Word: war
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Sure, we're proud of the Minutemen in the Revolution; we're relieved that the Civil War was able to heal the awful internal strife that had divided our country; we note that the Spanish-American War marked the emergence of American power and leadership in the world (despite our misgivings about its imperialist implications); and we more keenly sense the brute horror but ultimate triumph of justice and order in the two world wars. Veterans Day conjures up all of these recollections about America's military heritage. Yet something is lacking and terribly wrong today...
Apocalypse Now started me really thinking about these ideas. The sheer overwhelming power of the film's depiction of the horror that we call Vietnam left me emotionally drained. The strongest message reverberating through the movie is the total madness with which the Vietnam War was conducted. In the name of democracy and freedom, which we took upon ourselves to defend anywhere in the world, America found itself mired in the tropical hell of Vietnam--fighting a war with no strategy beyond slaughtering as many Viet Cong as possible, deploying awesomely lethal and destructive technology but without the will...
What makes Vietnam unique in the history of American military endeavors is the over-whelming lack of moral commitment the war entailed. The soldiers didn't want to fight there. Our soldiers harbored no personal resentment against "Charlie," a contrived enemy, but they were compelled to fight him by the faceless military command. Our leaders were split--some wanted to beat the Viet Cong lest Communism ravage Southeast Asia and subvert the American ideal of global democracy, while others condemned the war as a futile waste of lives, energy, and national resources. No national policy emerged: we neither fought...
...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...
...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...