SPEAKING UP FOR AMERICA
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There is a rational and fair minded literature on the Vietnam War in its many aspects, and this book will be a permanent part of it. Prepared originally as public speeches just before, during, and just after the war was waged, and while passions grew and didn’t very much subside, it is a professional historian’s view of America’s long effort to bring freedom and democracy to a hard pressed planet. Long in gestation, most of the prose is over 40 years old but was delivered in formal speeches contemporaneously with an American war that proved horrendous. Audiences intending to honor America’s veterans, and others prepared to revisit the wars the nation waged to bring independence, free the slave and preserve the Union, crush the Kaiser, and put Tojo, Mussolini, and especially Hitler in the dung heap of history, came to hear Vaughn Davis Bornet, historian, retired Naval Reserve officer, and recipient of a Freedoms Foundation Award, deliver modern orations in praise of the United States of America. The locale was Ashland and Medford, Oregon, and several other places modest in size, all located in the Rogue River Valley (in Southern Oregon only a dozen miles north of the California border, and all in Jackson County). The region is known worldwide for it Shakespearian Festival and its Britt Music Festival. It is the home of the beautiful Southern Oregon University campus and of world wonder Crater Lake. \\ One speech, on July 4, 1966, was given to 1,500 natives and visitors in the outdoor bandshell of Lithia Park. The words were venerable and the scene historic. Said the speaker, America is a land that we know from personal experience and whose past we know vicariously. Residing as I do in the lovely old town of Ashland, Oregon, in a green valley surrounded by mountains, often snow covered, deep in the Western United States, I feel a need to evoke a sense of our national history. What good can be accomplished by revisiting the past? We shall see. Speaking to that point, Woodrow Wilson once wrote, years before he became a national figure, “the past has made the present, and will make the future.” Enlarging on this, he asked, “Shall we not constantly recall our reassuring past, reminding one another again and again, as our memories fail us, of the significant incidents of the long journey we have already come, in order that we may be cheered and guided upon the road we have yet to choose and follow?” If we will but study the past, said Wilson, study our history again and again, we may conquer the “rushing movement of affairs” and somehow form “an adequate image of our life as a nation.” Is it not possible that from study of our national past will come understanding of our national character; and from assessment of that character today can grow a sense of wisdom about ourselves and some feeling for the probable future? What is our Past? What has been the nature of our character as a nation? In a changing America in a changing world, will we live up to the best in our past? Man is denied the right to know what the future holds, but a great people, united into a great nation, ought to be agreed on what we want to take with us into the future. *** *** *** Concluding a speech to the largest Rotary Club in Medford at major the time, Dr. Bornet spoke words that needed to be heard: If we are judicious, … we do know that in the 1960s Americans in Southeast Asia tried, as before in their national history, to further the cause of self-determination and self-government. They tried again (and many are now saying “once too often”) to contain Communism within existing boundaries. To some extent—we do not yet know how much—our fighting men have succeeded in advancing this basic overall goal of this century of the common man. Let it be suggested that even if none of our hopes should ultimately be realized, our Vietnam veterans are absolutely entitled to respect and esteem from their fellow citizens. Shall we fail to honor those who served our nation and humanity by fighting to preserve political rights for Asian peoples? Such Army, Navy, and Air Force personnel, the living and the departed, made the effort to spread freedom in a distant part of the planet—freedom for people they did not know and freedom for generations not yet born. We must honor them. Let us, then, suitably preserve on Memorial Day the memory of the Vietnam veterans, the memory of men who were willing to lay down their lives in the Cause of national self-determination and freedom for Asians they did not know. More than this, remembering our national past, and considering the thermonuclear threats to our own national existence, we need to thank these courageous men for preserving the American military tradition of full devotion to duty, honor, and Country.
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About the Book
Haven’t read anything positive about the United States of America lately? Can hardly remember exactly why we fought all those wars or what that is worthwhile came out of them? The author of this book of 12 speeches and several essays was the invited speaker in those difficult Sixties and Seventies on Independence Day, Naturalization Day, Memorial Day, and Veterans Day at gatherings in Southern Oregon. There he spoke from the heart (and his years of historical training) to the matter of our wars and their reasons for being waged. Large audiences and small alike stood or sat while Vaughn Davis Bornet delivered short orations that speak directly to sensitive matters. In the Country and around the World at the time there grew to be muttering and questioning; many “tuned out” or “dropped out” as the drug culture and draft resistance moved in on the spirit that had won World War II and earlier World War I. The Rogue River Valley is a place of small towns; the locale is just north of California, in the mountains, but Ashland, Medford, and the smaller places are in valleys where old values continue to be honored in ceremonies that honor our service personnel year after year. This book, whose prose is in most cases forty years old, returns readers to an older time. It does so without apology, for the author admits from the very beginning to being “patriotic.” His essay/speeches are, in a word no longer in general use, patriotics. The author’s publications and bio appear on pages 150 -153. Since most of the words in this book were created to be spoken aloud, why not read a few paragraphs or pages to a friend or relative?
About the Author
THE AUTHOR’S MILITARY, CIVILIAN, AND GOVERNMENT SERVICE
The author of this book, Vaughn Davis Bornet, served in World War II for four years and four months—beginning in September, 1941. He was at the outset a Yeoman First Class in Naval Intelligence (Cable and Radio Censorship), was commissioned Ensign after a year, and attended Naval Training School (Indoctrination) for two months at Quonset Pt., R.I. Having served at Assistant Personnel Officer, Seventh Naval District and Gulf Sea Frontier, he later was made an assistant at Com Fair North Island, and then served out the war as Barracks Officer for Fleet Air Alameda, where he rose to full Lieutenant.
Remaining in the Naval Reserve, so that he served 23 years before final retirement (rising to full Commander, USNR), he did innumerable tours of two weeks duty, postwar, in such places as Treasure Island, Moffett Field, Alameda Oakland, Los Alamitos, El Toro, Pensacola, Great Lakes, Glenview, and the carrier Bennington. He took many courses, gave lecture series in various locales (with and without pay), and was generally active. His retirement was sooner than his son’s (32 years) and was precipitated by his move from the 11th to the 12th Naval District in 1963, where annual two weeks duty assignments ceased being routine.
Beth W. Bornet, his wife of over 65 years, spent some time employed by the Girl Scouts of America as a Leader-Trainer. Their daughter earned the Curved Bar in the Girl Scouts and their son rose to Eagle Scout (the elder Bornet only to Life Scout). Vaughn was an active Sigma Chi and for over four decades has been a Rotarian. He served 17 years on the U. S. Civil Rights Commission for the State of Oregon. He brought a varied background to his self assigned task of offering public orations and essays to his fellow citizens in Southern Oregon.