Forty-three Butler County soldiers lost their lives in America's painful Vietnam experience. They were among more than 58,000 United States troops killed in the Southeast Asia conflict.

Vietnam divided this country unlike any conflict since the Civil War, and in an unconscionable way, this nation's military personnel were wrongly made to face the brunt of the people's anger over the 10 years of this country's official involvement.

They didn't come home to praise, parades or other accolades for the bravery they demonstrated and the wounds they suffered - physical and emotional - in trying to defend South Vietnam against a Communist takeover by North Vietnam. Instead, they were shunned or were the object of scorn and ridicule.

References such as "baby killer" were directed at them.

Unrest on college campuses often focused on the purported wrongs of the military in carrying out its orders, when it was the nation's leaders whose policies and limits placed on the conduct of the war kept the military from achieving the quick, decisive victory of which it was capable.

Politicians were responsible for the United States' war effort failing, not the troops who were prohibited from fighting the war in the way it should have been fought - on the North Vietnamese's home turf, as well as in the South.

April 30, 1975, the end of America's official military presence in Vietnam, will be forever etched as a day this nation would like to forget, but never will. But fortunately, over the ensuing 30 years, an appreciation of what America's Vietnam-era troops sought to accomplish - and a greater appreciation of them - has evolved, and continues to grow across the land.

The happenings this week in Butler County to mark the 30th anniversary of the war's end testify to the commitment by some to continue that positive course - from the emotional ceremony held Sunday in Butler's Diamond Park to the week of activities scheduled at Post 249, Veterans of Foreign Wars, on Jefferson Street in the city.

Unfortunately, Sunday's ceremony was not as well-attended as it should have been but, then, even a gigantic throng of people clogging the streets of the downtown could not have provided the full degree of recognition for which Vietnam era troops are worthy.

Vietnam Veterans Recognition Week, which began Sunday, is notable from the standpoint of further healing the wounds that festered so tragically for much of a decade and that have not healed completely despite the passage of three decades since. Every opportunity should be seized to further the healing process.

Former President Gerald Ford, who was in office at the time of the evacuation of the American embassy in South Vietnam on April 30, 1975, provided an apt sentiment shortly before the 25th anniversary of the evacuation.

"April 1975 was indeed the cruelest month," he said. "The passage of time has not dulled the ache of those days, the saddest of my public life."

Even after the last Vietnam veteran has passed from this Earth, the Vietnam era and those who fought and supported the effort will continue to impact America's course in its dealings with other nations.