On War and Peace, George McGovern Will Die Vindicated

[zerozero]

On War and Peace, George McGovern Will Die Vindicated - Conor Friedersdorf - The Atlantic

Speaking at the Democratic National Convention in 1972, George McGovern kicked off his ill-fated presidential bid by focusing on his opposition to the ruinous war in Vietnam. "I have no secret plan for peace. I have a public plan. And as one whose heart has ached for the past ten years over the agony of Vietnam, I will halt a senseless bombing of Indochina on Inaugural Day," he said. "There will be no more Asian children running ablaze from bombed-out schools. There will be no more talk of bombing the dikes or the cities of the North. And within 90 days of my inauguration, every American soldier and every American prisoner will be out of the jungle and out of their cells and then home in America where they belong. And then let us resolve that never again will we send the precious young blood of this country to die trying to prop up a corrupt military dictatorship abroad. This is also the time to turn away from excessive preoccupation overseas to the rebuilding of our own nation. America must be restored to a proper role in the world. But we can do that only through the recovery of confidence in ourselves."

[...]

The country would eventually come to see Vietnam as a mistake.

But ours is a people who are dismissive of men who lose presidential elections. We behave as though the electoral outcome discredited their ideas, even on matters where they're ultimately proved right.

Of course, it was about more than one war for McGovern. A World War II veteran, he liked to say that he'd been persuaded by Dwight Eisenhower, under whom he served, about the dangers of the military industrial complex. The Democratic Party grew comfortable with it over time.

But McGovern never did.

When America launched its war in Iraq, a lot of Democrats signed on. McGovern opposed it. "I oppose the Iraq war, just as I opposed the Vietnam War, because these two conflicts have weakened the U.S. and diminished our standing in the world and our national security," he wrote.

He was right again.

 

[Dusty Bake Activate]

Would've been a great Prez. Nixon.

 

[zerozero]

I've been realizing these days that the Southeast Asia thing was a bit more complex than I'd realized earlier... the thing about most US interventions is that it's not like Iraq where there's a situation and the US goes blows it up, it's more like Syria where something is already afoot and they pick a side

so in the SE Asia countries there was genuine complexity in Vietnam, Cambodia , all these places with lots of internecine fighting and some of the guys the US sided with were evil just as the some of the guys the US were aligned against were evil

The question then is whether the Domino theory was sensible at all (no) and whether entrenching their support on one of several corrupt sides is a good idea (no)

 

[OH SOHH TRILL]

I've been realizing these days that the Southeast Asia thing was a bit more complex than I'd realized earlier... the thing about most US interventions is that it's not like Iraq where there's a situation and the US goes blows it up, it's more like Syria where something is already afoot and they pick a side

so in the SE Asia countries there was genuine complexity in Vietnam, Cambodia , all these places with lots of internecine fighting and some of the guys the US sided with were evil just as the some of the guys the US were aligned against were evil

The question then is whether the Domino theory was sensible at all (no) and whether entrenching their support on one of several corrupt sides is a good idea (no)

There's literature out there (and not crazy conservative literature) that says the domino theory was partially correct and despite the clamity that Nam was, our being there so long did in fact stall communism.

 

[newarkhiphop]

Charlie don't surf