It is very hard to think outside the myths of Vietnam, the primary myth
being that of the damaged veteran. Of course, many VN vets were terribly
damaged, but the vast majority came home & led ordinary lives. (I speak as
someone who opposed the VN war & now teaches VN history & lit, by the way.)
Ironically, it was & remains the reactionary Right in the US that was most
deeply traumatized by the war, who cannot let it go. And it is the
reactionary right that has created & nurtured the myth of the VN veteran as
victim, as damaged goods, as loser. The right in the US has never forgiven
the VN vets for failing to win the Vietnam war, which was unwinable from the
start in any case. (It was members of the American Legion, not dirty
hippies, who actually spit on returning vets.) All the current Support the
Troops orthodoxy is nothing but an ritualized gesture, a compulsive attempt
to see the bloody mess in Iraq as a noble cause in which "victory" will
rebalance the scale of history.
--
Joseph Duemer
Professor of Humanities
Clarkson University
[sharpsand.net]
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