pynchon-l-digest V2 #2197

[Doug Millison]

Malign:
>I'm a little confused here, Scoop.  Wasn't it those who served, unfairly or
>no, who were deemed on the wrong side of things?
> People with the courage of
>their convictions--"Slackers" did you call them?--refused the draft.

I expect you're pretzling this one for fun, but it's worth straightening
out for the young'uns.

There was little organized opposition to the Vietnam War at the time of the
Gulf of Tonkin resolution, not within the US government which
overwhelmingly voted to support Johnson's plans to escalate, nor within the
population at large.  (Recent coverage in Time magazine of the post-9/11
anti-War protests noted that only a few dozen attended early anti-Vietnam
War demonstrations, while tens of thousands have attended the first
post-9/11 anti-War demonstrations in the U.S. recently. ) Public opinion
remained overwhelmingly in favor of the war throughout the 60s.

>From the perspective of some, but not all, anti-Vietnam War protesters, the
soldiers who fought in the war or who allowed themselves to be drafted were
considered the enemy; significantly, there were also many people within the
anti-war movement who did political work with soldiers, realizing that many
of them were forced into the military for socio-economic reasons, not every
draftee had the wherewithal to get some sort of deferral or the means to
run away, or knowledge that it might be possible to do something different.
As a result of their efforts, more than a few U.S. military personnel came
to be activists against the war (I was one of them).  But from the
perspective of the vast majority of the U.S. population and leaders, the
anti-Vietnam War protesters were considered to be on the wrong side, and
were reviled as enemy-loving traitors and told to "love it or leave it" --
if you don't like America, find another country and go there, don't
criticize the mother country, etc. ad nauseum.

As the Vietnam War dragged on and became less popular, as protests grew, as
increasing numbers of government leaders (esp. in Congress) turned against
the war, and as the war finally wound down, opinion shifted somewhat.  As
information about atrocities (My Lai being a prime example) became widely
known,  it became obvious that the protesters had been right, the war was
criminal and a mistake.  To a certain degree public opinion turned against
the Vietnam War veterans -- this is a complex phenomenon that had been
addressed in quite a few books over the past many years -- but I believe
you can demonstrate that most Americans remained supportive of the effort
that Vietnam War veterans had been called upon to make, despite the outcome
of the war and despite evidence of the crimes that were committed there.
This support has been evident in the response to the Vietnam War Memorial,
designed by (my wife's distant cousin) Maya Lin, in Washington, and the
rehabilitation of the Vietnam War veteran image during the 1980s.  You can
also see the shift at a personal level -- consider "Country Joe" MacDonald,
of Country Joe and the Fish and the notorious "Give Me an F" song at
Woodstock.  I met him briefly nearly 20 years ago in Berkeley, and my wife
has worked with his brother off and on for years.  After the Vietnam War,
he became a tireless advocate for Vietnam Veteran rights.

Today, I expect that if you threw a rock into a crowded street most
anywhere in the U.S. outside a few progressive and liberal enclaves, you'd
be unlikely to hit somebody who would agree that the U.S. was in the wrong
in Vietnam, or to agree that the protesters were right.  The US propaganda
machine is effective.  But, a consensus has emerged ouside the US that the
war was a mistake for many, many reasons, and that it was criminal, and
this view is shared by a significant number of people insde the U.S. as
well.

There's plenty of evidence already that the U.S. is conducting a criminal
war that goes against international law and UN procedures, and plenty of
evidence that we are killing innocent civilians for nebulous objectives --
enough evidence to judge that, as in Vietnam, history will judge this war
criminal and a mistake.  It's already obvious that the critics are right,
and that Bush and his coalition partners are wrong.  So I feel comfortable
in saying that the leaders of this war effort are likely to be remembered
as we now remember the architects of the Vietnam War -- butchers who sent
millions of American soldiers to fight a war that accomplished little more
than to enrich suppliers to the armed forces, killed some 50,000 of them,
and killed millions of Vietnamese civilians and combattants.  The US has a
legitimate grievance against the perpetrators of the September 11 attacks,
but it's using the wrong tactics to go after them, and despite that
legitimate grievance, we'll be judged harshly for the turmoil we're
causing, the innocent people we're killing.

Cordially,
Doug

"South Asia correspondent Jonathan Harley reports, the mounting death toll
is putting increased pressure on Washington's partners in its coalition
against terrorism.  At least 10 were killed, including four children, in
the Afghan capital Kabul when three mudbrick homes were destroyed by a bomb
in a dawn raid. In Opposition held territory just a few kilometres from the
frontline which separates Taliban from Northern Alliance forces, nine
civilians are belileved to be dead as a result of a stray missile. The
rising civilian cost the US led strikes is fanning concern in muslim
countries and placing ever greatere pressure on the cohesion of the
international coalition against terrorism. Some in Pakistan are trying join
the Taliban's Jihad against America. Up to nine thousand armed men are
camped along the border with Afghanistan bound by tribe and religion
they're vowing to fight with the Taliban but are being prevented from
crossing the border by Pakistani authorities. "
http://www.abc.net.au/ra/newsdaily/s402401.htm [World News from Radio
Australia]

*  *  *

"[...] Bombing little children wins no friends. As the US gets bogged down
in Afghanistan, it will antagonise more and more people all over the world.
The attacks on Afghanistan have given Muslims with grievances worldwide a
focus for their angst. This will create trouble for shaky and illegitimate
regimes all over the world, many of which are propped up by the US.
Anti-war protests may also engulf the US and Europe as the war drags on.
[...]
http://www.economictimes.com/today/29edit03.htm ["India's No. 1 Business
Newspaper"]