Hello Paula.
First off, I must make a correction. The statement I thought I was
disagreeing with was one that asserted that the anti-war movement was
100% right. This is a very different thing from disagreeing that the
war was 100% wrong. I'm not sure I know enough to debate the war.
I appreciate your pointing out that the "movement faded as overt US
involvement waned...." This is sort of what I was pointing out. The
"overt" involvement faded as soon as the draft ended in '72 or '73. The
war didn't end until '75. I'm shocked by your belief that nothing we
could have done would have prevented the horrible aftermath of our
departure. Much of it was our fault, our fuckup, our pensum that
remains to be told.
I hasten to tell you that I was very far from being the "brave spirit"
that you postulate. I dropped out and enlisted because I had terrible
grades, I was on a scholarship, and I was miserable in school anyhow.
The fact that I was out of place socially played a part, probably, but a
small one. In any case I was absolutely not performing some
demonstrative act of solidarity with my working class fellows. I acted
on very personal control variables. And I was a total fuck-up in the
military.
Of course the sailors on the Enterprise agreed with your leaflets. But
in '67 nobody expected the monumental cluster-fuck that was to come.
Ted Morgan was good enough to point out to me in direct email that it
was actually the draft system itself that was framed in a way to spike
class tensions. This would make the folks at whom I was taking pot
shots the pawns of the system, not the players. And he is absolutely
right. Of course he's thought about it and discussed it over the years,
and all I've done is ruminate privately. Maybe I should go back to
school and take more history.... ;-).
All the best.
--Kevin
-- --------------------------------------------------------- Kevin C Cole Cole Consulting--------***------Comware Incorporated Cincinnati, Ohio USA---***------Cincinnati, Ohio USA kccole@one.net---------***------kccole@comware.com ---------------------------------------------------------(2) From: "James Cummins" <jimc1@earthlink.net>
Paula:
For ^the true believer^ their cause is always 100%. The sad thing is that after so many years there are still people who insist on viewing the Viet Nam war in a vacuum. Who can say when was the right moment to disengage on that front and look to another. I would leave that to the military experts.
I don^t understand the concept of class warfare in America. I started out in life as the son of a poor farmer; was provided a high school education by my father, with the help of the taxpayers who provided free schools and instruction. I was able to obtain a college degree and later a masters degree through my own work, but again with the help of the facilities provided by the taxpayers. I am now retired, but have never considered myself part of any ^class^.
I belonged to a union at one time, later supervised union workers, and later worked in a non-union environment. At no time in my career did I see any need for ^class^ in America. I regard the ^class struggle^ as a ploy by socialists to establish a form of government that threatens my freedom.
Jim Cummins
jimc1@earthlink.net