Saturday, April 08, 2006
Vietnam 2
I entered college in the fall of 1966 with
a student deferment (later a F4 -physical
on account of chronic asthma). The war
dragged on and on, week after week, month
after month, year after year. Every
week night the TV evening news informed
us of the body count of American fighting
men killed in the war as well as the
estimated enemy dead. Walter Cronkite
then told us reassuringly “That is the way
is it on May 22, 1967" (or whatever day).
While I never was involved with the
anti-Vietnam war movement I could
understand the motives of those who
were. They didn’t want to become cannon
fodder for a no-win war. It is one thing to
fight and even die in a war in which you
are protecting your country and its freedom
and where victory is a clear cut objective
and another where you are sent to a country
where the only real objective is to see if you
can survive for 12 months.
I could understand the frustration of my
generation with the seemingly endless conflict.
However the anti-war movement was influenced
and infiltrated with extreme militant New Left
groups (SDA, Weathermen) that sought and
in large measure were successful in “radicalizing”
the movement. It turned into being not only
an anti-war, but in large measure an
anti-America movement.
a student deferment (later a F4 -physical
on account of chronic asthma). The war
dragged on and on, week after week, month
after month, year after year. Every
week night the TV evening news informed
us of the body count of American fighting
men killed in the war as well as the
estimated enemy dead. Walter Cronkite
then told us reassuringly “That is the way
is it on May 22, 1967" (or whatever day).
While I never was involved with the
anti-Vietnam war movement I could
understand the motives of those who
were. They didn’t want to become cannon
fodder for a no-win war. It is one thing to
fight and even die in a war in which you
are protecting your country and its freedom
and where victory is a clear cut objective
and another where you are sent to a country
where the only real objective is to see if you
can survive for 12 months.
I could understand the frustration of my
generation with the seemingly endless conflict.
However the anti-war movement was influenced
and infiltrated with extreme militant New Left
groups (SDA, Weathermen) that sought and
in large measure were successful in “radicalizing”
the movement. It turned into being not only
an anti-war, but in large measure an
anti-America movement.
# posted by Dino Don @ 10:12 AM 
