Editorial
E,cz The Ot he r A me rica has been a long time coming but we There seems to be some disagreement as to the merits of life in America and as to the value of our accomplishments in Southeast...
...As late as December of 1972, Anthony Lewis stated...
...Joseph Kraft, in November 1972, stated...
...Thank you ever so much...
...We are proud to ~rve our country and our Commander-In-Chief ." Then Perkins said that to return to "'the greatest country in the world" is the "most wonderful experience in my life...
...Thank you America for your unwavering support...
...Navy Captain Wendell Rivers said: "I am very happy to come to my family, my friends, and my America...
...I owe you a debt of gratitude...
...We are grateful and overwhelmed...
...It was this faith that maintained our hope that someday our dreams would come true and today they have...
...America, God shed his grace on thee...
...In Congress, Congressman John G. Dow of New York spoke for the high-minded of his constituency when he announced: "the President is taking the risk of ex- terminating our civilization for a shabby purpose...
...We have many things to be thankful for, many things .that are considered common...
...Once thr first POWs had disembarked, Van Home listened to about three sentences before suggesting that the whole show was programmed, and so washed her hands of the affair...
...Dis-senters are rare, after all...
...Colonel Richard Byrne told a crowd that had braved the snowy Dayton, Ohio weather: "Somehow I feel a little out of place, for in a way I feel that we should be giving you applause...
...is a great country...
...All hail the New Age ! The Alternative April 1973...
...Air rorcv Colonel Ronald E. Byrne Jr., who has been a POW...
...These are things I missed most...
...In February of 1971, Tom Wicker stated that "there is something illogical, but most dishonorable in his (the President's) strategy...
...God bless all of you and GOd bless America.9 Navy Lieutenant Carl Galanti stated simply: "Freedom at last --that's what it's all about...
...And in the Senate, Senator George McGovern stated in June of 1972, "if we continue under the Nixon policy, we are not going to see our POWs again...
...In a recent instance, a group of fellows had to spend several years isolated in a foreign prison before they could stray from the sagacity of the media commentators...
...We return with honor...
...E,cz The Ot he r A me rica has been a long time coming but we There seems to be some disagreement as to the merits of life in America and as to the value of our accomplishments in Southeast Asia...
...Jane Fonda, who had told us to expect a bunch of embittered peaceniks, had to revise her .9 and remind us that these men were more like murderers than heroes...
...We have come hom'e...
...He then read a letter from Risner which stated: "We will always remem-ber you, the smiling faces, the wav-ing hands, the waving flags --and we love you...
...Navy Commander William Shankel said: "I want you to know we walked out of Hanoi winners and we're not coming home with our tails between our legs...
...In a reflective mood, Navy Lieutenant Everett Alvarez Jr., the POW longest in captivity, said: "Thee U.S...
...And then, as the men made their way from the plane to the buses, Air Force Captain Galand Kramer waved a sign he'd made while still in Hanoi which read: "'GOD BLESS AMERICA AND NIXON ~' and one POW flashed a handtowel upon...
...which he stitched an outline map of the U.S...
...Because it is you who have kept the faith in us --faith with us through the long years...
...To us this is truly the land of milk and honey, the land of the free and the home of the brave...
...since 1965, said: "Thank you, America, for caring...
...It varies from the more sedate statements of The New York Times to the frantic remarks of people like Philip Berrigan, Jane Fonda, and Ralph Abernathy...
...Then, looking down at the waiting crowd, he mused, "There's something great about kids waving American flags...
...Today I'd like to thank the President of the United States, the people and our fam-ilies for maintaining their faith in us and making this wonderful day possible...
...Navy Commander Brian Woods, who along with Air Force Major Glendon Perkins, were the first POWs to be returned, said: "This homecoming is not only for myself and Glendon Perkins but for all the POWs...
...The Blessed Father Berrigan forthrightly described them as "war criminals" and the ombudsman for The WashingtodPost tipped us all off to the fact that this POW episode was just another Pentagon Plot...
...Lewis remark- ed that "even with sympathy for the men who fly American planes, and for their families, one has to recognize a greater courage of the North Vietnamese people...
...Air Force Colonel Robinson "Robbie" Risner, speaking for the second craft, said: "I would like to thank you all, the President and the American people, for bringing us home again...
...And as the formalities were dispensed with, Risner told an airport crowd, "I want to tell you something, folks...
...Captain Mark Smith, who became known as the preacher of his Lamp, said: "I would just like to express to each and every one of you that it's won- derful to be back in the greatest country in the world, the greatest state in the world, and the greatest people in the world...
...Air Force Colonel ~Ronald E. Byrne of New York City said: "To be back on American soil is-a dream beyond our prayers...
...People don't realize what they have until they don't have it...
...Captain Burton W. Campbell told his airport crowd: ','I have been trying to figure out something to convey to you how I feel . . . the most appropriate thing I could say is thanks to President Nixon and most of all, thanks to you...
...He added: "We're home . . . America...
...we have been shamed as a nation . . ." The May issue of Newsweek titled an article on our actions in Vietnam "The Spector of Defeat...
...Those who disagree with this line do not often attract the attention of the above-quoted concerned citizens...
...One week before the POW arrival, columnist Madam Van Home urged that the American public, before deluging the POWs with the best fruits of our decade--bell-bottoms, black power slogans, and the like-- pause and reflect upon whatever they have to say...
...In fact, our POWs have managed to get into print certain sentiments which have not been seen in 'The New York Times since the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor (perhaps one way of getting these senti- ments aired is to allow the entire nation to undergo one sort of tragedy or another...
...Navy Captain James Mulligan Jr., for the third flight, said: "It has been our privilege to serve you Americans for these many years and during this time our faith in God, our country and in our families has never wavered...
...The point of view of one side has been pretty well ventil- ated with increasing drama over the years...
...Yet no sooner had these men uttered their unfamiliar sentiments than the heralds of the New Age were again furiously pumping out sonorities from their inexhaustible resources of superior virtue...
...Captain James Stockdale, limping visibly, quoted Greek poetry to express himself: "Nothing is so sweet as to re-turn from sea and listen to the raindrops on the roof of home...
...One can easily sympathize with her perplexity and the media's fuss...
...Yes, America certainly has pulled itself together...
...the elected leader of the greatest democracy acts like a maddened tyrant .9 and in January, Mr...
...When three POWs visited the elemen- tary school on Clark Air Base to thank the children for posters and place mats they had made to welcome the returnees to the base, Denton, speaking for his two colleagues, told the children: "I know that John and Bill are as over-whelmed as I in being with Little Amer- ica...
...It is you who have stood by us and effected our release...
...We are pro-foundly grateful to ~ur Commander-In-Chief and to our nation for this day...
...For the confused and astounded and frenetic, the following re- marks of the returning POWs could have aroused no greater excitement had they been the voices of three-headed Martians: Navy Captain Jeremiah Denton, as a sookesman for the first plane-load of POWs to touch down in the Philippines, said: "We are honored to have the op- pertunity to serve our country under difficult circumstances...
...Thank you all and thank you to our President...
...For years and years," he continued, "we dreamed of this day and we kept faith --faith in our God, in our President and in our country...
...and the words "'GOD BLESS AMERICA...
...Then, choking up, he added, "God Bless America...
...and their point of view slips out only under the most unusual circumstances...
...As the tedious maneuvering of men through airports, hotels, and hospitals began to wind down, Alvarez said: "'It are going home --home to the greatest country in the whole wide world...
Vol. 6 • April 1973 • No. 7
