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John Ketwig: In His Own Words

By John Ketwig

VVAW member, John K. Ketwig, 78, of Bedford, died on Saturday, May 9, 2026. He is survived by his wife, Carolynn; daughters, Emily (Stephen) Preite and Thersa (Jason) Sarkissian; and grandsons, Cameron, Blake, and Jaxton. John was an author, writer, and speaker. John, a Vietnam Veteran, was dedicated to supporting veterans' issues. He had a long career in the automotive industry. John was a lifetime member of VVAW.

As of 2013, I am retired from an automotive career that included 17 years with Toyota, 7 years with Rolls-Royce / Bentley, 4 years as a consultant to Ford, 4 years with Hyundai, and 4 years with Prevost high-line buses and motor coaches. We have resettled to the Blue Ridge area of Virginia and are enjoying life.

...and a hard rain fell came about almost by accident. I had never written more than a letter when I began to write down my experiences related to the war in Vietnam. To my utter surprise, a chain of cosmic circumstances led to my recollections becoming a book! ...and a hard rain fell was first published in hardcover by Macmillan in 1985; I'm very proud that it has been on bookstore shelves for more than 35 years!

The Vietnam era was one of the most turbulent times in America's history. Still, few reference materials are available to today's students seeking to understand the questions and social forces that contributed to the unrest. I am fortunate to speak to many high school and college classes, and I have answered many questions. The one that I hear most often is some variation of "I understand that Vietnam is important, but I don't know why."

With time in retirement, I began researching the entire Vietnam era in search of final answers. The result is a second book, published in 2019. Vietnam Reconsidered: The War, the Times, and Why They Matter is my final statement on the Vietnam War. At long last, I have come to terms with Vietnam. The problem is, I have three grandsons, and I fear for their futures. America has become the most militarized, warlike society in history. I will be an opponent of militarism and war until the day I die. My books are anti-war, but not anti-American. One loves the sick child but abhors the disease. I have made every effort to determine what really happened, and to define my generation's history before, during, and after the war. I have also described the ubiquitous corruption that affected the war at every level. A friend's father worked in the highest levels of the CIA in Southeast Asia at the time, and he told his son, "The story that this war is about stopping communism is just a coverup. This war is about the drug business." As Vietnam Reconsidered relates, that theory makes far more sense than the lies we have been told for decades.

John Ketwig