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Tag: Vietnam


AP/Brendon Smialowski

277 Million Boston Bombings

The horror of Boston should be a reminder that the choice of weaponry can be in itself an act of evil.

Posted on Apr 23, 2013 READ MORE



visualpanic (CC BY 2.0)

How the 40-Year ‘Long Recession’ Led to the Great Recession

If you had to date the Great Recession, you might say it started in September 2008 when Lehman Brothers vaporized over a weekend and a massive mortgage-based Ponzi scheme began to tumble. By 2008, however, the majority of American workers had already endured a 40-year decline in wages, security and hope—a Long Recession of their own.

Posted on Apr 10, 2013 READ MORE



Glyn Lowe Photoworks (CC BY 2.0)

Whom Did You Rape in the War, Daddy?

On August 31, 1969, a rape was committed in Vietnam. Maybe numerous rapes were committed there that day, but this was a rare one involving American GIs that actually made its way into the military justice system.

Posted on Mar 19, 2013 READ MORE



Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com (CC BY 2.0)

‘I Begged for Them to Stop’

Try to remain calm—even as you begin to feel your chest tighten and your heart race. Try not to panic as water starts flowing into your nose and mouth, while you attempt to constrict your throat and slow your breathing and keep some air in your lungs and fight that growing feeling of suffocation.

Posted on Feb 26, 2013 READ MORE



GOP’s Foreign Policy Unfit for a World Power

Chuck Hagel’s confirmation hearings to become secretary of defense have raised questions about the Republican Party’s ability to conduct U.S. foreign policy worthy of a major international player; Hillary Clinton may be responsible for the decline in the use of “Hillary” as a baby name; meanwhile, although President Obama is quite adept at Internet use, his tendency toward waging a “cyber war” is a deficient approach to online security. These discoveries and more after the jump.

Posted on Feb 6, 2013 READ MORE



Photo illustration from an image by Colin Grey (CC-BY)

Kill Anything That Moves

Last week on Truthdig Radio in association with KPFK: Robert Scheer and Nick Turse on the American doctrine of eradication; women in combat; and the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

Posted on Jan 28, 2013 READ MORE


Kill Anything That Moves

Last week on Truthdig Radio in association with KPFK: Robert Scheer and Nick Turse on the American doctrine of eradication; women in combat; and the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

Posted on Jan 28, 2013 READ MORE


King statue
Kelly Branan

Remembering the Real Martin Luther King

More than 40 years after his death, Martin Luther King Jr., one of the great prophets of American democracy, has been reduced to little more than a lifeless statue. Yet his courageous call for peace and criticism of his government at a time of war must not be lost to history.

Posted on Jan 20, 2013 READ MORE



AP/Jason Redmond

Reflections on the Vietnam War: The Things a Warrior Knows

There is nothing in the lives of human beings more brutal and terrifying than war, and nothing more important than for those of us who have experienced it to share its awful truth.

Posted on Jan 19, 2013 READ MORE



Metropolitan Books

An Operation, Not an Aberration

Even as the My Lai massacre has become the subject of numerous books and articles, all the other atrocities perpetrated by U.S. soldiers during the Vietnam War have essentially vanished from popular memory, TomDispatch associate editor Nick Turse writes in “Kill Anything That Moves.”

Posted on Jan 18, 2013 READ MORE



Ron Cogswell (CC BY 2.0)

How Did the Gates of Hell Open in Vietnam?

In Kill Anything that Moves, Nick Turse has for the first time put together a comprehensive picture, written with mastery and dignity, of what American forces actually were doing in Vietnam.

Posted on Jan 17, 2013 READ MORE


Hagel in Your Face

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Posted on Jan 9, 2013 READ MORE



Dave_B_ (CC BY 2.0)

The American System of Suffering, 1965-2014

For all the dissimilarities, botched analogies, and tortured comparisons, there has been one connecting thread in Washington’s foreign wars of the last half century that, in recent years at least, Americans have seldom found of the slightest interest: misery for local nationals.

