Word: vietnam
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...American people were divided on the war. Any democracy should respect, indeed welcome, a diversity of public opinion. But the tragedy of Vietnam was that while America vainly groped for a national consensus, while people invoked political ideals to justify the terrible violence, our soldiers ravaged a foreign land with the most gruesome display ever of the high technology of death. We almost destroyed an entire culture. Why? Does anyone really know...
...Vietnam did not destroy our national purpose. But it did severely undermine some of our most basic assumptions by demonstrating the pragmatic consequences of these beliefs. Vietnam has forced us to reconsider out values, to reexamine the role we wish to play in the world community, and to rethink the image we want to project to other people. This is not a matter of isolationsism vs. activism. but of coming to grips with the understanding that we cannot unilaterally impose our will throughout the world, that other cultures and nations deserve our respect, and that self-interest is not always...
...Vietnam should not (and ultimately cannot) destroy the American spirit. It imposed an enormous strain on our way of life and at times, came close to toppling the whole system. But one of America's greatest virutes, inherent in her people and strengthened by her institutions, is adaptability, the ability to respond creatively and dynamically to a dangerous situation. Vietnam exerted extraordinary social pressures on our country, and the only reason it has so debilitated the national spirit is because we have not confronted the pressures openly enough. Whatever its artistic merits, perhaps Apocalypse Now's greatest achievement will...
...must react if we are to push the war and its aftermath off the mainstage of our national consciousness, not to be forgotten but to be surpassed. We must confront our Vietnam experience and all that it represents; we must respond to it; and then we must move on with a renewed sense of vitality and purpose...
...deal with the discrepancy. But deal with it we must, for a problem that is not confronted openly and candidly will slowly eat away at our country's moral fiber and national spirit. After you've thought about our earlier wars, in which we performed so well, think about Vietnam and the people who fought and suffered and died while the American public strained to find a moral instification for our involvement. Think about the shattered lives and senseless horror and hopeless agony that goes on to this very day. Don't feel too guilty--guilt will not change what...