WASHINGTON â€" Most Memorial Day messages from presidents involve the sort of solemn boilerplate remarks that barely break through the barbecue smoke and picnic chatter. On Monday, President Obama took a decidedly different tack: He noted the end of one war, promised the end of another and sought closure and healing for a third.
Under a scorching Washington sun, Obama addressed families of fallen American troops in recent wars, reminding them that he put an end to U.S. combat in Iraq and put a timeline on the war in Afghanistan. Hours later, he spoke to graying Vietnam war veterans, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the start of that long conflict, offering them the greeting many feel they had never received.
"Welcome home," Obama told the veterans, men and women who've been home for 37 years. "Welcome home. Thank you."
It is the phrase Obama would like voters to remember, and one that has appeared in his campaign videos. As a politician who first ran for office on an antiwar platform but inherited two wars when he entered the White House, Obama has spent much of his presidency trying to get to â€" and appear close to â€" the homecomings.
That desire is particularly strong now, as the president plows into high campaign season, facing the race of his career and dwindling public support for the war in Afghanistan, the conflict most likely to be labeled by history as "his."
He spent last week tying a bow on his Afghanistan timeline, declaring that he could see a time when "the war as we understand it is over." He spent the morning of Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery, where he told a small crowd that the nation had reached a "milestone" of relative peace.
"After a decade under a dark cloud of war, we can see the light of a new day on the horizon," Obama said after laying a wreath of red and white roses at the Tomb of the Unknowns.
That horizon is still about two years away. Obama has said most troops would be out of Afghanistan by the end of 2014, but he has not revealed a more precise withdrawal schedule. Meanwhile, the president has quietly deployed U.S. forces in other arenas, preferring drone strikes to invasions, covert operations to infantry.
Still, he has faced familiar criticism from Republicans â€" including his likely challenger, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney â€" that the withdrawal timeline may embolden the enemy and is based on political realities, not conditions on the ground.
But the president has said he is mindful of the U.S. overstaying its welcome. Sticking with long-term military operations that include massive footprints can be "counter-productive," he said last week.
On Monday, he pointed to history. At 50, he is too young to have served in Vietnam, or really to have protested against the war. But speaking to veterans gathered at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, Obama spoke of the lessons of that distant conflict in language that was undeniably current.
"Let us resolve that when America sends our sons and daughters into harm's way, we will always give them a clear mission; we will always give them a sound strategy; we will give them the equipment they need to get the job done," Obama said, reviving the themes of his critique of the Iraq war as waged by his predecessor.
Obama also took on a more painful part of the legacy of Vietnam â€" the antiwar movement that shaped the Democratic Party for decades, and, some argue, damaged it in the eyes of a generation of military veteran voters.
The mistreatment of some Vietnam veterans when they came home helped make the war "one of the most painful chapters in our history," Obama said.
"You were often blamed for a war you didn't start, when you should have been commended for serving your country with valor," he said. "You were sometimes blamed for misdeeds of a few, when the honorable service of the many should have been praised. You came home and sometimes were denigrated, when you should have been celebrated. It was a national shame, a disgrace that should have never happened."
Decades delayed, but a memorable welcome home.
kathleen.hennessey@latimes.com
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