We should memorialize all soldiers who died serving America’s interests

Beginning with the Revolutionary War, almost 1.4 million Americans have died in our nation’s wars, including about 667,000 killed in combat. We remember, honor and mourn those gallant souls every year on Memorial Day. Those Americans who have served in or near war zones carry their memories throughout the year. It should not be just a once-a-year observance for everyone else.

The country’s more recent conflicts, starting with Vietnam, have seen a blurring of battle lines, where American service personnel has teamed up with local national troops to suppress insurgent forces. For those who have worked hand-in-hand with local forces — South Vietnamese, Iraqis or Afghans — it is hard to forget those locals who gave their lives in the common cause. 

Although our Memorial Day is for the commemoration of our war dead, it is also appropriate to honor those foreign partners on this special day.

For most of my tour in Vietnam, I lived and worked alongside South Vietnamese soldiers from the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVNs), most of whom were Roman Catholics from Cao Xa, a village near Tay Ninh City in Tay Ninh Province. As human beings, they had the same hopes and aspirations as most Americans. I trusted them with my life and I believe most of them trusted America. I can’t think of America’s fallen without thinking of them. 

Almost 300,000 ARVNs died in the war and we left many more of them to a horrible fate. They deserve remembrance and respect. I know that many Americans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan feel the same about their foreign partners. When you form trusting bonds in wartime, it is hard to break them.

Cao Xa Village had an inspiring, but cautionary story that is very much relevant to the current struggle facing the courageous people of Ukraine. The people of Cao Xa were Catholics and the village was presided over by their priest, Father Nguyen Huu Dzu. Cao Xa was originally located in North Vietnam, but the good Father Dzu moved the entire village to South Vietnam in 1954 to escape Communist persecution. 

They were mortal enemies of the Communists. During the next 20 years, the Communists repeatedly attacked the village, but every villager — men, women and children — took up arms to fight off the assaults. It was not uncommon to hear furious nighttime firefights at Cao Xa. Dzu was constantly scrounging weapons, ammunition and other supplies from the U.S. Army, adding to the stockpile salvaged from dead enemy soldiers. 

Cao Xa ceased to exist in April 1975, when South Vietnam fell to Communist forces. That defeat resulted in large part from the failure of the United States to honor President Nixon’s solemn promise to supply the government with ample war material and provide massive air support in the event of a significant invasion by North Vietnam. When the North attacked, we provided no air support and the South Vietnamese government folded in a panic, much like the panic that led to the collapse of the Afghan government in 2021. 

It is unknown exactly what happened to the people of Cao Xa, but the Communists had repeatedly threatened to annihilate the village and it is likely that my ARVN friends and many other adults were murdered. I visited the area in 2018, and there is no sign that Cao Xa ever existed. There is still a village, but its name is Chau Thanh. The Catholic church is gone. The tragedy is that we could likely have prevented it, had we honored Nixon’s pledge of support — a cautionary tale for the Ukraine War.

Although our relationship with the people of Ukraine is at a different level, where we are mostly non-combat partners providing moral support and weaponry from the sidelines, I have the same feeling about those valiant humans as I did with the people of Cao Xa. The Ukrainians are fighting and dying in a war that serves the vital national interests of the United States and NATO, as well as our allies on the other side of the planet. Ukraine is the proverbial point of the spear that protects freedom and democracy from the despotic regimes in Russia, China and Iran.

If we allow Russia to prevail, it will give great encouragement to the autocrats, quite possibly leading to a spread of hostilities to Taiwan and any number of Asian, African and South American nations currently in the sights of Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping.

It is essential to America’s strategic interests that Ukraine prevail in Putin’s genocidal war. As I have previously written, the U.S. needs to increase and expedite the supply of war materiel to Ukraine.

As of April 12, Ukraine had reportedly suffered 124,500-131,000 total casualties, including 15,500-17,500 killed in action. Because their fight is largely our fight, it would be most appropriate to remember and mourn them, along with our own war dead and our foreign partners who died in supporting the interests of the United States.

On Memorial Day, I’ll be remembering my 58,220 brothers and sisters who died serving their country in Vietnam. I’ll also be thinking of Father Dzu, the courageous people of Cao Xa and my ARVN friends from that village, including Lieutenants Dinh and Tanh, Captain Thanh and interpreter Tom, who were with us all the way until we abandoned them to their ugly fate in 1975.

Jim Jones is a Vietnam combat veteran who served 8 years as Idaho Attorney General (1983-1991) and 12 years as a Justice on the Idaho Supreme Court (2005-2017). He is a regular contributor to The Hill online news.