University of Virginia Library

To The Editor

Compassion, Not Hate

I am one of those people whom
Robert Gillmore refers to in his
column on Lt. Calley (Dec. 1) who
can "tell stories like these and
dozens more." Although I can agree
with his characterization of the
relationship between most GIs and
the Vietnamese, I believe he goes
too far in his conclusions.

My own experience does not
support his contention that
"contempt and suspicion easily
turns into hatred.' Anyone who
has ever been in a Vietnamese
village and witnessed for himself
the poverty, the waste, and the
tremendous social and familiar
dislocations of a country at war
cannot help but develop some
degree of understanding of these
people. It does not require any high
degree of sensitivity to transform
contempt and suspicion into
compassion rather than hatred.

Mr. Gillmore further concludes
from his experience "that the
ARVN are invidious and
incompetent." I submit that a more
accurate conclusion is that the
ARVN are understandably
opportunistic having lived for so
many years with the realities of
guerrilla war.

The experience of Vietnam may
inspire hatred. Not a hatred of the
Vietnamese, but rather a hatred of
what the war does to people both
Vietnamese and American.