A war that was never formally declared, fought on the other side of the world, largely by our minorities and poor, sent to fight by rich white men who’d dodged combat or never served, in hostile, unfamiliar terrain where our full military might means nothing, humbled by dug-in natives who fight from caves and tunnels and vow to carry on until we go. And even as we fail and can no longer articulate an end goal, presidents from both parties send more and more soldiers to fight and die, over decades, rather than admit defeat.
Sound familiar?
There are many reasons we’ve never gotten over Vietnam: To really examine that war is to admit that America isn’t always right or good, and in fact is capable of great brutality for self-serving reasons. Vietnam was our nation’s first global humiliation. The ugly treatment our Vietnam veterans were given by their fellow Americans upon returning home and the resultant alienation of those veterans led to an epic schism in the American psyche, one that’s never even begun to heal. For all the Hollywood movies made about that war, Vietnam has remained a largely unexplained and misunderstood era in American history.
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8 comments:
Vietnam was just a mirror image of the Korean war. It set the stage for the protests because the American people's patience was already pushed to the limit.
President actively discredited protesters by associating blacks with heroin and whites with marijuana calling them hippees. This was admitted openly by a presidential aid.
It was not a "folly" to the 50,000 plus US servicemen that died there, or to their families. No one should try to diminish the service by calling it a "folly."
The war was folly. The deaths were a result of that folly. 2 million civilians of both north and south. 1.1 million NV and VC fighters. 200-250,000 south Viet Nam soldiers also died.
58,200 American soldiers who were either KIA or MIA, while tragic, is a drop in the bucket compared to the civilians and soldiers on both sides who were killed.
War is ALWAYS folly. Created by politicians, but who never fight, but fought by our children.
Just as we will always have the poor among us, we will always have war.
America Has Been at War 93% of the Time – 222 out of 239 Years – Since 1776.
The U.S. Has Only Been At Peace For 21 Years Total Since Its Birth, as published in 2011.
It would seem our moniker of a "war-mongering nation" is justified.
Peace only comes to nations who show their strength. If we stood by and did nothing during WWII, do you think we would be free today? There are reasons we get involved whether they are openly known or not.
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Peace only comes to nations who show their strength. If we stood by and did nothing during WWII, do you think we would be free today? There are reasons we get involved whether they are openly known or not.
September 16, 2017 at 6:48 AM
And that's why we have had 21 years of peace? You mean there are REASONS for war? I thought a war was just a different kind of travel agent.
Many enlisted, served, and died for no more than doing their duty to serve this great nation. Anyone that calls that a part of some folly disrespects that service to their country. No liberal PBS documentary opinion piece is going to change my mind about the ones that died in service to their country, whether voluntarily, or by conscription. This is just the usual liberal crap trying to turn their minions against anything our government does, or has done. This is the anti-American left doing what it does; trying to turn Americans against America. I've seen so much far left crap coming out of PBS, I don't watch or listen to it. Consider the source folks. Don't let them influence your thinking. Think for yourself. They want you to think that all those servicemen died in vain, and that the ones that survived, that their service was somehow diminished by some idea of "folly." Shame on that writer. I am a Vietnam-era veteran, and I am offended.
September 16, 2017 at 10:26 AM:
Thank you for your service.
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