I first heard about the Vietnam War from Marshall Drazen.
It was 1964. We were at Camp Laurelwood. Well, actually we were on an overnight, off-site, gathering wood, and he said "You know there's a war in Vietnam..."
I didn't.
But Marshall had older siblings. Who told him about it.
War? That was something that happened in the forties, or the fifties. All the talk was about World War II and what is now called the Holocaust. As for Korea... Most of our parents were too old for that and it wasn't as easily understood. But now there was a war in Vietnam? Where in the hell was Vietnam?
Well, I knew it was in Southeast Asia somewhere, but...how could there be a war?
I parked this information in my brain, no one else was talking about it, but in the summer of '65 there was a song by Barry McGuire entitled "Eve of Destruction." It was a gigantic hit. And at this point most people knew there was as war. Over there. That we were going to win, right?
You have to know that America was almighty. If we set our mind to it we did it. Ergo the space race. We were supreme. Of course we could conquer some little rebellion halfway around the world.
And then people started to die.
First those you did not know. Those who were not on the college track. Who had no deferment. Those who thought joining the military was a leg up.
And then...
You were next.
It seemed impossible. The war had been going on for years. Now I'm gonna have to go?
And now the tide was turning. If the war was so winnable, why were we still fighting it? And why were we fighting anyway. The Domino Theory? And the old men in Washington, were they baked in old ideas, did they really know what was going on? Culture was exploding, there was a generation gap. And it was very exciting. There were old fogeys who kept their brush cuts and stood up straight and said nothing had changed, but the middle of America was shifting. It was the music, the movies...everybody wanted in on that.
Now the war went on and on and it finally ended in '75 with capitulation. We all saw the footage from the airport. People dying to get on a plane, and probably dying if they didn't.
And then it was hedonism, for the rest of the seventies into the eighties and nineties. Sure, some were left behind, but the boomers who had protested the war were now raking in the dough.
Oh, there was Carter and the hostage crisis, but it was all blamed on him.
And then there was the disco demolition at Comiskey Park and...
Mores were changing in America, but we were in no war, everybody was getting high and chasing the buck. Cocaine was prevalent. Billionaires started to appear and then...
It was the twenty first century. Bush II was the president, the internet was rampant and...we thought the new war was bad, but it was all containable.
Of course there was 9/11, but there was no introspection, no understanding that we were now part of not only the world economy, but the world at large.
And then everything continued to splinter. There were winners and losers and...
Trump got re-elected.
2
I wake up every day and read the news and am stunned and depressed. And I wonder if everybody else feels this way.
But my inbox and social media tells me this is untrue. There are all these videos on TikTok with women looking into the camera and gleefully saying how they support Trump, that he's doing what he promised, and then there's a dagger plunged into the heart of the Democrats, the nonbelievers.
But for the past couple of weeks there's been an increasing number of videos from farmers on TikTok. Stunned. They voted for Trump and now they're going bankrupt. DOGE eliminated their payments and protections. And then there was that cattle farmer in Nebraska yesterday. She'd voted for Trump three times, but now said they were going bankrupt, because all the undocumented help they depended upon had disappeared.
I don't own a farm.
But I do buy products. I just bought a new computer two months ago, cost me 4k. It was made in China, what would it cost today?
And I'm not planning to buy a new car, but even in today's WSJ it spoke about car parts crossing the border multiple times before the assembly of a car was complete.
And I started to think if this was like the Vietnam War. Where everybody supported the President until they didn't. And believe me they didn't, Johnson decided not to run for a second term.
And in the free-for-all that resulted... It was just like the 2024 election. The left was so busy arguing within, Humphrey was nominated and the protesting youngsters were not happy and...Nixon won.
And the war went on. And our draft dates got ever closer.
And Country Joe and the Fish said they felt like they were fixin' to die and...once again, when your life is on the line, it's a whole new matter. When true believers' kids died they re-evaluated their belief in the war.
Now so far it hasn't been life or death. But maybe that's coming, with Medicaid cuts, possibly even Social Security cuts.
And so much infrastructure that people have depended upon has been eviscerated.
But Nixon didn't care. Nor does Trump. Both can handle the hate and continue to march forward.
But not J.D. Vance. I'm sure you've seen what happened at Sugarbush over the weekend. People were not only protesting on the street, they were running him off the slope.
And the truth is it's a very rare person who can withstand negative feedback. Which is why so many abstain from participating online, they can't handle the blowback.
What does it take to get someone out of their house to protest?
When they're personally affected.
Right now so much has been theory. But when the buck stops with the average American...
There were still be true believers. People who thought we should have stayed in Vietnam, who were behind Nixon one hundred percent.
Same deal with Trump, no matter what happens. There will be people standing up for him and his declarations, because they've put their faith in the man and refuse to question their beliefs.
As a matter of fact, that's what's different from today as opposed to the sixties. Everybody's afraid to question their beliefs, especially the boomers and Gen-X'ers. Used to be old people faded away, now they think they're all powerful and they are right, goddam*it. And the Democrats are just as bad as the Republicans. They can't understand why Kamala lost. It must be racism or sexism... They refuse to look under the hood and question her, her beliefs and her campaign. See how Trump was authentic, you got what you were seeing, whereas Harris was inauthentic, a phony you'd keep at arm's length in real life.
And then there's the educated looking down on those who are not, who are probably not as wealthy. They know better. But how can you if you've never walked in the other person's shoes?
And as the internet progresses we're all deep into our own silos. Most don't even know what is happening with everybody else, never mind the facts.
RFJ, Jr. promotes Vitamin A for measles. All well and good until the outbreak is in your neighborhood and your kids are at risk.
Is this just like Vietnam, will the public ultimately be affected to the point where people react?
Then again, Vietnam lasted for over a decade. And Nixon got re-elected. And unlike in '74, today's Congress is not squeezing Trump out of office.
I can't predict the future, but every day I'm depressed, politics and the world situation are all I can think about.
There are some who believe in America First, that nothing that happens overseas can affect us.
But after Brexit it's oftentimes economically unfeasible for new acts to tour the continent.
Actions have consequences.
And when is there a concomitant reaction?
That's what I want to know.
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