With John Kerry now Secretary of State and former Senator Chuck Hagel now Secretary of Defense, much is being made of the breakthrough they represent: This is the first time that veterans of the Vietnam War will have occupied those two senior cabinet positions.
These men, each sobered in his own way by combat, know the miseries of warfare, and seem to have absorbed their lessons. But outside the glare of this spotlight on uniformed veterans, there are other Americans, those who went to Vietnam out of uniform, who also saw the miseries close at hand as they tried to do some good for ordinary people.
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