaths of 5,000 to 7,000 innocent civilians. According to Leslie, the American military and even mainstream media were complicit in covering up the incident for decades.

From a personal standpoint, I have always been conflicted about my own service in Vietnam. On one hand, I am proud that as an innocent 22-year-old, I willingly answered my country’s call to duty for what I was told was the noble cause of stopping the worldwide spread of communism. It was only after I returned home in 1968 did I quickly come to realize that America’s involvement in Vietnam was based upon lies, half-truths and false assumptions, and resulted in the needless loss of more than 58,000 American lives.

Trump’s oft-repeated rationale for his current war is to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. However, didn’t he say in the summer of 2025 that his bombing raids “completely obliterated” Iran’s nuclear weapon program at that time? So what is the current threat?

My sincere hope is that Trump’s war in Iran does not escalate into an extended and even deadlier conflict, as did America’s previous voluntary excursions into Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. And I hope that the young Americans currently serving in our military will not be haunted for decades by their unnecessary involvement in another ill-advised war.

Gary Vogt, Menifee, Calif.