General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsJust finished tonight's episode of The Vietnam War. 1968.
What a shit show of a year.
Makes me thnk: Do we have a 1968 in the cards just around the corner? I hope not.
pangaia
(24,324 posts)Then I was in Memphis when MLK was assassinated.
I had played a jazz gig the night before downtown.
My sister was in LA when Bobby was assassinated.
csziggy
(34,120 posts)The thought HAD gone through my mind.
muntrv
(14,505 posts)US had no chance, between M16s jamming or fighting in the highlands where the enemy was hiding.
Chasstev365
(5,191 posts)spanone
(135,635 posts)unc70
(6,095 posts)I have yet to screw up my courage to begin watching this series. Just one damn thing after another.
whathehell
(28,969 posts)Too sad. I lived through it.
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)Sure brings back memories, plus more information than I had at the time.
Spent 1964 down here in Ala.
All of the pushback on Trump, via the "take teh knee" this week, makes me feel hopeful.
whathehell
(28,969 posts)so that may be easier to watch.
I'm very happy to see the NFL pushback on Trump...How it might translate to political action to get rid of him, I don't know.
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)Down here they don't ask about your religion, or even your political stance. They DO ask which football teams (s) you root for.
It is the one thing that trumps Trump.
whathehell
(28,969 posts)but my post is about Vietnam, so I suspect you're responding to the wrong poster.
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)senior moment......
whathehell
(28,969 posts)At my age, I have whole DAYS that are senior moments.
sinkingfeeling
(51,276 posts)also got married in July '68. I point to Bobby's murder as my turning point. Cast aside both the politics and religion of my family that year. Started protesting.
Warpy
(110,908 posts)because Tet was proof positive that MacNamara and the Pentagon insiders were lying about that war every single step of the way. It wasn't too long after that that LBJ said he'd had enough lies and refused to run again. It was a pure shitshow of a year and even being young didn't help.
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)I was 18 in Nov. 1963, got married in Dec. after my then husband finished boot camp and had orders to train for a year at Ft. Rucker, Ala, helicopter school, so we moved down here to Ala. for all of 1964.
People talk in the military, and it was no secret at all that he was going to Viet Nam Jan 1965, that it WAS going to involve shooting and fighting with teh helicopters.
Yet Kennedy said, in late 1963, there were only "advisors" in Nam, the number was sorta kept secret but Burns says, in the series, 16,000 in 1963.
turned out to be lucky for us there was not as much fighting as there was in '68 when my poor brother was sent over there.
all that "advisor" bullshit, and "no boots on the ground" bs that has been fed to us about Iraq, about Afghanistan, etc. all these years is just a repeat of Nam. Gov't has zero credibility about who we invade.
Warpy
(110,908 posts)but the only time I ditched school was to stand silent vigil with the Quakers once a week. It was the only anti Vietnam thing going on when I did it. Lunch and study hall seemed less important.
Scruffy1
(3,239 posts)Voicee of reaon were squelched and deemed unpatriotic. I lost friends. The same old crap played over again in 2003. The media was complicit then and complicit now. It seems in America you can sell them anything and get away with anything as long as you keep the proles entertained with sports and celebrity gossip.
GP6971
(31,017 posts)much as Afghanistan is. What awaits us under Dolt45 is will quick death for many of us. After the election I told my SIL that we'll all be dead within 2 years.
former9thward
(31,802 posts)We will all be here, minus normal death rates, in two years. I heard the same nonsense in 1981 when Reagan took office.
GP6971
(31,017 posts)voice my objection to their votes for Dolt45. Haven't heard from her since.
Warpy
(110,908 posts)I went to the marina and picked out the seaworthy ketch I was going to steal when shit got too real.
former9thward
(31,802 posts)I believe in being prepared. But I think a natural event is the most likely cause of a sudden mass human calamity, not a human caused one.
LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)"Nostradamus you are not. We will all be here.."
Seems you place as much faith in your own prophecy as he did in his. No doubt, we all of us defend fortune-telling as an absolute when it's our own and strokes our wee bias...
BigmanPigman
(51,430 posts)Tet Offensive and/or My Lai? I have been watching the series and anticipate that this will/must be covered.
sinkingfeeling
(51,276 posts)BigmanPigman
(51,430 posts)I was 17 (1979) in High School then college and have been anti-war since. I think that is one reason I feel compelled to do whatever I can to understand and stop anything like it from happening again in my lifetime.
I still have my "STOP THE DRAFT" button from my first (of many)protests from 1979 when Carter wanted to reinstate the draft.
world wide wally
(21,719 posts)BigmanPigman
(51,430 posts)mitch96
(13,817 posts)Came out one day and the window was broken.... grrrrr..
I graduated high school in '68.. Some friends went over there, some did not come back alive.. Very hard to watch this documentary... So many stories, I'm still PISSED over the lies the politicians told us and I'm very wary of what ever war these oligarchs want to get us in...
M
world wide wally
(21,719 posts)Jim Beard
(2,535 posts)I didn't obey anyone over 25 and to this day I am chastised because I didn't serve. I watched another PBS program, Battlefield Vietnam and that is all I need. The shock of John Kennedy (AND yes, there were snide remarks from republicans then.)
Everybody was lying to each other.
My college advisor said I must take ROTC (Rot-c) I did 2 years and that was enough. After that you voluntary signed up as cannon fodder. I didn't.
Anyway, I wasn't healthy enough to be killed.
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)The Age of Aquarius indeed.
The entire country was going thru a tremendous metamorphoses, esp. on the West Coat, where I was at the time.
It was pretty intense, on a daily basis, and also hell in "Nam at the time.
A lot of us went thru great personal change in a very short time. I remember there was so much energy, so much challenge of the status quo on a lot of fronts.
the Gov't lost the country after Chicago Democratic Convention riots, when the cops went so crazy.
It felt like then like it feels now, with trump....we are approaching another crisis, another huge change in direction in this country.
I am encouraged at all the rapid pushback to his insane comments and ideas.
kentuck
(110,950 posts)and second tour was over in April 69...I spent the year of '68 in 'Nam.
erinlough
(2,176 posts)We met and married in 74 he had come home from Vietnam in 70. He was in Siagon in 68. He suffered from undiagnosed ptsd all during our time together. We rarely spoke about his service. My son says he only began talking about it in the last ten years. Im so glad he has. He is a good man, a brave man and what he must have seen and gone through makes me sad, but gives me a sense of why he was so tormented. Thank you to all the service members from my generation for their service.