John Ketwig and I had Mexican lunches.

A Mexican Lunch and Talk of Vietnam

I shared lunch today in a little Mexican bistro in Bedford with author John Ketwig and it was the first time in a while that I got to talk fully about my war feelings and have somebody I respect agree with me.

John is the celebrated author of the Vietnam anti-war memoir " ... and a hard rain fell." That was nearly 35 years ago when he was near 40. The process, he said today, was "like vomiting." I can only imagine. John, at the time, was training for Toyota Motors and had no experience as a writer. This book just emerged, raw, tough, full of memorable images and inarguable truths.

His newest is "Vietnam Reconsidered: The War, the Times and Why They Matter." Author Ron Kovic ("Born on the Fourth of July and a friend of John's) says the book is "a thoughtful, timely and beautifully written book that every American should read if they are to ever learn ..." It is a book--despite the title--about "a woman's recovery from trauma after her son is killed in Iraq and then her husband is murdered at the boy's funeral." The gun violence throughout the book triggers an anti-gun message. 

Ron, like so few who have served in the military, understands the nature of war, that it is about making money for a few people and either talking virtual children into fighting "for their country" or drafting the unwilling to fight wars that benefit the 1 percent. Vietnam was about drugs, Iraq about oil, Afghanistan about paying Blackwater $300 for a gallon of gas for the military and having mercenaries fight our war--again for money.

Vietnam was not the first unpopular in American history (all but WWII were unpopular eventually), but it was the one when the kids who were to fight it finally said--emphatically, "Hell, no, we won't go." And many didn't. Some, like me, were fortunate enough to be in school, or to have a football knee, or to have bone spurs or a dad who was in the Senate. The poor kids with no voice went and were killed, until they decided not to go any longer and their moms backed them. When the mothers got involved the war stopped.

Both of John's books are non-fiction, but he has now embarked upon his first novel ... about Vietnam. My guess is it will be as good as its predecessors and will give him a little more room to tell the real truth, as novels tend to do.

John and I talked and re-confirmed each other. I felt better upon leaving and will want to do it again soon. It was cleansing.