Memorial Day, American Wars and Unwanted Amnesty

This Memorial Day weekend, thousands of Vietnam War veterans will participate in the 25th annual “Rolling Thunder” motorbike cavalcade headed toward Washington, D.C. Once there, they’ll join up at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, more commonly referred to as “The Wall.” The tribute began in 1988 with 2,500 supporters; this year, nearly 1 million will participate. Their theme: “We ride for those who can’t”

Carved into the Wall, a series of black granite slabs, are 58,000 names of military personnel who were killed or went missing during America's longest armed conflict. Those who have visited the wall know that even today, nearly40 years after the Southeast Asian war ended, it's one of America's most moving sights. Most of those killed were in their late teens or early 20s. Families and friends leave personal effects at the Wall's base—high school yearbooks, cigarettes and baseball mitts.

As someone who lived through but didn’t serve in Vietnam, I experienced first hand how the war devastated the country. Most of the soldiers and eventually most of the nation had no idea what Americans were doing in Vietnam. Few civilians and even fewer soldiers could understand why Americans were fighting and dying in a guerrilla war in a country they had never heard of.

America’s dead soldiers fought to make the world safe from Communism, the the 1960s major global threat, and to secure America’s long-term prosperity. How disappointed the departed would be in Congress’ current amnesty agenda, its determination to undermine American citizens and todestroy the values for which they fought so bravely.

While the voices of Vietnam’s fallen have been silenced, the American Legion speaks out boldly on their behalf against amnesty’s dangers. The Legion is the nation’s largest wartime veterans’ service organization.

Here’s a statement posted on its website which notes that because Legionnaires have served all over the world to ensure their fellow citizens’ safety, they therefore have a unique perspective on the threat that open borders present:

“The Legion opposes illegal immigration and amnesty for illegal aliens, but fully supports opportunities for legal immigration. in protest of illegal immigration and amnesty reads as follows.

“Instead, it supports a strategy of attrition through the enforcement of new and existing immigration laws, in combination with strong border security.”

The Legion’s detailed policy on illegal immigration can be read here. The Legion also opposes the Dream Act, birthright citizenship and driver’s licenses for aliens.

Since World War I, about 650,000 patriotic Americans have been killed in wars around the world. More illegal immigration, expanded entitlements for aliens including an amnesty most certainly are not among the reasons that they fought.