Two books of Vietnam recollections coming soon

Even now, fifty years after his return from Vietnam, Ovidio Garcia still sees danger when he encounters a treeline at the end of a field.

Fifty years ago the United States was in the midst of cataclysmic social turmoil. In a short period of five years, assassins gunned down three of its most prominent leaders; President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Martin Luther King in Memphis, and Robert Kennedy in Los Angeles. Hundreds of thousands of young people were in the streets protesting discrimination, politics and “the War in Vietnam!”

Meanwhile, clear across the other side of the world, in a place most people could not find on the map, tens of thousands of other young men and women were engaged in a life and death struggle in the jungles of a place called South Vietnam, to distinguish it from its enemy North Vietnam. Presumably, the Vietnamese knew why they were fighting, but most of the young Americans called to arms in this faraway place had no idea. They were following orders. some volunteered because they were committed to the defense of their country’s values, others because they were drafted to do the same. They all fought, bled, and died the same.

When the War finally ended, and these young men and women came back home, they were greeted with disdain by their American brothers and sisters who had stayed in the safe environs of the home to protest the War that those young men and women carried out. The scars of war and peace would stay with the returning Vietnam veterans for the remainder of their lives.

Two such men, with a similar upbringing in South Texas, share their memories in two new releases scheduled by MCM Books in February.

My War, My Art

Ovidio Garcia from Corpus Christi shares his recollections in My War, My Art. Garcia, a 20-year veteran of the US Army who served two tours in Vietnam, expresses his memories via his art. He uses twenty-four pieces of art to tell about his experiences, ranging from his mother’s anguish (“A mother’s prayer”) when she did not receive mail from him or his brother, who also served in Vietnam, to the horrors of Agent Orange (“Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head”). He includes some deadly recollections, like the time a gunship accidentally dropped its load on his squad (“Friendly Fire”) and the time he had to identify the dead in his unit (“Dak To”) after a horrible encounter with the enemy.

In perhaps his most inward look, “Treelines look different to me,” Garcia tells of how he still carries the war with him every day.

“For many years after my Vietnam war experiences, I could not see a treeline without searching for possible enemy positions. The natural features set off a mental response that involuntarily sent me back to particular incidents that caused loss of lives and limbs. It was an involuntary reaction. My imagination would run wild. How could I approach it without exposing myself?”

Despite the horrors of war, Garcia also includes a couple of humorous incidents that happened during his time in Vietnam.

Memories in Green

The second book planned for a February release is Filiberto “Beto” Conde’s Memories in Green.  Like Garcia, Conde is from South Texas, from San Benito in the Rio Grande Valley. Like Garcia, he also tells his Vietnam story in art form; through poetry and lyrics. Unlike Garcia, Conde was one of 648,500 draftees that served in Vietnam and who accounted for twenty-five percent of the forces in Vietnam and thirty percent of combat deaths, including three of Conde’s childhood friends. Conde writes about them in “Mrs. Lake’s Third Grade Class.” Like Garcia, he too recalls his mother (“War Mothers”), as well as his father (“A Father’s Promise”), and Agent Orange (“Agent Orange Blues”).

In a piece entitled Conde writes:

Rage

I never told
when I returned. I don’t know why, but
I couldn’t tell anyone.
I kept it inside,
raging, hurting.
They wouldn’t understand:
brains spilled on the grass and weeds;
minds not coping, changing.
I couldn’t explain that to anyone who wasn’t there.
even I thought I wasn’t there
pieces of hot steal zinging by my head-
it couldn’t have been me.
It must be a dream.
How can anyone understand?
I was there and
I don’t understand.
That’s why
I never told.

These two books include many stories that bring out the strength, agony, and yes, humor, veterans found in this incredible place and time called Vietnam. They will move you from tears to laughter; you will yell in anguish and cry out in pain from one piece to the next.