Well it was yet another conflict which most likely could have been avoided had another path been taken. It was a satellite battle of the cold war, with America not wanting communist influence spreading to that part of the world. We found a friend in South Vietnam and we were determined to make it the supreme authority in the country. It started with advisers and ended with casualties reaching into the thousands and thousands when we finally left the country. I know of family members who served there, and have met others and heard their accounts. Growing up in the last 25 years it seems surreal to have a draft and to be forced to go to war, especially in this so called land of the free. The modern wars are horrible enough but nowhere near the numerical hell of Vietnam.