Defending Kerouac

As a Vietnam veteran I must respond to Wilson’s defense of Kerouac. Wilson said he helped to end a war in Vietnam in April of 1975, yet war continued on through Laos and rather horrendously in Cambodia.

So what did he stop? And what did North Vietnam really win? Only the right to extend their totalitarianism to a larger area. What kind of victory is that? So what corrupt dictatorship was he supporting?

Was the peace movement of the ‘60s a peace movement or a movement of angle, self-righteousness and a raging against a war within themselves and not really concerned with the people of Vietnam?

I didn’t have much fun in Vietnam. It was a hard row to hoe. Yet I wouldn’t trade that experience for any rock concert, surfing adventure or some soulless drug experience.

JEFF ALBERT

Redlands