I know there is a lot of controversy about his military record. Several of the internet fact checking sites report that his military records show he had a student deferral at first [community college] and then later on a rating for military service only in time of a 'declared war'. He had developed some hearing loss due to the loud rock music. When he gave the interviews to High Times and other mags... he was jerking their chains for the most part. If you wanted to make money in rock & roll and get press back then for selling tickets and records, then you lead them on and gave them juicy gossip to spread that appealed to anti-war crowd of the day.
I personally don't blame a lot of the kids for not wanting to go to Nam.. it would have been one thing if the goal had been to win and overwhelmingly crush the enemy... but to send 18 yr old kids into that police action with the goal of containment ... and not to WIN! isn't any different than the crap going on in Afghanistan & Pakistan right now. It breaks my heart to see our young people being maimed [losing arms & legs] for people who will go back to their old ways 30 days after our troops leave the country.. or turn even worse. Look what is happening in Egypt with its new government controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood.
I remember hill #669 in Vietnam.... the American soldiers had taken it and then retreated 1/2 dozen times.. with terrible loses. The news anchor was asking the General in charge just what the military significance of the hill was that made it so important? The reply was "Nothing! Nothing at all! It is all purely psychological! We take it and then give it up just to show the N. Vietnamese that we can do it any time we want to!" With another hill, the military reported having dropped over 400,000 tons of bombs on it [carpet bombing] and knew of only 3 confirmed enemy deaths.
A friend of mine had his company pinned down in a patch of rice patties with water between their knees & waists for several weeks. Bad weather / heavy rain kept reinforcements from reaching them. Finally the weather broke and several AC-47's carrying 'Puff the Magic Dragon' dropped down and bailed their butts out. He said they cried & cheered when those mini Gatling guns started spitting fire... making several passes side-by-side. Trees exploded into toothpicks and enemy soldiers disappeared like exploding water balloons. He lost all his teeth from drinking the filthy water-- Piarea--- said teeth just fell out while they were talking or eating sometimes. Everyone had intestinal parasites. Most of the company lost some toes from being wet for so long-- just rotted off. They slept back to back with a friend... their rifles slung to keep their heads out of the water. They had to crap & urinate in the water they were trapped in. My buddy was a 20 yr old cripple with false teeth when he came home. So I don't hold to hard feelings against some scared 18 yr old kid who wouldn't want to go into that kind of a war... especially one being commanded by idiots who thought the kids were merely cannon fodder!
