Posted on 08/11/2015 11:44:15 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
You know that racist flag? The one that supposedly honors history but actually spreads a pernicious myth? And is useful only to venal right-wing politicians who wish to exploit hatred by calling it heritage? It’s past time to pull it down.
Oh, wait. You thought I was referring to the Confederate flag. Actually, I’m talking about the POW/MIA flag.
I told the story in the first chapter of my 2014 book The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan: how Richard Nixon invented the cult of the “POW/MIA” in order to justify the carnage in Vietnam in a way that rendered the United States as its sole victim.
Try Newsweek for only $1.25 per week
It began, as cultural historian H. Bruce Franklin has documented, with an opportunistic shift in terminology. Downed pilots whose bodies were not recovered—which, in the dense jungle of a place like Vietnam meant most pilots—had once been classified “Killed in Action/Body Unrecovered.”
During the Nixon years, the Pentagon moved them into a newly invented “Missing in Action” column. That proved convenient, for, after years of playing down the existence of American prisoners in Vietnam, in 1969, the new president suddenly decided to play them up.
He declared their treatment, and the enemy’s refusal to provide a list of their names, violations of the Geneva Conventions—the better to paint the North Vietnamese as uniquely cruel and inhumane. He also demanded the release of American prisoners as a precondition to ending the war.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
I have been listening to this Communist party insipid bs since the 60’s. I first heard it as a founder of the Boston SDS. Drove me straight out of that front. Ain’t changed much. Still just as pure Marxist as possible.
“The left is still hatin’ Nixon, after all these years.”
Whenever I see some new article about Nixon, I’m inclined to think that they are refreshing the guilt by association with the Republicans trying to get elected.
Odd though - I saw one of these POW flags the other day and thought “Boy that was a long time ago. I wonder how long they are going to keep flying those?”
Also just recently saw an old station wagon with a Nixon Now bumper sticker on it!
I used to subscribe to US News and World Report back in the day...was great...back then, both that magazine and Time leaned conservative, while Newsweek leaned liberal.
The idiot who passes for the author of this tripe seems to forget one little detail. Nixon did not start the war in Vietnam! His beloved Kennedy got us in and LBJ is the one who escalated it and would not let us win it.
The Maoist?
Sure, seems like a reliable source.
It's not like he has any preconceptions one way or the other ...
I didn’t know NewsWeak was still publishing. Seriously does anyone even read them other than when they’re in a dentist office waiting room waiting for root canal?
Love the comments section of the article. One gal suggests the author of the article (RICK PERLSTEIN) fornicate himself with a chainsaw (sideways).
My high school friend lost his father in 1967 in Vietnam.
Major David R. Williams and Maj. Robert A. Govan comprised the crew of a T28D Nomad sent on an armed reconnaissance mission over Laos on April 1, 1967.
While in the process of preparing to attack the target, the T28 was struck by hostile fire. A fireball was observed on the ground. No communication was received from the crew members and no parachutes were seen.
The aircraft crashed about 10 miles east of Ban Muong Sen in Savannakhet Province.
Were you there, In Country, during the war or in the years after RICK PERLSTEIN ? No then STFU...... I know dozens of men that were including couple that enjoyed the “hospitality” of the communists....
Lyndon Baines Johnson, DEMOCRAT, is wholly and completely responsible for the carnage of the Vietnam War, having started it on the basis of a LIE. Nixon ENDED the war , and yet he is treated as a pariah, while the criminal LBJ is considered the hero of civil rights and Medicare. Welcome to the Twilight Zone, comrades! /s
Don’t you mean card-carrying A-Hole?
During the Nixon years, the Pentagon moved them into a newly invented “Missing in Action” column. That proved convenient, for, after years of playing down the existence of American prisoners in Vietnam, in 1969, the new president suddenly decided to play them up.
Several comments.
H. Bruce Franklin is (or at least was) a Marxist and opponent of US actions in Vietnam. I ended up on a panel with him at a conference on the West Coast back in the 1970s. Obviously I was on the other side.
At first the Nixon administration downplayed the issue of POWs in Vietnam, to avoid causing them more suffering than they were already experiencing. When the Administration found that didn't work, they started playing up the POW issue. As usual, the Marxists have deliberately distorted the truth here.
And yes, they still hate Nixon, and they still think we were the bad guys in Vietnam.
Active Duty/Retiree/Vet ping.
Dear Rick (the author),
Can you fly down to Bragg with me tomorrow? First light?
A few of “da old guys” would like to offer a “helpful critique” of your article.
They we could slide over to Womack AMC, get you patched up, a quick cast or two, and you’ll be back in NYC by evening chow.
Deal?
Hah...No additional symbolism intended!
Commie sympathizers cannot admit their side in the Vietnam War committed war crimes, human rights abuses, and attrocities.
#OrwellWasRight
Newsweak is no longer published and in one transaction the company was sold for a dollar. It is a blog these days.
Odd, he was born in 1969 but declares himself an expect to write on matters of North Vietnamese activities during the war.
“Vas you dere, Charlie?”
I thought he already got killed in Pakistan, years ago
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