Posted on Jan 8, 2013 READ MORE


America Prepares to Say Farewell to a Liberal Lion

With George McGovern, the former U.S. senator and Democratic challenger to Richard Nixon in the 1972 presidential election, in hospice care, “Democracy Now!” airs footage from the 2005 documentary “One Bright Shining Moment: The Forgotten Summer of George McGovern.”

Posted on Oct 19, 2012 READ MORE



AP/Jason Redmond

Speaking Truth on the Fifth of July

“Why it is so hard to tell the truth today?” I asked Vietnam veteran and anti-war hero Ron Kovic one summer night over drinks in midtown Manhattan.

Posted on Aug 19, 2012 READ MORE


Oh Henry

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Posted on Aug 19, 2012 READ MORE        



A. Strakey (CC BY-ND 2.0)

U.S. Starts Cleanup of Agent Orange in Vietnam

Almost 40 years after the end of the Vietnam War, the United States has established a cleanup program to address the effects of toxic chemicals used during the conflict that continue to afflict the Vietnamese people with cancers, birth defects and other diseases.

Posted on Aug 10, 2012 READ MORE


The Truth About War

Karl Marlantes, a highly decorated veteran of the Vietnam War and author of two grim and heart-wrenching books based on his experiences, talks with Bill Moyers about returning home to the United States after being sent across the world to kill.

Posted on Aug 3, 2012 READ MORE



ana_omelete (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Medical Mystery Takes a Toll on Cambodian Children

Medical professionals are puzzling over why a hand, foot and mouth disease has killed so many children in a relatively small outbreak in Cambodia.

Posted on Jul 12, 2012 READ MORE



The Legend of the Spat-Upon Veteran

Desperate to cobble a pro-war cautionary tale out of a blood-soaked tragedy, we keep reimagining the loss in Vietnam not as a policy failure but as the product of an America that dishonored returning troops.

Posted on May 31, 2012 READ MORE



{Guerrilla Futures | Jason Tester} (CC BY-ND 2.0)

CDC Urges ‘Boomers’ to Get Tested for Hep C Infection

Did you know? May 19 is “National Hepatitis Testing Day” and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending that all baby boomers, the group believed to account for 75 percent of hepatitis C infections in the United States, get checked.

Posted on May 19, 2012 READ MORE  |  1 COMMENT



Secretary of Defense (CC BY 2.0)

Wars of Attrition

The official American reaction to the coordinated attacks in Kabul, the Afghan capital, as well as at Jalalabad airbase, and in Paktika and Logar Provinces, reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of guerrilla warfare.

Posted on Apr 24, 2012 READ MORE  |  3 COMMENTS



United States Marine Corps Official Page (CC-BY)

The Afghan Syndrome

Take off your hat. Taps is playing. Almost four decades late, the Vietnam War and its postwar spawn, the Vietnam Syndrome, are finally heading for their American grave.

Posted on Apr 11, 2012 READ MORE  |  13 COMMENTS



DoD

Drawdowns in Iraq and Afghanistan: Recognition of Futility or Retreat From the Coming Storm?

No one yet in Washington seems fully to appreciate or acknowledge the failure, but failure it is.

Posted on Feb 28, 2012 READ MORE  |  12 COMMENTS



Think-N-Evolve (CC-BY)

War Is Too Tragic for Weak Balance of Powers

Many people know Daniel Ellsberg exposed the lies the U.S. government used to justify the Vietnam War. What many don’t know is that he was also a gung-ho, Cold War analyst who participated in them.

Posted on Feb 26, 2012 READ MORE  |  7 COMMENTS



ElDave (CC-BY)

The Arrival of the Warrior Corporation

If Apple made weapons, they would undoubtedly be drones, those remotely piloted planes getting such great press in the U.S.

Posted on Feb 25, 2012 READ MORE  |  10 COMMENTS



emilio labrador (CC-BY)

‘Losing’ the World: American Decline in Perspective, Part 1

Significant anniversaries are sometimes ignored. At the moment, we are failing to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the most destructive and murderous act of aggression of the post-World War II period: the invasion of South Vietnam and later all of Indochina.

