I read with interest Melanie Gretchen’s article “DU Lacks Political Passion” and was surprised at some of the comments made by sudents and faculty as an attempt to compare our current conflict the Viet Nam War was made.

As a member of the class of 1968 (school was interrupted for me- drafted in 1966, back at school in 1968-70) I can only try to relate to those who were not on campus that there is no parallel to be made. When I was in school every person on campus was affected by the war. Draft Cards were issued to every male student who registered (it was mandatory to register)on his 18th birthday. Every male on campus was subject to being drafted into military service and serving in the war.

Casualities were not looked upon as numbers and statistics, but as neighbors and friends. SDS was an active force on our campus and others. There was a “radical” change in clothing (hippie) and music (I left school to the sounds of the Beach Boys and returned to Hendrix!).

The Viet Nam war affected every student on campus because every male student was just a step away from being drafted and sent to Asia. It was real. It was terrifying, and for the first time in American history students from coast to coast stood up to parents, police and politicians and said “Hell no”.

Passion isn’t something that arises because of a war or major conflict. Passion has to stir the individual to make a stand for what he or she believes. The Viet Nam war did that for my generation.

I returned to school in 1968 after serving with a unit in Viet Nam that suffered 80% casualities. I felt the passion, but lived in the shame of having served in the United States Army in viet Nam. I was called a baby killer and spit on when I returned, when in principal I served to fulfill my obligation to my country for the many rights it afforded me.

Passion still rages inside of me, for I will always remember the friends and neighbors who were wounded and killed in Viet Nam. Some enlisted, but many were drafted like me.

I have finally come to terms with my service in Viet Nam, and cannot tell you how proud I am of our servicemen and women (a pride our country didn’t seem to have for us), but the reason you don’t experience it on campus today the way we did is simply because it didn’t affect you the way it affected us. We were all just a draft letter away from joining the troops, and it weighed on each and every one of us every day we were in school.

Alex Webbe ’68