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November 30, 2006 ... Buzz Fugazi
The silence was deafening after the President of the United States, George W. Bush, made comments in Vietnam. 50 Gold Stars to WBBM Newsradio 780 in Chicago for running the straight news quoting the President: The lesson of Vietnam is that if you don't quit, you win.
It's tempting to do some basic journalism and try to find out the reaction of the Vietnamese hosts, but out of pure sloth and religious adherence to the hype radio format of just stating whatever comes to mind as the holy truth, I can only guess the Vietnamese thought the President was graciously talking about them.
I like to think that the President, at worst, is no crazier than me. I rarely censor myself to appear any more sane than I actually am; the President, out of honesty, hubris, stupidity, or pure craziness, seems to agree with me in that regard. Stranger than that, there was a moment, after the Democratic victory in the Mid Term Election, when I was proud of the President. He was the straight talker he so often pretends to be, the straight talker he is rumored to be among people who like him as a person. He seemed, to me wallowing in my own personal craziness, downright Presidential. Just about every public statement he made, every step he took, from that electoral loss to his visit in Vietnam, made me feel guilty for rehashing old internet radio rants against him. I contemplated writing him an apology. Mary Jane told me that the President owes me an apology, owes the entire country an apology.
It remains to be seen if I owe Sgt. Dad an apology for the historical scenario I cited as the roots of our Southeast Asian campaign in the Nam. My dad did multiple tours in Vietnam with both the Navy and the Army. 20 years after the war, it was something he could sometimes deal with and discuss in short doses.
This year Dad and I had the Thanksgiving family argument. The
normal tradition is my brother and I escalating to a shoving
match over who won the sparring match between us in a gym in
Cicero (the official decree in the ring was: "I'm stopping this
before you two kill each other." Larry cannot accept a draw
and the beef gets uglier every year). With my dad, the argument
was short and civil. Dad was very upset. As much as the disturbing
scenario I laid out, it was the topic and my Vietnam quote from
the President whom he normally respects as a man of Christ.
This year's argument was over this scenario: First you ask the audience a WW2 trivia question... Which was the first army to fire upon US troops in the European theatre of operations? The correct answer is not Japan. The US declared war on Japan after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Germany responded to that by declaring war on the US. It was probably about then that every intelligent lifeform in the German military knew that Hitler was completely insane. But the French collaborators, not the commies and socialists who fought to the death in the resistance, but to the Vichy French, Hitler was someone they had a deal with regarding French posession of colonies in North Africa and there is your answer. French collaborators fired upon US troops invading North Africa. Thanks, highschool history. Roosevelt made a secret deal with Nazi France to stop protecting her colonial soil against the allies. For the nationalists, he made a postwar guarantee of a restored France with all her colonies. Vietnamese nationalists fought the Japanese as our Allies and we sold them out as soon as the war ended when we kept rifles in the hands of surrendered Japanese and turned them against the Viets. We backed French colonialism against the Viet nationalist movement (call them commies if you want, but they are Vietnamese first and communists second). When the French were soundly defeated, we created a monstrosity of a sham of a government, The Republic of Vietnam.
Dad wants me to dig up the sources and get back to him with a double-spaced report in triplicate. Admittedly, much of it is from a long after-hours group discussion with Daniel Ellsberg. He's the guy who gave the Defense Dept.'s secret history of the Vietnam War, the Pentagon Papers, to Neil Sheehan. Thanks to the Reagan/Bush Administration, anyone who tries telling the American people the inside view of what happened in Iraq... is going to prison. That's pretty much what those clowns learned from Vietnam. It shows in Iraq.
Am I wrong? Maybe I should start an Iraq study group. I've always wanted to be wrong about Iraq, always wanted to see a democracy there, always felt we had a moral obligation there. Then there is the disturbing similarity between the hapless government in Iraq and the defunct Republic of Vietnam: God help those naive and idealistic people who stake their lives on a spooky mirage loaded with criminal militias and double-agents. A government that is more dangerous than helpful to people loyal to the United States.
I used to think I bitched about the Vietnam War too much, but now I know there's not enough howling in the world for the lies and insanity we pay for in blood. Aside from that, the President's post-election ensemble is simply fabulous.
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