A FEW YEARS AGO, I KNELT AND TOOK A RUBBING from the Vietnam Memorial wall in Washington--the name of Aloysius P. McGonigal. I knew the story of his death. McGonigal, a Jesuit priest, had found his way to Vietnam as a chaplain. During the Tet offensive in early 1968, he seized an M-16 and tried to storm the citadel in the old imperial capital of Hue. He died going up the hill, with a communist's bullet in his head.
The chaplain's charge went against the Geneva Convention, but not against his own nature. Pat Buchanan and I had known Father McGonigal...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
