Friday, May 23, 2014

Romancing the War



The Vietnam War Memorial contains the names of over fifty eight thousand dead U.S. Servicemen.

Something that has been bothering me the last few years is the re-writing of history of the Vietnam War. Unfortunately many people confuse supporting the troops who fought in the war, with supporting the war. You can totally support those who fought in Vietnam without thinking that they fought for a noble cause. The individual U.S. Serviceman may have thought he was fighting for his country and should be commended, rewarded, and thanked for that. But it doesn't mean that what somebody thought was happening, was really the truth. The government of the United States regularly lied about the facts in Vietnam. For instance, the Gulf of Tonkin 'incident' that Lyndon Johnson used to ramp up the war was mostly a fabrication. Then there was the Domino Theory, where it was stated that if Vietnam fell to the communists, the entirety of Southeast Asia would go communist. We lost that war, Vietnam went communist, and that's where it ended except for Cambodia. Which was possibly destabilized by our involvement, causing the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot to come to power.

            58,220 American servicemen died in Vietnam. Over a million Vietnamese, a third of them civilians, died. 303,704 U.S. servicemen were injured. 2,338 U.S. servicemen were/are missing in action. 12 million gallons of Agent Orange defoliant with dioxin (Manufactured by Monsanto and Dow. A lot of people were making a lot of money off the Vietnam War.) were sprayed on the country of Vietnam by the United States, almost half of that on food crops.

            So whether drafted into the Vietnam War, or volunteered, let's all remember the U.S. Servicemen who died in that conflict this weekend. They deserve no less. As for the war itself, I still think it was the most ill conceived, and murderous event perpetrated by our government since slavery. 

Read about the Vietnam War, click here.

4 comments:

  1. It was not any where near the same level- but Iraq was the same lie repurposed. People still believe Iraq was involved in 911. Halliburton made shitloads. It's amazing how many people are so easily bullshitted.

    ReplyDelete
  2. What broke my heart at the time was the way our guys were "welcomed" home....with hatred and name-calling. No wonder so many ended up with mental issues.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Peggy, that is another myth. Yes, some extremist, leftists said horrible shit about guys who were in the war, but I never heard or saw that among my friends. A number of people who I hung out with were veterans of the Vietnam War. We all got high on pot together, listened to the same music together, and nothing negative was ever said about them serving. One guy in particular had severe wounds and scars from the war. I remember smoking a lot of pot with him.
    Just be glad your brothers figured out how to dodge the draft and that war.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I never saw that reaction in person, but it was shown on the news. Rick was lucky enough to get #325 in the draft lottery.....but it's possible his eyesight would have kept him out!

    ReplyDelete