I remember the body counts from Vietnam. Every week the TV news would post a summary. Every week it was several hundred Americans killed and several thousand Vietnamese dead. Week after week, endless body bags.
I remember watching Walter Cronkite on the evening news. I still remember sitting next to my Mother watching CBS Evening NEWS showing the news clip of that now famous pic of a high ranking South Vietnamese official, I think he was the mayor of Saigon, shoot that captured Viet Cong guy point blank in the head with a pistol. GROSS! I was maybe 11 or 12 and thought OMG, this shit is absolutely fucking NUTS! Super horrific! What a crazy time.
My Dad was worried one of his son's, there are 4 of us, would get sent into that meat grinder. That college draft deferment was a big reason some guys, including my oldest brother, went to school back then and made sure they passed. The US finally pulled out, after wreaking all that carnage, just as I became eligible, thank God.
Still ranks high in my mind as one of the stupidest things those old and middle aged fucking politicians did to the young people. But that was only the beginning. Lot more crazy shit came later too. Now just SSDD.