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In this second programme Alywn Owen continues his interview with Mike Sylvano about his own feelings and fighting in Vietnam. After the injuries he sustained he really wasn’t the same person he had been. He describes being weak, incapacitated and very frightened. He begged his doctor not to send him back to Vietnam.
He recalls when he began to walk again he had a chance to go out for a night in Hawaii. He saw young people and happy couples, although he was underage he then began drinking. He drank to try to forget about the things that had happened to him, the screams of his dying friends and the knowledge that he would have to go back to Vietnam again. He became very dependent on drinking to sleep and function.
When Mike finally returned to Vietnam for service he wanted to be placed with the 26th division. He was sent to work with his old division but after being away for four and a half months Mike found his old division to be very different. He recounts the terrible injuries sustained by ten of his friends who had struck a land mine while riding an armoured supply tractor. Mike felt the same feelings of confusion and guilt that he had felt after his first fighting injuries.
It was not until 1968 that Mike met an enemy fighter. The Viet Cong existed and operated very much unseen and in the shadows. Mike found that the Viet Cong prisoner was just like them, frightened and just as equally unsure as to why he was fighting. One prisoner was the same age and equally ignorant of the reasons for war. Mike and his compatriots asked themselves why they were fighting each other.
Alwyn and Mike discuss Vietnamese corruption and the sights and sounds of Saigon.
Mike tells that some his strongest memories of conflict in Vietnam were on a mail run where the road was littered with dead North Vietnamese soldiers. The humanity of the victims and fighting and the killing was overwhelming.
Mike recalls the extent of the American protest of the war, they had heard of some burning of draft cards. He believed in the principles of American patriotism and the protesters were just furthering their personal political gains, rather than caring about the Vietnamese people. He relates a story of draft dodging.
Mike left Vietnam shortly after the Tet Offensive in March 1968. Going back home to America and experiencing much misaligned anger towards war veterans. It was nearly impossible to communicate what had happened and what it meant to him. People did not really care or want to know, so he tried to relive his former life experiences. He talks of the frustrations and hostility from many civilians and how he would drink to cope.
Reenlisting in the Marines to get an appointment in Illinois and be closer to home and family. He talks of that experience being a mistake because he felt completely alienated. To come home and to find it was all for nothing was devastating.
Mike remained in contact with other Vietnam veterans at the Naval Station where he was stationed. He talks about the difficulty he had with general civilians, in having nothing to talk about or relate to. The problems of the returning veterans deteriorated, the American administration did very little to help what became a large scale problem of post war trauma.
Alwyn asks about the final American departure from Vietnam and Mike recalls the iconic images of people clinging on to departing helicopters from the American Embassy. For Mike these images were tragic and made him feel a deep sense of loss and ask what the point of it all had been.