Word: vietnams
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...also authored several other influential works, including Broken Covenant, a critique of America and its culture, in particular the country's involvement in Vietnam, and Beyond Belief: Essays on Religion in a Post-Traditionalist World...
...Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice," he shot back at New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller and the establishment Republicans during the bruising 1964 Republican National Convention. "Moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue." Democrats coupled that comment with Goldwater's hawkishness on Vietnam and used it to bury him in the ensuing campaign (remember the camapaign commercial with the daisy girl and the mushroom cloud?), but it was the soul of the Goldwater psyche: know your philosophy, stick to it, and never hesitate to speak your mind...
...prime example in Bundy's march through the Nixon years is Indochina. From the secret bombing of Cambodia in 1969 to the secret assurances made to South Vietnam in 1973 that the U.S. would militarily enforce the Paris peace accords, Nixon and Kissinger showed that "deception goes hand in hand with bad policy," Bundy charges...
Perhaps. But Bundy, who oversaw Asia policy at State during the Vietnam buildup, fails to wrestle with the sad irony that has dogged his career. It was forthright, honorable, well-bred folks--the best and the brightest, such as William Bundy and his brother McGeorge--who unintentionally got us into Vietnam. It was secretive, manipulative folks--such as Nixon and Kissinger...
Bundy's book is a valuable one, a solid chronicle from the vantage of the old foreign policy establishment. But it could have been so much more powerful and poignant if he'd delved deeper into the murky questions about Vietnam that continue to gnaw at many of us, presumably including Bundy...