Responses to Vietnam War Draft Dodgers 20 Years Later

The decision to support or resist the Vietnam War still prompts visceral responses on both sides two decades later, as evidenced by letters appearing in The Times (Feb. 28).

As a navy veteran of World War II (as a sailor) and the Korean Conflict (as an aircraft carrier officer), I obviously am quite a bit older than the men who had to make a personal decision about serving in Vietnam. Yet that war, after much contemplation, has had a profound impact on my life.

While the war was going on, I was between roughly my mid-30s and my mid-40s. I was, and continue to be, extremely proud of my naval service, particularly of standing officer-of-the-deck watches during flight operations on a flagship carrier in Korean waters.

Armed with my Harvard MBA, I had risen during the period of the war to representing top managements of some of the largest and best known companies in Southern California. True blue and establishment, I never thought to question our presence in Vietnam.

Yet perhaps subconsciously, I was taking it all in. Many years later, when we started trying to overthrow a government in a tiny country called Nicaragua, I gained great respect for the clarity of vision of the Vietnam protesters, who then were about the same age as my son during the early years of the Reagan Administration. I didn’t want him coming home in a body bag from another jungle where we have no business being.

So goodby, conservative Republican. Say hello, liberal Democrat. And thank you, Vietnam protesters for sowing the seed of this metamorphosis.

FLOYD A. OLIVER

Los Angeles