Poetry, Part Seven

During the Vietnam War, there were far fewer set-piece battles between U.S. forces and Viet Cong/North Vietnamese forces. Khe Sanh was an exception. Lyndon Johnson did not want that battle to be another Dien Bien Phu, the battle where encircled and trapped French forces were forced to surrender after several months of losses. That battle was the final, significant action before the French were forced to recognize Ho Chi Minh's victory and leave Vietnam. We Americans essentially took over the war after that through the southern half of a now-divided country.

In a way Khe Sanh did become another Dien Bien Phu because that battle was the major diversion that the northern forces used to keep American forces from realizing that the Tet Offensive was about to explode throughout the whole of South Vietnam. While the northern forces were decimated by these almost-suicidal attacks against American positions and bases throughout South Vietnam during Tet, the American public felt that the war, if the enemy could mount such wide-spread attacks, could not be won. That the public had been lied to about the potential for victory in Vietnam all along.

The publicity battle for the hearts and minds of the American people, as a whole, was now lost.

Khe Sanh, In Defense

They did not flee.
The stars could not be reached.
The continents were occupied.
The homeland was controlled.

But alien explorers, excavating,
will generalize their fate,
and unfairly judge--
as foreigners always do.

When the results are released,
the galaxy will carry the globe reluctantly,
constellations may shift away,
and comets will shower it with spittle.

The planet is the naked outcast
when all of its defenses are crushed, or dead.

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