Finding the parallels

Paul Clinton

Not knowing the enemy was part of what made the Vietnam War so

difficult to fight for Pete Sandro.

Whether a rice farmer was friend or foe was never clear because there

were pockets of Vietnamese in what used to be South Vietnam who wanted a

unified Communist country.

That made Sandro often wonder if the Vietnamese woman passing him on a

bicycle was thinking about tossing a grenade in his jeep.

“That was the problem,” Sandro said, as Veterans Day approached. “You

didn’t know who was who.”

Sandro and Bill Mimiaga, Newport-Mesa residents and first cousins who

both served in the Marine Corps during the war, said they see some

similarities with what’s occurring now in Afghanistan.

In that country, many of the tribal warlords are easily swayed from

one side to another, depending on who is willing to give them the best

deal.

The country should prepare to dig in its heels for what could be a

prolonged guerrilla war, both men said.

Both wars have unfamiliar, unforgiving terrain -- be it rice paddies

and jungle or rocky wasteland and mountain caves. But the political

landscape of the two conflicts, they said, couldn’t be more different.

“We should have more support at home,” said Mimiaga, a Costa Mesa

resident. “In general, we’re not trying to prop up a puppet government.

That was working against us” in Vietnam.

The United States’ disastrous decision to back a repressive South

Vietnamese government led by Ngo Dinh Diem doesn’t compare, Mimiaga said,

with President Bush’s call to root out terrorists hiding under the

shelter of another oppressive regime -- the Taliban.

The North Vietnam-supported Viet Minh were “nationalists trying to

unite their country,” Mimiaga said. “Their cause was different from the

Taliban.

Mimiaga, 55, and other outspoken Newport-Mesa veterans have been

participating in rallies and other events to raise support for troops

already in Afghanistan.

On Nov. 3, Mimiaga and other veterans wearing their full-dress

uniforms gathered outside a bookstore at Newport Boulevard and 19th

Street to raise the flag, sing “God, Bless America” and wave to passing

motorists.

In contrast to an American public unwilling to honor Vietnam veterans

for fighting an unpopular war, a lot of the motorists waved back.

Sandro, who lives in Newport Beach, remembers his return to the

country in September of 1968 after serving a 13-month tour of duty.

“You just came here and didn’t say much because people didn’t want to

hear what you wanted to say,” Sandro said.

On his tour in Vietnam, Sandro found himself in Phu Bai, Hue and other

areas near the Demilitarized Zone.

During the Tet Offensive, when North Vietnamese troops laid siege to a

Marine base at Khe Sahn in December 1967, the 24-year-old Sandro was

stuck in a hellish place.

“It was a frightening place,” Sandro said. “There were a lot of rocket

attacks.”

Sandro now teaches eighth grade at Doig Intermediate School in Garden

Grove. Many of his students are Vietnamese, a younger generation that

doesn’t know the horrors of war.

As far as public support for U.S. troops in Afghanistan, the more

ready comparison has been World War II. The campaign to unseat Adolph

Hitler was seen as a moral act, Mimiaga said, much like tracking down

Osama Bin Laden and bringing him to justice as the suspected architect of

the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the

Pentagon.

“This, to me, is a moral war,” Mimiaga said. “We have a world

responsibility to punish criminals who take innocent lives.”

Mimiaga has a unique perspective on the Vietnam War. He served two

tours of duty -- one from mid-1965 to mid-1966, the other during 1970 and

1971.

As an 18-year-old, Mimiaga enlisted because he “always wanted to be a

Marine.”

It wasn’t long before he found himself stationed in exotic places with

nondescript names -- Hill 55, Hill 69 and Happy Valley.

“It was a beautiful country,” Mimiaga said about his first impression.

“We were the first units there. . . . It was a rude awakening.”

His return to Vietnam, four years after his first tour ended, wasn’t

by choice. He was still a professional soldier.

During that tour, with the U.S. military losing the war,

self-preservation was the name of the game for Mimiaga and other troops.

“Everything was fragmented,” Mimiaga said. “It was topsy-turvy. You

started getting that short-timer’s attitude. You didn’t want to be a

casualty.”

Mimiaga teaches special education in Long Beach. He also heads the

Orange County chapter of the Vietnam Veterans of America. Veterans Day,

for him, is about honoring the sacrifices of all soldiers from all wars.

Even the unpopular ones such as Vietnam.

“When we came out, we weren’t heroes,” Mimiaga said. “We didn’t get a

slap on the back. But we did our duty.”

-- Paul Clinton covers the environment and John Wayne Airport. He may

be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail ato7

paul.clinton@latimes.comf7 .