An American with Time to Think

Below is part of a statement given to Ralph Schoenman by an American soldier, Lieutenant-Commander Coffee, after he had been shot down and taken prisoner py the North Vietnamese, on February 3rd. "I received a broken arm fmm the ejection point, I got medical attention quicklyss.l got the best attention possible. They made it as comfortable as they could. They bandaged me. Within a couple of hours I was given a meal of hot rices.se. The two small boats which had rescued me were full of people. When the boats arrived the cover jets came and strafed the boats carrying me, TheAmerfcan jets made six strafing passes before I was able to get to the beach, No mistreatment occurred at any time. The strafing of our planes had no effect on their attitude towards me, I was amazedeeelt became apparent to me that this was their policyse. That night I was taken to another places.s. I was fed, my bandages were changed..».The man in charge said that the people were deeply angry, as the bombings were still going on...but I encountered no hositlity,anywhere. eeeWe stopped at the driver's house and spent a long time with his family. eeel was told to ,llendown on the driver's beds I slept ®m the bed next to fis small son. The next morning I arrived at the new place, which appeared to be the centre of provincial administration, I began to realise that this area had been bombed continually and without stop since the beginning. That is over a year...And yet they showed no hostility to me. I was disturbed, They questioned me, I had to admit that my government had not declared war against Vietnam and that legally I had no right to be considered as a@ prisoner of war, I was told that I was a criminal and that the crimes which I had committed against ordinaryvillagem were such that would entitle them to try me and shoot me.sel wholeheartedly accept their designation as a criminal,...Anyone who could speak English or French asked mes "Why are you here? Why have you come to Vietnam™ I couldn't answer them.e.eThroughout this time I wa: given medicationee. In prison they have questioned me and they have tried to explain their view of the true issues of the Vietnamese war and the feelings of the Vietnamese peoples.s.ethey have given me a great amount of literature. I received this with complete scepticism and suspiciousness...I have to say that I am unable to refute the logic of the whole storyeeeI believe now { know, for the first time, who we are really fighting in South Vietnan, eeetThe pathetic thing is that you can't call it political indoctrination. I could have found out the same damn thing at home, in the library, on | my own, If only I had taken the time...I-was willing to take part in this war for the usual, rather vague reasons of protecting our democratic way of life, honouring our agreements with our allies and resisting communisn. eeel have seen enough to know that none of:-this applies here. My contemporaries and I are all guilty of the same thing: of not making the effort to find out what it is really all about... I considered the anti-war demonstrations intolerable, I couldn't understand what they were stirred up about...I never thought about what they were doing. eeeve have no right here... think I understand now how we became involved, eeeBut what they (the Vietnamese) want is the reunification of their country, and they are the same people. Reunification is part of their national purpose...lf we escalate further it will result in drawing other countries incliding China. The devastation and sacrifice of life will be appalling,"