A Commandant against the Vietnam War.

[happydreams]

Many of us at DU have heard of Smedley Butler. Then we have the highly decorated Commandant Shoup advising JFK on the folly of Vietnam. Why do such courageous people fade from the history books?

David M. Shoup: A Warrior against War.


"I don't think," he told his audience then, "the whole of Southeast Asia, as related to the present and future safety and freedom of the people of this country, is worth the life or limb of a single American I believe that if we had and would keep our dirty bloody dollar crooked fingers out of the business of these nations so full of depressed exploited people, they will arrive at a solution of their own design and want, that they fight and work for. And if, unfortunately, their revolution must be of the violent type…at least what they get will be their own and not the American style, which they don't want…crammed down their throat" (p. 101).

Shoup was not the only ex-general voicing concerns about the Vietnam War, but as Jablon points out so clearly, his battlefield credentials were stunningly impressive at first glance (a former Marine commandant, he was the only recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor who survived the 72-hour battle of Tarawa in World War II—a battle, by the way, that caused considerable antiwar sentiment in the middle of World War II because of its extremely high American causalities) as were his political connections.




http://www.vvaw.org/veteran/article/?id=575

[jody]

1. I played poker with General Shoup on several occasions, an honor. n/t