THE WAR AMERICA COULD NEVER WIN
With an average age of 19, American soldiers in Vietnam were ill-prepared and ill-equipped. Fifty-eight thousand members of the US armed forces died, along with several hundred thousand Vietnamese civilians.
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Somewhere in the line of veterans – a single file of bedraggled hair, faded fatigues, wheelchairs and crutches – as they slowly snake towards the Capitol Building is Barry Romo. The former lieutenant of the 196th Light Infantry Brigade enlisted believing in fighting communism, and wishing to emulate his father’s deeds in World War II, but now he is joining comrades to protest the war in Vietnam. Today, 23 April 1971, is the end of a week of demonstrations, street theatre, candlelit vigils, arrests and camping on the Mall in Washington DC, and there is one last act of defiance, and sacrifice, for Romo to perform.