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May 12, 2005
Neo-NeoCon talks about Betrayal...
Neo-NeoCon has a very long post in which she describes, very accuratly, the sense of betrayal which caused the people of the US to turn against the Vietnam War. As I say, its a long post but worth the read. Here is an excerpt from the end
- I think the word "betrayal" is absolutely appropriate here, and accounts for many of the still-powerful reactions and repercussions from the Vietnam era. Because the pre-existing trust was profound, the reversal, when it came, was exquisitely sharp also. The loss of trust in our government and military had to be dealt with emotionally and cognitively, and people dealt with it in different ways. The vast majority of liberals seem to have taken that trust and re-invested it--this time in the press, who were seen as whistleblowers, the exposers of the government's lying, cheating ways. That is one way to respond to a loss of faith--by reinvesting in it something else perceived as replacing it (you might say it's somewhat analogous to starting a new relationship on the rebound). Other people had a more extreme reaction, and decided to withdraw trust from both the government and the press, and to place their trust in nothing and became cynics. Still others (leftists) reacted to the betrayal by supporting whomever and whatever was against the US. Many conservatives, on the other hand, withdrew their trust from the press, previously seen as an ally of sorts, but now perceived as an enemy. They also solidified their anger at liberals and a left seen to have ignominously betrayed the South Vietnamese people and our nation's honor.
However, some feelings were more universally shared. Anger at having been lied to by a previously-trusted government, for example, was a feeling shared by many liberals and by some conservatives (I'm exempting leftists, since they started out feeling anger and distrust towards the governement--there was no disillusionment there). The feeling of betrayal by the government because of its lack of full commitment to winning the war was shared by some liberals and many conservatives. The feeling that the soldiers responsible for atrocities such as My Lai had betrayed American values and honor was, likewise, fairly universal.
Powerful words. As she points out, the Vietnam war, in nightly news broadcasts, was the first war in world history to be fought in full view of the public. Frankly, the public wasn't ready for it, wasn't educated enough. Nor was the U.S. Army up to the task of making sure that the news which was broadcast was put in context so the images would make sense. This last war (Iraq - 2003) was done much better by the U.S. Military. We've learned from our mistakes.
Posted by rakhier at May 12, 2005 10:46 AM