I shook his outstretched, handless arm and looked into his wounded eyes as he told me in broken English that his injury was from a land mine.

He was peddling books about the Vietnam War at the War Museum in Saigon, which I visited a short time ago. The museum's exhibits told only the Viet Cong side of the story and made Americans appear as the ugly aggressor. Photographs showed examples of inhumanity perpetrated by our troops that were repulsive beyond words. But they depicted reality at the time, which was literally a horror show.

The display on Agent Orange was particularly disturbing, as it showed examples of birth defects so horrible it was hard to believe. Blobs of human tissue and bones without limbs or complete faces.

The Vietnam War was the longest in history for the U.S., lasting 11 years from 1965 to 1976. I so remember the protests in New York City and Washington, D.C., and the "dove and hawk" sides that separated a lot of liberals and conservatives at the time.

I myself couldn't understand why the "peaceniks" were concerned about Vietnam, because our government supported the South Vietnamese with good cause and were just providing an "advisory" force in the name of freedom.

But our services ultimately cost the lives of nearly 60,000 U.S. participants and over three million Vietnamese. This nasty conflict left many survivors with mental illness and nightmarish memories. Not helping was the fact that our forces received a very unfriendly reception when they returned home. It was, indeed, a very unpopular war.

In retrospect, the U.S. got sucked into this situation thinking it would be a quick and dirty, short-lived operation. Amazing how our leaders sometimes get tricked by an unrelenting enemy. Somalia is just another example of misjudged magnitude and resistance.

As a Republican, I pretty much bought all the party's strategies, tactics and rationale regarding Vietnam at the time, but I have changed my mind.

I know there are other Republicans, besides me, who think our involvement in Vietnam was unnecessary. Our general quest to help provide freedom for those who don't have it is in vain sometimes -- Vietnam being a prime example.

As a most recent visitor to that country, I can vouch for its progress, for the hopeful attitude of its people, and for their relative freedom under free-market communism. When the free-market concept opened up after Russia's meltdown in 1991, entrepreneurs were free to develop businesses as most of the free world does, excepting media.

Free-market communism exists in other countries such as Cuba and China. The United States needn't fear communism any more as it did during the Cold War. We should not try to intrude or invoke capitalism in countries that are under communist rule. People in communist countries are doing just fine without us.

Vietnam is an excitingly beautiful and intriguing country, with people who once were our enemies but are now most friendly to us. I have traveled a lot, visiting more than 40 countries, and I have never seen a smile as engaging and friendly as those from the Vietnamese people.

If we had not interfered, Vietnam's promising future would have arrived much earlier, excluding horrible bloodshed and millions of ugly deaths and injuries.

Vietnam today is a charming and intriguing place with a multitude of sights and sounds to enjoy. Food there is delicious. There are still signs of backwardness, but modern construction and development of resorts situated on fantastic beaches leave visitors with a very positive impression. There are no remnants of warfare, and the local people keep those awful years pretty much to themselves.

Let us never forget our mistaken involvement in Vietnam's struggle and never again try to impose our system of government on others who can live in peace without it.

Andy Thomas lives in Pinehurst. Contact him at dahtmuth58@aol.com