Posted on Feb 15, 2012 READ MORE  |  18 COMMENTS



Daniel Ellsberg / ellsberg.net

Truthdigger of the Week: Daniel Ellsberg

For our first Truthdigger installment of 2012, we salute Daniel Ellsberg, who has taken a page from his experience with the Pentagon Papers and is still busy serving up a bracing dose of truth to power, most recently with his support of accused WikiLeaker Bradley Manning.

Posted on Jan 6, 2012 READ MORE  |  30 COMMENTS



Wikimedia Commons / U.S. House of Representatives

Truthdigger of the Week: Rep. Dennis Kucinich

As the year draws to a close, the U.S. government risks repeating the costly mistakes of the recent past by ratcheting up tensions with Iran, emphasizing risky sanctions over diplomatic negotiations and making fact-challenged claims about Iran’s nuclear program. Good thing Rep. Dennis Kucinich is on Capitol Hill to call Congress on its deadly war addiction.

Posted on Dec 30, 2011 READ MORE  |  87 COMMENTS



AP / Mark Boster, Pool

Occupy 2012

In its two months of existence, Occupy L.A. showed a resiliency and purpose that could make some of its participants leaders in a great confrontation over economic injustice in the 2012 election.

Posted on Nov 30, 2011 READ MORE  |  19 COMMENTS



AP / Eric Gay

Occupiers Have to Convince the Other 99 Percent

The occupation movement’s greatest challenge will be overcoming the deep distrust of white liberals by the poor and the working class, especially people of color.

Posted on Oct 24, 2011 READ MORE  |  217 COMMENTS


Out of Vietnam

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Posted on Oct 9, 2011 READ MORE  |  1 COMMENT


Remembering Vietnam War Foe Carl Oglesby

Carl Oglesby, one of the most influential figures of the 1960s counterculture, died Tuesday at his home in Montclair, N.J., after a short illness.

Posted on Sep 13, 2011 READ MORE  |  5 COMMENTS



Flickr / DVIDSHUB

Obama’s Assassination Machine

Fred Branfman was in Laos when the U.S. began covertly dropping bombs on the country’s civilian population in 1969 as part of its military operations in neighboring Vietnam. Today, he writes about the Obama administration’s international counterterrorism plan, which involves 60,000 Special Operations forces worldwide. (more)

Posted on Jul 14, 2011 READ MORE  |  11 COMMENTS


Democracy Building Is Back in Fashion

I heard a brilliant young Harvard scholar, influential in the Obama administration, explain that the future of successful American action in Central Asia lies in a “surge” of civilian political and developmental action to rescue the people of the region from their present backwardness.

Posted on Jul 5, 2011 READ MORE  |  13 COMMENTS



Mortal Sins of Omission

The lone living top commander implicated in a slaughter of civilians and cover-up has written a history of the U.S. 9th Infantry Division in Vietnam, and what his book does not say could have grim and far-reaching consequences.

Posted on Mar 18, 2011 READ MORE  |  20 COMMENTS



Flickr / wisaflcio

100,000 March in Madison

Upwards of 100,000 people turned out at a protest in the Wisconsin capital after Republican lawmakers and the Republican governor pushed through a new anti-union law eliminating most collective-bargaining rights for public employees.

Posted on Mar 13, 2011 READ MORE  |  19 COMMENTS



AP

In the Presence of My Enemy: A Reflection on War and Forgiveness

As this, the 43rd anniversary of my wounding in Vietnam approaches, and I once again try to find meaning in that day and the days which were to follow, my thoughts return to the northern bank of the Cua Viet River on Jan. 20, 1968. It is a day that will change my life forever.

Posted on Jan 20, 2011 READ MORE  |  75 COMMENTS



Official White House portrait of John F. Kennedy

What It Was Like to Be John F. Kennedy

Fifty years ago, John F. Kennedy was sworn in as the 35th president of the United States. He gave a stirring inaugural address and then took over a job for which he was unprepared. No one is ever prepared.

