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Vets weigh Clinton visit to Hanoi By Paul Fattig For more than 30 years, Medford resident Steve Cox has been careful not to put too much strain on his left knee. If he does, it protests, reminding him of the grenade fragments that ripped into his knee and lower thigh on April 26, 1969. The Army infantry combat veteran was wounded while patrolling in the Mekong Delta in what was South Vietnam. It isn�t protesting now. "I don�t hold anything against Clinton for not having served in Vietnam," said Cox, a captain at Jackson County Fire District 3. "If I had a chance to do it over again, I wouldn�t have been there either," Cox said. "The people that were against the war, I think they were right." President Clinton, who avoided the military draft and protested the war in Vietnam as a college student, began a three-day visit to Vietnam Thursday. Kevin Labarbara, a former Marine whose right hand was blown off by a grenade when his outpost near the Laotian border was overrun one night in 1968, found Clinton�s visit a little unsettling. "The fact he is not a vet, that he is somewhat of a draft dodger, that leaves a sour taste in my mouth," said the Medford resident. "That bothers me a little. But, as president, he does have the right to do this. "I do think it�s been long enough for our country to make amends," he added. "I just don�t want us to give them money. If the government is going to give out money, it should be to the families of American veterans killed or to those Americans wounded in combat." Their comments reflect a range of views on Clinton�s visit by local Vietnam veterans and those who lost loved ones in the war. Clinton is the first U.S. president to visit that country since the fall of Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) and the communist takeover in 1975. In addition to seeking to improve cultural and economic ties with Vietnam, Clinton is also working to resolve the issue of the roughly 2,000 Americans still missing in action from the war. Joining him on the visit is George Duggins, president of the Vietnam Veterans of America group. Ashland writer Steve Mason is the national poet laureate for the group and a member of its national board. "Without question, this is a good thing to be happening," concluded Mason, who served as a combat infantry officer near Saigon in 1966-67. "As a combat veteran, my interest is that there be a full cooperative effort made for the full accounting of those missing in action," Mason said. "Economically and philosophically, this is good for everyone." But Mason said he was also looking at it from the perspective of a U.S. citizen as well as a citizen of the world. "As an American, I think it�s in the national interest that we develop an equivalent trade relationship with Vietnam," he said. "This is a country that knows us best. No one knows us better." But he cautioned that any relationship be mutually beneficial. Eagle Point resident Dikshita Mulholand, a Marine Corps veteran shot in the left thigh during combat on Thanksgiving Day 1965, agreed. "Whatever we can do to break down the barriers between us and other parts of the world is beneficial to all of us," he said. "I think it�s good that he�s there." Eagle Point resident Duane Haas, who served with an engineering unit in the Army in 1966-67, wasn�t so sure. "I think it�s a waste of taxpayer money � it�s all for show," Haas said. Medford resident Fred Tomlins, a bomber pilot who flew in Vietnam in 1970-71, figures Clinton is simply taking advantage of his lame duck status. "I think he�s just out there to get a vacation in Vietnam," Tomlins said. "So, yeah, I�d be out there too if I were him. But I think I�d be visiting our troops in Hawaii instead." Ruch resident Grace Rowden, who lost two sons in the Vietnam War, shrugs off Clinton�s visit. "I just think it�s kind of late," she said. "He (Clinton) wasn�t in favor of that war in the first place. But none of us were. Of course, our boys didn�t have a choice." She was referring to sons James H. Rowden, a Marine who was 21 when he was killed in combat on March 5, 1966, near Quang Nagai, and John W. Rowden, his younger brother who also joined the Marine Corps and was killed in action in the battle of Hue on Feb. 10, 1968. He was also 21 years old. "If anyone can do anything to bring about healing, well, that�s good," observed Hazel Graten Norris, of Medford, whose son Fred Graten was 20 when he was killed in Vietnam on April 11, 1968, while serving in the Marine Corps. "Maybe (Clinton�s) sincere but I wonder if he�s trying to do things to look a little better in our eyes," she added. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.