Letter to the editor circa 2005

Editor, Naples Daily News:

In 1968 I was 26 years old. Richard Nixon was president and I thought he was the most evil man on the planet. The Vietnam War was escalating and I knew the evil of war.

Because I was a veteran, I felt I had extra reason to oppose an unjust war. I joined the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (yeah, John Kerry's group) and actively resisted the war effort.

By 1974 my generation had run Nixon out of office and ended the war by citizen action. Our troops were home. I was among many who felt very proud and self-righteous about our victory over evil.

We were horribly, tragically wrong!

The withdrawal of U.S. troops allowed the communist government of North Vietnam to kill hundreds of thousands of people. When the communists finished that slaughter, they had a strong enough position to overthrow the government in next door Cambodia. In 1975 Phnom Penh fell under the control of the communist guerrilla group led by Pol Pot. In less than four years' time an estimated 2 million Cambodians died by execution in the "Killing Fields." Almost every Cambodian family lost at least one relative during this most gruesome holocaust.

Good men did nothing and evil triumphed because much of America, like me and my buddies, were too young, idealistic, ignorant or naive to understand what was happening.

What evil awaits us if we do nothing about evils inflicted on others? Apathy is evil.

Sam Sewell/Naples