Posted on Jan 18, 2011 READ MORE  |  29 COMMENTS



Zuade Kaufman / Truthdig

Raise Your Voices, Protest, Stop These Wars

As a former United States Marine Corps infantry sergeant who was shot and paralyzed from the mid-chest down on Jan. 20, 1968, during my second tour of duty in Vietnam, and as someone who has lived with the wounds of that war for over 40 years, I am writing this letter to ask you to join me as we begin a critical new phase in the growing anti-war movement.

Posted on Dec 31, 2010 READ MORE  |  60 COMMENTS



AP / Fradioon Pooya

Speaking Ill of ‘the Best and the Brightest’

One of “the best and the brightest” died last week, and in Richard Holbrooke we had a perfect example of the dark mischief to which David Halberstam referred when he authored that ironic label.

Posted on Dec 22, 2010 READ MORE  |  52 COMMENTS


‘Hope Is Action’: Hedges and Ellsberg Arrested at White House Protest

On Thursday, author, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and Truthdig columnist Chris Hedges and Pentagon Papers whistle-blower Daniel Ellsberg were among the 131 anti-war activists arrested during a nonviolent demonstration outside the White House ...

Posted on Dec 17, 2010 READ MORE  |  155 COMMENTS



U.S. Embassy, Kabul (CC-BY-ND)

Afghanistan Envoy Holbrooke Dies

Richard Holbrooke, a diplomatic fixture since the Vietnam era whose last assignment was special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, died Monday following heart surgery. ... (more)

Posted on Dec 13, 2010 READ MORE  |  13 COMMENTS



White House / Pete Souza

The Company We Keep

Enter President Karzai. Like Ngo Dinh Diem in South Vietnam, he has held power as a result of corrupt elections, featuring the not-so-invisible hands of his American backers. Once again, we have bet the mortgage on one leader, no matter how inept and corrupt he might be.

Posted on Oct 29, 2010 READ MORE  |  14 COMMENTS


Gorbachev
AP / Dmitry Lovetsky

Gorbachev to NATO: You Can’t Win in Afghanistan

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev knows a thing or two about warfare in Afghanistan, having ordered Soviet troops out of the country two decades ago, and Wednesday he passed on a little advice to the NATO troops and allied forces fighting there now ... (continued)

Posted on Oct 27, 2010 READ MORE  |  1 COMMENT



AP / Rodrigo Abd

The High Price of Patriotism

It’s over for the U.S. in Afghanistan, but that doesn’t mean the death and destruction are about to stop. Quagmires don’t just go away. However, the signs are everywhere that the American course in that nation is doomed.

Posted on Oct 27, 2010 READ MORE  |  49 COMMENTS


Hillary Clinton Celebrates Kissinger While White House Repeats His Mistakes

Future historians will marvel at how U.S. leaders failed to learn from their horrific crimes in Indochina, and are instead repeating many of them today.

Posted on Sep 28, 2010 READ MORE  |  49 COMMENTS


Left, Right & Center

‘Left, Right & Center’: U.S. Troops Leave Iraq; ‘Mosque’-troversy

This week’s edition of “Left, Right & Center” offers some new twists, including producer Sarah Spitz moderating for returning regulars Robert Scheer and Tony Blankley. This week’s menu of topics ripped from the headlines includes ... (continued)

Posted on Aug 20, 2010 READ MORE


The Longest War in U.S. History

The U.S. has now been fighting in Afghanistan longer than in any war in American history, including that other quagmire, Vietnam. Our friends at Brave New Films send this mini-documentary, featuring Daniel Ellsberg, Tom Hayden and others.

Posted on Jun 6, 2010 READ MORE  |  12 COMMENTS


Political Preschool

In understanding the foibles of politicians, I’ve always found it is a benefit to have spent large amounts of time with toddlers.

Posted on May 20, 2010 READ MORE  |  6 COMMENTS


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A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.
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