I agree. He was a typical uneducated boxer who was misused by his handlers in order to line their pockets and further their own agendas........
When you think about how the Vietnam war was handled by our politicians and ultimately lost by them, you can't help but wonder if maybe Ali made the right choice.
I enlisted and for the most part my service time was just a job since I was never sent to Vietnam. But if I had enlisted and requested to be sent to Nam to participate in a war I thought was right at the time and saw combat, I would probably look back and say it was the worst mistake of my life.
So for that, I guess I don't have any hard feelings towards Ali.
Pure speculation.
I think you nailed it there. When he was growing up here in Louisville, all his teachers and classmates said he was a very quiet, withdrawn, shy kid. But once he started winning professional fights, his handlers/agents/promoters/hangers on started feeding him lots of scripts to read.
as far as Ali, the best that I can say about him is at least he went thru the system to get his CO status...he didn't run to Canada....
but I never liked his showboating and I hated the Cosell crap...I hate glorifying already obnoxious athletes.....
he was pretty young to die...only 74...
I read an interesting account by a guy who worked for the NSA as an Air Force enlisted man. He loved his job and the military. He volunteered to go to Vietnam as aircrew for reconnaissance flights. Within two years, he and the rest of his crew were so disillusioned by intel that they saw and how they saw the war being run that they made no attempt to do anything above and beyond their jobs anymore. On most of the flights, they’d just take turns going to the back of the plane to smoke marijuana. He just did his tour, came home, and got out of the military. He didn’t go work for a contractor like most of his co-workers did, he just went and did something totally else in life.