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Saturday Morning News

Tom Corey Reflects on the 25th Anniversary of the End of the Vietnam War

Aired April 29, 2000 - 8:33 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: This weekend marks the 25th anniversary of the end of the war in Vietnam. For many it is a time of reflection and for the thousands of servicemen who fought that long war as well.

Joining us from Washington is Tom Corey. He's the national vice president of the Vietnam Veterans of America organization.

Thanks very much for being with us, Mr. Corey.

TOM COREY, VIETNAM VETERANS OF AMERICA: You're welcome.

O'BRIEN: What are your thoughts this morning on the eve of the actual date when that memorable scene was recorded on the top of the U.S. embassy in Hanoi? What goes through your mind?

COREY: There's a lot of things that are traveling through my mind at this point and it's reflections on things that happened 25 years ago where I was at and reflection on a lot of friends that I lost during the war, what the war was about, the lessons that we learned from the war and where we are today because of that war.

It's so many things that come together and the war might be over, but we still have a lot of battles that we're fighting back here at home and also in Vietnam.

O'BRIEN: What sorts of battles do you refer to?

COREY: Well, it's mostly health care issues, affects from the war, exposure to the Agent Orange dioxin, Hepatitis C, the traumas of the war, the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. A lot of guys haven't put their lives back together. A lot of guys never will. But we have a chance to reach out to many people that haven't been able to and let them know that the war is over and that there's other things that we need to focus on and assisting those that haven't recovered yet from the war.

O'BRIEN: And we probably should mention your personal story a little bit. In January of 1968 in the midst of the Tet offensive you were hit by a bullet in your neck and became paralyzed and obviously that's had a tremendous, profound personal affect on you. How difficult was it for you to come to terms with that personally as well as the war in general? COREY: Well, I had a bigger time trying to deal with the wheelchair and what that bullet took away from me. Losing my independence was the biggest thing I've had to deal with since the war. I've been able to put Vietnam on a shelf and deal with it as I have to on a daily basis, but mostly trying to deal with survival in the wheelchair.

A lot of things that came along with the complication of that one bullet and but I've overcome a lot of those things and put my life out in front in dealing with the issues from Vietnam. That's where I am today and continue almost since I've been returned to work for those that have not returned from Vietnam, those that have returned and need our assistance.

O'BRIEN: And you mentioned that you've traveled back to Vietnam many times over the years. What compelled you to go back and what work needs to be done there most right now?

COREY: The Vietnam Veterans of America in 1994 started a program called the Veterans Initiative where we returned to Vietnam and we work with our former enemy. We do it on a veteran to veteran basis. It's a humanitarian program where we return information taken off of Vietnamese bodies, identification process, pictures, photos, IDs, information on where we buried Vietnamese soldiers. This was as a result of us pushing the Vietnamese government to assist on the accounting of Americans still missing in Vietnam. And they asked what we would do and we told them that we would ask American soldiers to turn this stuff over.

I've personally made nine trips back to Vietnam, turning the information over to the Vietnamese. They've had some success on the information we have given them. They've excavated over 800 Vietnamese soldiers from that information. It has opened a lot of doors for us in other areas and namely the American missing.

We as veterans, as former soldiers, have a responsibility to those who were left behind on the battlefield, to their families to do whatever we can to find the fullest possible accounting for those individuals.

O'BRIEN: All right, with time running out, if you could just give me a nutshell, how would you -- and this is a hard one, I know, I apologize for putting you on the spot on this, but what would you say the enduring legacy of this war is?

COREY: I think the lessons that we've learned and that we're going to be able to help the future of this country. Our military has learned the loss of life for what we still question today, was it worth it? A lot of people say it was. The sacrifices that were made by the young men and women that went to Vietnam to put their lives on the line for their country because they were asked to do so, they have not been recognized. Those that have come home have not been recognized and we need to do that and we need to continue to educate people, not only our president, but our Congress about war and that we never get involved in another Vietnam. And I think we've seen that since our return that if we're going to get involved in a conflict of any type that we must support the troops and we cannot let them down like we did in Vietnam.

O'BRIEN: Tom Corey is the vice president of the Vietnam Veterans of America. Thanks for being with us on CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

COREY: Thank you.

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