Just to express my very strong support for this particular post
of Jeff's. I was first struck by the internalization of the
imperialist mentality by the American people at the time of the
Korean War. How could those people possibly hurt us? So what the
hell were we doing there?
The reason it hit me was the very sharp contrast to the
behavior of American G.I's after World War II, when they
demanded, by huge demonstrations, and won, their return from the
European countries they had been in that were on our side against
Hitler and Mussolini. They did not demand return from Germany,
which they knew had to be prevented from reorganizing for another
war against us. Of course, WAshington reorganized Germany to
fight one on "our" side, although the Germans resisted so long
that Bosnia, over half a century later, was the first such
occasion.
Bill Mandel
Jeffrey Blankfort wrote:
>
> I have not seen the film of the POW/MIA movement but it occurred to me
> long ago that the movement was very much in keeping with the imperialist
> mentality that had been internalized by the American people and which
> led the US to invade Vietnam in the first place. To put the attitude of
> the POW/MIA movement in perspective, can one imagine what would have
> been the response of the British to a group of German wives whose
> husbands had been in the Luftwaffe or Wehrmacht who came to England
> after the WW 2 demanding to know what had happened to their husbands?
> They would have been dumped in the channel.
>
> Not at any time in the many articles that I read concerning the POW/MIAs
> did I see any expression of concern on their part for what the US had
> done to Vietnam in which their husbands had been instrumental, nor any
> word of concern for the many more missing Vietnamese who, as Paul
> Lauter, points out, are still unaccounted for.
>
> Jeff Blankfort
>
> > Paul Lauter wrote:
> SNIP
>
> The American line now in Vietnam,
> > articulated by the ambassador among others, is that it's time to move on.
> > But it remains the case that it is the Vietnamese who are still searching
> > for the remains of THEIR relatives--not to speak of more recent victims of
> > mines and defoliants.
> SNIP
> >
> Virginia Laffey wrote:
> > Hello,
> > I am a lurker to this list, and am in the process of writing my dissertation
> > on the Vietnam War "home front" from the perspective of the wives, mothers and
> > girlfriends of the American soldiers serving in Vietnam. I feel compelled to
> > write in defense of Phillip Daniels' excellent documentary of the POW/MIA
> > movement, "Among the Missing". This is the first in a series of films which
> > examines the POW/MIA movement, from its founding by military wives tired of
> > feeling isolated, helpless and censored by the government's "keep quiet"
> > policy regarding POW/MIAs during the Vietnam War.
>
> SNIP
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