Obama says Vietnam veterans too often ‘denigrated’

KEN THOMAS

Asso­ci­ated Press

WASHINGTON — Pres­i­dent Barack Obama paid trib­ute Mon­day to the men and women who have died defend­ing Amer­ica, point­ing to Viet­nam vet­er­ans as an under-appreciated and some­times maligned group of war heroes who remained true to their nation despite an unwel­come homecoming.

“You were some­times blamed for the mis­deeds of a few,” Obama said at the Viet­nam War Memo­r­ial. “You came home and were some­times den­i­grated when you should have been cel­e­brated. It was a national shame, a dis­grace that should have never happened.”

“Even though some Amer­i­cans turned their backs on you, you never turned your back on Amer­ica,” Obama said.

Mark­ing Memo­r­ial Day at both the black gran­ite wall hon­or­ing more than 58,000 sol­diers who died in the Viet­nam War and ear­lier at Arling­ton National Ceme­tery across the Potomac River from the cap­i­tal, Obama noted that for the first time in nine years, “Amer­i­cans are not fight­ing and dying in Iraq,” and the nation was wind­ing down its role in the con­flict in Afghanistan.

“After a decade under the dark cloud of war, we can see the light of the new day on the hori­zon,” Obama said to an audi­ence gath­ered at the Arling­ton amphithe­ater lined with Amer­i­can flags under a warm, bril­liant sun.

In this elec­tion year, Obama said the nation must remain com­mit­ted to pro­vid­ing for the fam­i­lies of fallen sol­diers and help return­ing ser­vice mem­bers seek­ing a job, higher edu­ca­tion or health care benefits.

“As long as I’m pres­i­dent, we will make sure you and your loved ones will receive the ben­e­fits you’ve earned and the respect you deserve,” Obama said. “Amer­ica will be there for you.”

Obama said send­ing troops into harm’s way was “the most wrench­ing deci­sion that I have to make. And I can promise you I will never do so unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

As he seeks re-election, Obama has reminded audi­ences about the end of the war in Iraq and the move to bring all troops home from Afghanistan by 2014. And in a cam­paign ad released last week, he cred­its U.S. ser­vice­men who helped in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

Repub­li­can pres­i­den­tial can­di­date Mitt Rom­ney, mean­time, promised to main­tain an Amer­i­can mil­i­tary “with no com­pa­ra­ble power any­where in the world.”

The pre­sump­tive Repub­li­can pres­i­den­tial nom­i­nee appeared with Sen. John McCain of Ari­zona, the GOP’s 2008 pres­i­den­tial can­di­date, before a crowd in San Diego esti­mated at 5,000 in what was billed as a Memo­r­ial Day ser­vice, not a cam­paign event.

But Rom­ney nev­er­the­less drew clear con­trasts with Obama. The for­mer Mass­a­chu­setts gov­er­nor warned against shrink­ing America’s mil­i­tary in Europe’s image and said the nation must have the world’s strongest mil­i­tary to win wars and pre­vent them.

Vet­er­ans could play a sig­nif­i­cant role in the 2012 elec­tion. Exit polls in 2008 showed that Obama was sup­ported by about 44 per­cent of vot­ers who said they served in the mil­i­tary, while 54 per­cent voted for McCain, a for­mer Navy pilot who was a pris­oner of war for more than five years dur­ing the Viet­nam War.

A poll released Mon­day by Gallup found that 58 per­cent of vet­er­ans sup­port Rom­ney and 34 per­cent back Obama. The results were based on a sam­ple of 3,327 vet­er­ans who are reg­is­tered vot­ers and had a mar­gin of error of 2 per­cent­age points.

Sev­eral closely watched states in the elec­tion have large blocs of mil­i­tary vot­ers. Florida, home to sev­eral mil­i­tary instal­la­tions, has more than 1.6 mil­lion vet­er­ans, accord­ing to the Vet­er­ans Admin­is­tra­tion. Penn­syl­va­nia has nearly 1 mil­lion vet­er­ans, while Vir­ginia and North Car­olina each have about 800,000 vet­er­ans liv­ing in their states.

The pres­i­dent and first lady Michelle Obama started the day with a break­fast at the White House for fam­i­lies who have lost loved ones in combat.

Posted by AP News on May 28 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.