Okay so let's be clear about this. In any war it takes guts to be a conscientious objector. This was as true of The Vietnam War as any other.
Yesterday as I wrote about Trump's draft dodging I was not implying by any means that when a young man is called up he should go blindly to war, doing what his country asks and not what his conscience says. No that wasn't it at all.
But if the young man in question is part of the establishment and has distant eyes upon the presidency, then he needs to be respectful of the status quo. At the very least he should be open and honest about his reasons for avoiding the draft. Not lying. Not making stuff up. There were no bone spurs and there is no evidence that Trump wished to dodge service in Vietnam because his conscience was troubled.
By the way, it wasn't just Trump. Three other presidents managed to evade service in Vietnam and some unanswered questions remain for George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Joe Biden.
Early in his presidency, Trump's alleged philosophy was clear, "America First! America First!" but he wasn't saying anything like that in 1968.
When I was first intoxicated by popular and progressive music, the period coincided with The Vietnam War and the protest songs it spawned. To accompany this blogpost I have chosen two of the songs that grabbed me back then and still have a certain resonance even though the disastrous war reached its ragged end almost half a century ago: "Moratorium (Bring Our Brothers Home)" by Buffy Sainte-Marie and "To Susan on the West Coast Waiting" by Donovan.
I understand what you meant. I walked away from a man today at the spray park. He thought Trump was awesome and would be back in office by Christmas. I said, agree to disagree and walked away. Stupid lives everywhere.
ReplyDeleteThe kind of people who admire Trump also admire mass murderers.
DeleteMore frightening than individual rotten characters like Trump, Bolsonaro, Berlusconi, Johnson et al. is that not infrequently a majority of an electorate votes for them enthusiastically in a free (!) election.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the songs, Neil. I hope you won't mind me to add a The Eighth Day.
The peace of the night.
Thanks for calling by again Sean and for pointing me and others to "The Eighth Day".
DeleteI know of several who sought an easy solution to being sent off to Vietnam to fight in a war that was none of our business. Very few have the courage to stand up and refuse to go and then be sent to prison for their opinion. Sending 20 year old conscripts to fight in such a war is nothing short of criminal ( as happened here in Australia, a lottery involving the day you were born the deciding factor !!) and then abusing them on their return is a very dark part of Australia's history in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteI heard that. The Vietnam legacy is as bitter in Australia's memory as it is in the USA though of course now a few decades have passed by.
DeleteI knew what you meant. It's just one more example of Trump's lack of character. At least conscientious objectors had to take difficult steps to avoid serving. In our small village where I grew up, we had three families that uprooted from the U.S. and moved here. One family, who enriched our region immeasurably with their musical skills, started two choirs and a community drama group, as well as working in their profession of teaching. One of them taught me piano for several years. The other, who had also trained in ballet, gave lessons at the local Y. They brought far more to Canada than they took. Long after the Vietnam War ended, they decided to move back to the U.S. The other two couples were also professionals but decided to become farmers here instead. They still live here. My point is that their choice to move to Canada came with costs to them and their eventual families, and they never asked for a handout and they gave back to their chosen communities many times over. Then there were people like my two American cousins who served in the war, one as an officer (the weathy one) and one as a regular guy (the poor one). The regular guy came back with lifelong mental health issues; his nerves were shot and he was never the same. My point there is along the same lines as your post - even the wealthy who served were far from the action in most cases. I wouldn't want to serve, nor to have my loved ones serve, in such a war, but there were many who had no choice and you're right - it's a dishonour to them how those with power and money avoided serving with no effort at all, and then rose to high offices including the presidency. Trump deserves a special place on the dishonour roll for his depraved behavior in that office and every day since.
ReplyDeleteA great comment Jenny - and I feel strengthened by your clear understanding.
DeleteWe had many Americans come to Canada during the Viet Nam war. Some went back after the war and served time. Some just stayed here.
ReplyDeleteGood on Canada for giving them sanctuary!
DeleteDonald J Traitor does what benefits Donald J Traitor and going to war wouldn't do that so ... Bone Spurs!
ReplyDeleteHow could he be so brass-necked about it all? Same with his tax returns. How can that guy sleep at night?
DeleteI can't listen to Buffy Sainte-Marie, to me her voice is fingernails on a chalkboard. I knew other Presidents had also avoided the war.
ReplyDeleteIn this we are different then River. I am a Buffy Sainte-Marie fan.
DeleteI also understood what you meant, and not for one second did I believe that Trump did not go to Vietnam because of his conscience - he does not possess such a thing, as far as I know.
ReplyDeleteAnd I also agree that who wishes to be part of the establishment or even be among those ruling said establishment, can not dodge fighting for their country unless there is a really good and widely accepted (and true!!) reason for it.