Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, September 17, 1993 TAG: 9309170137
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAVID REED ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: HAMPDEN-SYDNEY LENGTH: Medium
A Hampden-Sydney College student asked Walt Rostow: Why were youths of the previous generation sent to the jungles of Vietnam in the first place?
"We were in Vietnam because a treaty called for our being in Vietnam if it was attacked by Communists, and it was," Rostow told several hundred students and veterans of the war.
Later in the symposium, correspondents Neil Sheehan, Peter Arnett, Morley Safer and Stanley Karnow will explain how that simple answer became complicated and eventually divided the nation.
Soldiers, including movie director Oliver Stone, will talk about what it was like to fight while reading about war protests at home. Former Sens. Eugene McCarthy and George McGovern will explain the efforts to bring troops home 20 years ago.
"It is our hope . . . we have reached the plateau in history where we can, with detachment and a non-emotional manner, learn from our collective experience," said Hampden-Sydney President Samuel Wilson, a veteran of the war.
"The story of 1969 to '75 is painful, and it's not yet sorted out," Rostow said.
But it's important for today's college students to learn about the Vietnam War because the balance of power in Southeast Asia could be threatened in the coming years by China and India, he said.
"The question of war and peace very much hinges on these two countries," Rostow said. "We can't afford any more wars, when everybody and his brother has nuclear weapons."
In addition to challenging the belief of many that troops should never have been sent to Vietnam, Rostow rebutted the assumption that America lost the war.
"Those who fought in Southeast Asia those 10 years . . . did not die in vain," Rostow said. "Among other reasons, that's why I'm here."
Rostow said holding back the expanse of communism in Southeast Asia for 10 years allowed the peaceful and democratic development of other countries in the region.
A Vietnam veteran asked Rostow what would have happened if the United States had not got involved.
With the backing of the Chinese, Rostow speculated, communists would have gone into Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.
Then, a "much bigger war" involving U.S. troops would have broken out, "perhaps with the use of nuclear weapons," Rostow said.
Rostow and former CIA Director William Colby, who spoke Thursday night, both asserted that the anti-war movement in the United States did not cause the troops to be removed from Vietnam.
Citizens who supported the war effort began to get disenchanted after the Tet offensive by the North Vietnamese in 1968, and that was the beginning of the end, they said.
"The anti-war movement did not cause our defeat in Vietnam," Colby said.
Rostow and Colby also agreed on the primary legacy of the Vietnam War and how it affected the Persian Gulf War in 1989: The United States is unwilling to get involved in a limited war with unclear objectives. In the Persian Gulf War, the military had a clear objective and the support of the public when it struck hard and got out quickly.
by CNB