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“Liberty or death!” Patrick Henry thundered out that stark alternative to his fellow Patriots at the Second Virginia Convention 250 years ago on March 23, 1775. His words echoed across the colonies, which rose up and demanded independence. And his challenge has rung out in our nation ever since, inspiring countless Patriots over the centuries to fight for liberty, including in the Vietnam War.

I highlight the Vietnam War in particular because March 29 is Vietnam Veterans’ Day, a holiday founded in 2017 by Donald Trump to honor the brave veterans who too often came home to harassment, hatred, and outright violent attacks because of the media’s egregious and unpatriotic lies. “Disrespect for Vietnam vets is fact, not fiction,” wrote Vietnam veteran Bob Feist. He described spitting, egging, insults; he bought a wig to hide his military haircut. And these weren’t isolated incidents. “I am not aware of many Vietnam vets who were not subjected to some disrespect, either personal or from the culture that called us ‘baby killers.’”

In fact, my great-aunt was treated just as horribly by “peace” activists after her husband was killed in Vietnam, and I personally witnessed a young punk scream epithets in an elderly Vietnam veteran’s face. The U.S. media was happy to spread lies about Americans, but try finding any articles on the widespread and unspeakably horrendous murders, tortures, and other war crimes of the Communist Viet Cong, who slaughtered at least a million civilians on top of the U.S. and free Vietnamese soldiers it killed (read some details here, but be aware of highly graphic content).

The veterans of WWI, WWII, and previous U.S. wars went through hell, but at least a grateful nation heralded them as heroes when they came home. Such recognition was lacking for the much-maligned Vietnam War vets, the overwhelming majority of whom were not guilty of the “crimes” the media screamed they had committed. And yet our Vietnam vets no less than our veterans of any other war answered the clarion call of Patrick Henry and heeded his warning, “Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace– but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! … Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”

Some, like my great-uncle Bruce Webb, did indeed suffer death as the price of their heroism. Others survived, like Silver Star recipient Terry Ohlemeier, who flew one of the last helicopters out of Saigon (perforce leaving millions of Vietnamese behind to the mercy of Viet Cong butchers, a tragedy from which he never fully recovered). You can read more stories of courage and daring here. But even those who survived bore the scars, physical or emotional, till their dying days.

Like the Revolutionary Patriots and Founding Fathers, they suffered and fought and bled and died for freedom. That is a debt we can never repay, but we can at least honor Vietnamese veterans and all veterans not only on March 29, in person or online, but on every other day of the year. And may each one of us also vow that should we face the choice, we will always cry out with Patrick Henry, “As for me, give me liberty or give me death!”

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Image credit: Catherine Salgado