Vietnam Truths at a New York Memorial: Blumenthal tries to put Vietnam controversy behind him

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal (D), running for the open U.S. Senate seat there, sought to quash the controversy bubbling around him with regard to his military service.

The embattled Democratic candidate for senator, has probably already made plans for the Memorial Day weekend. He’s got a lot of campaigning to do, and some explaining, too.

The New York Times has reported on instances when Blumenthal has said he served “in” Vietnam, when he actually served in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves and was never deployed to the combat zone.

“On a few occasions, I have misspoken about my service, and I regret that, and I take full responsibility,” Blumenthal said at a news conference today surrounded by supportive veterans from Connecticut. “But I will not allow anyone to take a few misplaced words and impugn my record of service to our country.”

Blumenthal stressed that he has referred to his service in the reserves on a number of occasions and that the events, illuminated by the Times and the Republican campaign for Linda McMahon, were “absolutely unintentional.”

He added that he incorrectly used the word “in” instead of “during.”

“A few misplaced words,” Blumenthal said. “Totally unintentional.”

But if he can find time, he may want to drive down to New York and visit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on Water Street in the financial district. There, he could learn a thing or two about that war from men who actually fought it—unlike Mr. Blumenthal, who has on occasion claimed to have been there, though the closest he may have gotten to a Vietnam experience is at Saigon Kitchen in Hartford.

New York’s Vietnam memorial, tucked between two office buildings, doesn’t get many visitors, even on days devoted to remembering America’s war dead.

It is a simple monument but also a moving one. Two rows of granite blocks bear the names of 1,741 New Yorkers who died in the war. The dominant feature, however, is a long wall of thick glass. Etched into it are soldiers’ haunting reflections on war, taken from diary entries and letters home.

“I have aged greatly,” Cpl. Kevin Macaulay wrote to his parents in 1968. “I feel like an old man now. I have seen enough of war and its destruction. I am scarred by it but not scared enough to quit.”

Pfc. William A. Maguire Jr. wrote in 1969: “We are all scared. They say when fear is in a man, he is prepared for anything. When fear possesses the man he is prepared for nothing. As of now fear is in me. I hope I can keep it from possessing me.” Three weeks after writing that, Private Maguire died of a fever. He was 20.

Should Mr. Blumenthal come to New York, he would find much to contemplate. Not everything on the wall is heartbreaking. Some soldiers spoke of their mission with pride. Some asked what was up back home. One man, Sgt. Raymond Wahl, said he would “give just about anything for a hot bath, some clean clothes and a cold drink of good old New York City water.” All of it is intensely human.

Even without a visit to the memorial, Mr. Blumenthal probably knows this. He is 64, a product of the Vietnam era. He’s just not a product of the Vietnam War, despite an impression he has at times given that he is, as he did in 2008, when he said point-blank that he had served in Vietnam.