When I was younger I would read about the Vietnam War and the protests of the 60's and I remember being awe struck by the conviction of the people and their determination in standing up for their rights and demanding an end to the violence and bloodshed in Vietnam. Back then I wished more than anything for something in my lifetime that I could get behind and feel that strongly about, careful what you wish for, you just may get it. On August 2 1964, an American destroyer ship, the U.S.S. Maddox was torpedoed in the Vietnamese Gulf Of Tonkin. The circumstances around this event have not been fully divulged, many claim that the Maddox was attacked out of self defense as it was carrying out subversive military action against the Viet Cong. This however is not the reason America joined the war. Two days later a second military vessel was allegedly attacked and the Vietnam War began. The problem with this is that the intelligence regarding this incident was faulty. We know this from declassified government documents released in 2005 (you can view the related documents here http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/declass/gulf_of_tonkin/index.shtml ) So in 1964, relying on faulty intelligence our government sent over 58,000 American sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers to their deaths. As our involvement in Vietnam grew, so to did the divide in our country. There was a cultural shift that occurred in American society that spurred our continued growth as a people. Now, Flash forward to 2001. Our government knew from the outset who perpetrated 9/11, and yet again they relied on faulty intelligence to justify an invasion of a smaller, weaker country who had no involvement with 9/11 and posed no threat to the U.S. 58,000 men and women died for nothing. They were lied to about what they were dying for and our government didn't even learn a lesson from their deaths.
I often wonder what Lyndon Johnson felt during those early days in Vietnam. Did he believe that by playing to the public fear of communism he would have public support for the war? We were after all at the height of the cold war. Did President Bush have similar thoughts. Maybe he reasoned that by playing on America's fears following 9/11 he would have public support for an Iraq invasion. What did Johnson stand to gain? Certainly he would've cemented his legacy as the man who stamped out the communist threat, had things gone according to plan. As for president Bush, He would be the man that got Saddam and secured American oil interests in Iraq, again if all went according to plan. But things rarely go according to plan. Given the parallels between these two presidents and these two wars the question lingers: Why did the American people protest so fiercely then and not now? The answer lies in the subversive conditioning we have been subjected to in the last 40 years. Since the 60's we have been slowly turned into little more than blind consumers. By that I mean we saw the beginning of the end of a free thinking American society. We have been bombarded by fast food, instant gratification, reality t.v., and a host of distractions designed to blind us to the actions our government takes to police the world and even its own citizens. A culture of fear and consumption was integrated into society. Another observation of note is the way in which we televise war today, or rather don't televise it. During the Vietnam War, Americans turned on their televisions every evening and saw American soldiers dying and killing, up close and personal. The media was enormously involved in reporting the Vietnam War, and through war correspondents that braved the most dangerous conditions we saw the war through the eyes of those who fought it. That is not the case in today's world. Today our news comes via satellite, via twitter, etc. News stories have become sensationalized, over the top productions that do little to showcase any semblance of truth. Coverage of American troop actions are strictly monitored and often come with condition. It appears that one lesson our government learned from Vietnam is that Americans don't like to see their soldiers in body bags. So now we dwell in our culture of fear and consumption and without our press to show us the horrors of war, we have fallen silent. Almost 4500 American soldiers have died in Iraq alone and over 100,000 civilians have perished and 58,000 names on a granite wall in Washington remind us just how preventable it was. These soldiers are not news stories, they are not sound bytes, they are not fictional beings on you tube videos, they are living, breathing American citizens like you or me. Where's your outrage now America?
DON'T START THE REVOLUTION WITHOUT ME!
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