Good to be bicoastal again

Thanks to two papers

Monday marked the 3rd anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Versions of the following letter are running today in both the NY Post and Laguna Beach Independent.

Laguna rallied for Ukraine 3 years ago

Three years ago this past Monday the 24th, the world woke up to the news that Russian forces had invaded Ukraine. Despite early predictions that Putin would be standing in Kiev within days, that never happened. Closer to home, Laguna neighbors rallied next to City Hall, organized a demonstration at Main Beach, and raised $100,000 at the museum.

I'm no geopolitical genius, but can someone please tell me how the country that was invaded in 2022 is now viewed by some as the war's provocateur? I don't know how the current peace talks will end, but I do know this: America must never turn its back on a sovereign, democratic nation.

With this last thought in mind, here's a reminder why the U.S. and its NATO allies need to continue to support Ukraine. Because the original lyrics to "We Shall Overcome" -- the song that inspired civil rights activists in the '60s -- are now considered in the public domain, I revised them 3 years ago to reflect what was happening then.

So many thanks to LagunaTunes and locals like ER physician Eric Alcouloumre and Maureen O'Sullivan who performed "Ukraine Shall Overcome." My hope is the song still inspires people here in town. Not surprisingly, it should be sung to the tune of "We Shall Overcome."

Denny Freidenrich
Laguna Beach

And speaking of special days, it’s been 49 years and 10 months since the official end of the Vietnam War. Maybe you already have read pieces about the upcoming 50th anniversary. I mean no disrespect to those who served back then, but those really were terrible days. The impact of the war fractured America’s psyche for decades. With these thoughts in mind, I hope you’ll find my look back of interest.

The Vietnam War ended 50 years ago this spring

The first time I heard about Vietnam was in the fall of 1963. I was a sophomore in high school then. By the time I graduated three years later, several thousand U.S. troops had been killed there.

When I entered the USC in 1966, I had to show some of my freshman classmates where Vietnam was on a map. By the time the first national draft lottery since WWII took place on December 1, 1969, I dare say every Trojan undergrad between the ages of 18 and 21 knew where it was. That was due, in large part, to TV legends like Walter Cronkite and Huntley-Brinkley. They were responsible for broadcasting the horror stories about the war into everyone’s living room nightly.

As far as I am concerned, the real horror of Vietnam was the final death toll. Despite knowing the war was lost under Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon continued the fighting from his first day in office in 1969 until he resigned in 1974. By the time Saigon fell during Gerald Ford’s first year in office, more than 58,000 Americans had died in the war. And for what?

Vietnam never was a military war, it was a political war. Even at the height of U.S. involvement, when more than 500,000 troops were fighting there, Vietnam posed no threat to the United States. Unfortunately, Congress didn’t see it that way. Year after year, lawmakers kept authorizing war funds at the requests of the White House and Pentagon. To this day I can still hear people like Dean Rusk, Robert McNamara, Henry Kissinger and Gen. William Westmoreland saying, “Victory in Vietnam is at hand.” The truth is, it never was.

Which brings me to our current situation in the Middle East. Fifty years after Vietnam, the U.S. is, for all intents and purposes, still at war. Only this time, we know the threats against America are real. You only have to think back to 9/11, or consider the many terrorist plots that have been foiled by the FBI and other law enforcement authorities, to know this is true.

As a young man in my 20’s, I was against the war in Vietnam. It also is true that, as a seventy-something grandfather of two today, I am 100 per cent in favor of taking out any adversaries before they can attack the U.S. mainland. The American psyche was fractured when we lost the war in Southeast Asia. We can’t let that happen again now.

A half century ago, tens of thousands of U.S. troops died unnecessarily in Vietnam. Today, the lives of millions of Americans are at risk here daily. No matter what one’s political affiliation is in 2025, those of us old enough to remember the ’60s still have a role to play in the matters of war and peace. For our grandkids' sake, the voices of my generation must be heard loud and clear.

-DF

P. S. My date of birth, Sept. 14th, was the first of 366 dates randomly selected in the 1969 draft lottery.