March 29 is Vietnam War Veterans Day in Idaho and across the nation. It is a time to recognize and appreciate those who served in that ill-fated war. As the day approached, I’d experienced an increasingly ominous feeling about an even more disastrous conflict that is presently developing right before the eyes of the country. We simply can’t afford the catastrophic national security impacts of allowing the country’s most dangerous adversary to win its genocidal war against our Ukrainian allies.

When I came home in August 1969, after serving over a year in the Vietnam War, I felt pride in my service, and for the favorable outcome I thought we had achieved for our South Vietnamese allies. That pride turned to absolute horror when the Communists took over South Vietnam on April 30, 1975. Ever since, it has been a constant source of anger and grief for me and a vast number of Vietnam veterans. The U.S. squandered 58,220 American lives in that war with nothing to show for it. Many thousands of our Vietnamese allies were slaughtered or brutally imprisoned for having sided with us.

I had no problem with the U.S. withdrawing from South Vietnam in 1973, but I fully expected we would honor the solemn promise that President Nixon made to our South Vietnamese allies to continue providing adequate war supplies, as well as massive air support in the event of a full-scale Communist invasion. We flat failed in both regards. Many South Vietnamese units received little or no supplies of ammunition or other war materiel leading up to the fall of the country. We demonstrated to the world that siding with America was an iffy proposition.

It looks as if America is headed into an even more disastrous national security debacle in Ukraine. Unless we immediately provide necessary support to the beleaguered Ukrainians, there may well be a Russian victory, resulting in a genocidal bloodbath of epic proportions. Every day the Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives dithers about providing the promised aid, the more valiant Ukrainian soldiers are being killed, the more Ukrainian women are being raped and the more Ukrainian children are being kidnapped by Russian troops to be raised as Russians.

In Vietnam, the U.S. did not have such serious national security interests at stake as are under threat in Ukraine. That country is bleeding to save itself, but their sacrifice serves America’s vital interests, as well as those of our NATO allies.

Although I’ve disagreed with Senator Jim Risch on many issues over the years, Risch has it absolutely right on Ukraine. He understands that we must do everything possible to keep Russia from prevailing in this.horrendous war. He’s taken a leadership role in the Senate to advocate for passage of a military aid package that is essential to Ukraine’s war effort, and to its very existence.

Senator Risch has correctly pointed out that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, “is not going to stop if he wins the war. If we end up in war with Russia, what we’re spending here is a drop in the bucket by comparison. The national security of the United States, the safety of the American people, the safety of Idahoans, depends not just on our army or weapons, or the people that operate them. It also depends upon the various defense agreements that we have around the world. If we abandon Ukraine and throw in the towel…there will be major consequences.” Getting out of Ukraine, “I believe, would set up the largest arms race that the planet has ever seen.”

Risch fully understands the enormous risk that America will face if Ukraine falls to Putin’s Russia. Putin is intent on reconstituting the Soviet state, which Ronald Reagan branded as the “Evil Empire.” That empire provided substantial armaments to the North Vietnamese forces for the purpose of killing American troops. Most of our airmen were shot down by Soviet missiles. Russia’s allies prevailed in that conflict, but the stakes in the Ukraine war are substantially higher for the United States. We simply must prevail in this conflict. House Republicans must side either with the United States or with Putin. There is no safe middle ground. Those of us who served in Vietnam are watching to see who is willing to step forward to protect America’s vital interests.

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