50 Years Ago This Week We Started Bombing Vietnam
The 1960sthat extraordinary decadeis celebrating its 50th birthday one year at a time. Happy birthday, 1965! How, though, do you commemorate the Vietnam War, the era's signature catastrophe? After all, our government prosecuted its brutal and indiscriminate war under false pretexts, long after most citizens objected, and failed to achieve any of its stated objectives. More than 58,000 Americans were killed along with more than four million Vietnamese, Laotians, and Cambodians.
So what exactly do we write on the jubilee party invitation? You probably know the answer. We've been rehearsing it for decades. You leave out every troubling memory of the war and simply say: "Let's honor all our military veterans for their service and sacrifice."
For a little perspective on the 50th anniversary, consider this: we're now as distant from the 1960s as the young Bob Dylan was from Teddy Roosevelt. For today's typical college students, the Age of Aquarius is ancient history. Most of their parents weren't even alive in 1965 when President Lyndon Johnson launched a massive escalation of the Vietnam War, initiating the daily bombing of the entire country, North and South, and an enormous buildup of more than half a million troops.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/02/50th-anniversay-vietnam-veterans-war
CanonRay
(14,103 posts)I personally believe 1968 was one of the worst years in the country's history. That damn war gave us Nixon, and then Reagan, and we've never recovered.
There have been horrors in the USA since we started as a country. So very many horrible years, especially during the hooverville times. Racism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, shit on the poor, hide the homeless, elevate the religious fanatics, etc etc etc. These are constants. They may change in degree from time to time but they're always there.
What seems to be different since 1968 is the hope and the outrage is, if not completely gone, certainly lacking.
We lost so much when we lost Martin and Bobby.
CanonRay
(14,103 posts)and it made me realize that we have always had these religious extremists in this country, and they were not much different in the 1920's than they are now; racist, homophobic, self-righteous. It actually made me feel a little better.
marym625
(17,997 posts)Not a ton of progress. Though I believe we have gone up and down in that, progress. We're just on a downswing.
Now I have to watch Elmer Gantry again. Been a long time
Ichingcarpenter
(36,988 posts)marym625
(17,997 posts)That this will all soon be forgotten. They are actually changing the history books about the Vietnam War.
http://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2014/10/16/propaganda-101-how-the-pentagon-is-trying-to-rewrite-vietnam-war-history/
On a side note, wow did this post make me feel old!