“Let me be clear, your dad isn’t a bad person. He isn’t even trying to put out a bad message. I wish there was less war in the world. But as they say, ‘If wishes were horses, beggars would ride’.”

Phil spoke, “So you think we were right to go into Vietnam?”

“I don’t know. Ask me an easy one. Actually, let me ask a counter question. What would have happened if we didn’t go in?”

Neither boy knew.

“Well, it would have become a communist puppet state. It did anyway, but it would have happened faster. So did it’s neighbors. At the same time we were trying to convince large chunks of the rest of the world that the Soviets weren’t their friends. We needed to stand up and oppose them.

“I’m sure when you read the history books it sounds like the fall of communism was due to happen. In some ways it was because as a system it just doesn’t work. But nobody knew that back then. Or really, what I should say is that the few people that believed that weren’t listened to. The rest of the world thought that they could just support the masses and everything would be easy street. We now know that it isn’t true, but lots of people thought it was.

“What we did is said that free men were willing to go out there and stop the Reds.” Arthur shook his head, “God, I know this sounds crazy now. Kind of like someone talking about stopping the Confederates or the Roundheads. It’s important for you to know that there was an actual battle though and we needed to go out and fight it.

“Maybe Vietnam wasn’t the best place. Maybe we didn’t pick the right spot. We sure as hell didn’t get the support that we needed. If I could go back in time and talk to JFK what would I tell him? Get out of southeast Asia? I…just don’t know.”

They could see that he was in anguish. Neither of them knew that this topic was coming and both of them were a little embarrassed. They each just sat in silence, waiting for some subject that was more comfortable.

“Sorry guys, I don’t mean to be such a downer.”

“That’s ok,” Phil said. “We can tell that this means a lot to you.”

“It does. Look, it’s a big question, an important one. If it wasn’t difficult, it wouldn’t matter.”

“You’d join up again?”

“I would. Now look, I don’t want to gloss over the bad stuff. There probably were better spots for us to go into. We certainly shouldn’t have drafted people to go over and fight it. And we could have handled it better once we were over there. There really are bad wars, I don’t want to pretend that there aren’t.”

“How can you tell a bad one?”

“Another good question. Most times, I don’t think you can until much later.” They sat quiet for a moment. “There is something important that I want you to understand, though. I most definitely believe that there are good wars.”

“Like World War II,” said Alex.

“Yes. Even in World War I, a much murkier situation, we went in with good intentions.”

“That’s the road to hell.”

“Yes, Phil it is. But you have to take some road and I trust someone who tries to take the good one more than I do someone who takes the bad.”

Alex asked, “What if you end up in a bad war?”

“That’s easy. You try your best to do good.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, take the latest controversial one in Iraq. There are passionate arguments on each side about whether it’s a good war or a bad one. The soldiers over there listen to some of that but every day they get up and try to do some good. They change lives around them. In the worst of situations you can still be a force for the positive.”

“ ‘A force for the positive’, I like that.”

“Thanks, I probably heard it somewhere. I don’t think it’s an original thought.”

Phil again, “Do you think that dad’s doing the wrong thing with his Wonder?”

“No, not really. He has something important to say and he’s saying it. That’s as it should be. It’s a little different than how I’d say it but that’s ok, too. Free speech and all that.

“Look, Alex, I think your dad is a little worried because he thinks you only see the macho, gung-ho parts and don’t notice the serious downsides. He might be right about that. When your computer soldiers die, it doesn’t really hurt anything. You can restart the game and they come right back to life. The real world is different.”

“I know that!”

“I’m sure you do. He just wants to make sure that you know it in your heart. That’s all.” Alex still looked miffed. “Look, he’s your dad. He has to look out for you. Sometimes that means being overly cautious. This is important and he doesn’t want to screw it up.”

That seemed to calm him. Arthur looked over at Phil and noticed that he didn’t seem satisfied. He had a disbelieving look.