To the editor:

Returning Vietnam soldiers were treated as though they were responsible for the war. Shakespeare, in “Henry V,” distinguishes the responsibility of the soldier from the responsibility of his commander in chief.

On the eve of battle, King Henry, in disguise, talks with two of his men, to take their measure, “Me thinks I could not die anywhere so contented as in the king’s company, his cause being just and his quarrel honorable.”

Williams responds, “That’s more than we know.”

Bates adds, “Ay, or more than we should seek after. For we know enough if we know we are the King’s subjects. If his cause be wrong, our obedience to the King wipes the crime of it out of us.”

Williams replies, “But if the cause be not good, the king himself hath a heavy reckoning to make, when all those legs and arms and heads chopped off in a battle shall join together at the latter day, and cry all, ‘We died at such a place – some swearing, some crying for a surgeon, some upon their wives left poor behind them, some upon the debts they owe, some upon their children rawly left. I am afeared there are few die well that die in a battle, for how can they charitably dispose of anything, when blood is their argument? Now, if these men do not die well, it will be a black matter for the King that led them to it – who to disobey were against all proportion of subjection.”

Richard Cole,

Lawrence