We Need Peace Within Ourselves

That black granite wall in the lush green lawns of the nation’s capital won’t go away, and it shouldn’t. But neither, it seems, will the conflict it commemorates. Vietnam still divides the United States.

We are a people in need of peace.

Bill Clinton tried to make peace this week, when he normalized U.S. relations with Vietnam. But even before he opened his mouth, he came under attack. Waving Old Glory like Marines at Iwo Jima, Republican presidential candidates Bob Dole and Bob Dornan joined the American Legion in reminding voters that Clinton used to be one of those long-haired peaceniks who ducked the draft and called the war a mistake. George Bush made that a campaign issue against Clinton in 1992. It didn’t work then. It shouldn’t work now.

Vietnam was just flat ugly. It cost young men their lives and the government its credibility. It divided families and generations. It tested, to the breaking point, the right to criticize government, even in a time of war. War has never been as romantic for the young people who die in it as it is for those who wave flags over it later.

In different ways, all wars leave scars. World War II still stirs strong feelings, on the anniversaries of Hiroshima and Pearl Harbor.

Now, Baby Boomers who have marveled at World War II’s capacity to open old wounds are invited, for Dole and Dornan’s political purposes, to amaze a new generation with their old concerns.

Why are we still fighting?

It calls to mind the tragic disputes that permanently break up childhood pals, relatives, co-workers. We have our old grudges and we nurse them. Sure, there were reasons to fight, once.

Now it’s our choice: We can let old wounds paralyze us.

Or we can get on with life.

Unfortunately for him, the baggage Bill Clinton carries from his Vietnam protest years makes it difficult for the public to accept his peace overture. Gen. Douglas MacArthur had a credibility Clinton lacks when MacArthur oversaw the conversion of Japan from enemy to ally.

But Clinton isn’t the issue. It’s time to attempt, with Vietnam, what the United States couldn’t do a few decades ago. Make a trading partner instead of an enemy.

Individuals can do the same, by the way, in personal relationships. Or, we can nurse our old grievances and miss the opportunities of peace.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = John Webster/For the editorial board