[Peace-discuss] Revised letter

[Carl G. Estabrook]

It’s a good and important letter - and quite necessary, given the propaganda wash on Vietnam for the anniversaries (e.g., “Writer’s Almanac" last week ran a shocking exculpation in  a matter-of-fact tone).

“...not just impractical, but immoral” is mordantly succinct, but I don’t understand “the majority of those reading this."

And it’s probably not enough to say, "However one judges the practice of 'fragging’…” Better to stress the suppressed fact that the draft army revolted?



> On Apr 19, 2015, at 6:01 PM, David Green via Peace-discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote:
> 
> I sent a revised letter because I think that fragging is obviously a difficult issue, and I felt the previous version was not clear about that:
> 
> As we observe 50-year anniversaries pertaining to the Vietnam War, it’s important that an accurate account of that era be differentiated from patriotic sentimentality regarding veterans. This effort towards truth and perhaps reconciliation should apply to any war in our history, but especially to those since World War II, all of which relate to efforts to obtain global hegemony for a class of individuals now referred to as the “one percent.” Victims of these wars can be counted in millions, a very small percentage of them Americans.
> The Vietnam War was illegal, immoral, genocidal, and based on lies from the start. By 1968, a majority of Americans viewed it as not just impractical, but immoral. A majority of the generation of young men of that era, including me as well as the majority reading this, rightly refused to fight. They (we) expressed that refusal by avoiding the draft, avoiding combat, refusing orders to engage in combat, and even killing their commanding officers.
> Wikipedia reports that 230 American officers were killed by their own troops, and 1,400 deaths of officers could not be explained. However one judges the practice of “fragging,” its frequency was symptomatic of soldiers’ response to an unjust and senseless war.
> Criminal political leaders were responsible for this war, and by 1968 the American people were trying to stop them. Unfortunately, this pattern has been repeated in the last 15 years, but with less success by resistors. To invoke the famous words of Pete Seeger: “When will we ever learn?”
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