[Peace-discuss] Revised letter

[David Green]

Thanks Carl. Here is a revised version.
As we observe 50-year anniversaries pertaining to the Vietnam War,it’s important that an accurate account of that era be differentiated frompatriotic sentimentality regarding veterans. This effort towards truth andperhaps reconciliation should apply to any war in our history, but especiallyto those since World War II, all of which relate to efforts to obtain globalhegemony 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 ofthem Americans.The Vietnam War was illegal, immoral, genocidal, and based on liesfrom the start. By 1968, a majority of Americans viewed it as not justimpractical, but immoral. A majority of the generation of young men of thatera, including me, refused to fight. They (we) expressed that refusal byavoiding the draft, conscientious objection, avoiding combat, refusing ordersto engage in combat, and even killing their commanding officers. Wikipedia reports that 230 American officers were killed by theirown troops, and 1,400 deaths of officers could not be explained. However onejudges these acts, it’s important to stress that they were related to a generalrevolt of soldiers against the war.Criminal political leaders were responsiblefor 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 withless success by resistors. To invoke the famous words of Pete Seeger: “Whenwill we ever learn?”
 


     On Monday, April 20, 2015 5:04 AM, Carl G. Estabrook <galliher at illinois.edu> wrote:
   
 

 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 frompatriotic sentimentality regarding veterans. This effort towards truth andperhaps reconciliation should apply to any war in our history, but especiallyto those since World War II, all of which relate to efforts to obtain globalhegemony 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 ofthem Americans.The Vietnam War was illegal, immoral, genocidal, and based on liesfrom the start. By 1968, a majority of Americans viewed it as not justimpractical, but immoral. A majority of the generation of young men of thatera, including me as well as the majority reading this, rightly refused tofight. They (we) expressed that refusal by avoiding the draft, avoiding combat,refusing orders to engage in combat, and even killing their commandingofficers. Wikipedia reports that 230 American officers were killed by theirown troops, and 1,400 deaths of officers could not be explained. However onejudges the practice of “fragging,” its frequency was symptomatic of soldiers’response to an unjust and senseless war.Criminal political leaders were responsiblefor 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 withless success by resistors. To invoke the famous words of Pete Seeger: “Whenwill we ever learn?”_______________________________________________
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