Vietnam!

Vietnam. If you werent around when that war raged on you dont know nuthin about division. Oh we have division now between dummies and non dummies and white supremacists and normal people but thats not what went on back then. Ken Burns latest is a must. His past documentaries have been fascinating and this one should be just as great. Burns may be the James Patterson or Thomas Kincaid of documentarians but you cannot deny his passion or attention to detail. His Baseball doc and his Jazz doc were the ones I looked forward to for years and neither disappointed. Vietnam wont either.

Vietnam was the event that "radicalized" me. Before 1968 I cared about baseball. The 64 Series with Bob Gibson, the 65 Series when my Twins lost, the 67 American League pennant race when my Twins lost on the final day. That was it. That was my list of what I cared about. Then came 1968.

1968 I was in 6th grade. I was oblivious to what was going on. I remember LBJ quitting on a Sunday night and my grandma expressing surprise. I remember Bobby Kennedy coming into a presidential race I knew nothing about. I remember MLK being assassinated and Bobby Kennedy going into a black neighborhood and telling them what had happened, an act of courage and compassion that has never been duplicated in politics. But Vietnam? That was just a war far away and one we had to win. Just like WW2, the war my father fought in. Hell yes I was for the war, why wouldnt I be? I was a kid raised on WW2 movies and TV shows.

One day Sister Julie asked us in class who supported the Vietnam War. Now in a suburban Catholic school in 1968 Sister Julie was different. She played guitar for chrissakes and was young. In retrospect of course she was asking the question for a reason. The hands that went up were almost unanimous in a hell yea we support the war. One girl openly gasped at the support. "what why?" she gasped..."oh noooo you guys" she wailed. 1968.

I went home that night and talked to my parents about what happened. How could that girl be against the war? And then my Mom said something I cant forget. "Im not for the war" HUH?? Mom what? Dad chimed in with the same answer. So I began to research as much as a kid could.

Welcome to liberalism. Welcome to radicalization. Welcome to realizing that young people were being sent to their deaths for lies. And hey, I learned other than WW2, thats how ALL of America's wars worked. Lies.

Then Bobby Kennedy was killed, Hubert Humphrey won the nomination at the Chicago convention. My Republican mom was appalled at the chaos. My Democratic Dad's political hero was called horrible names and my Democratic Dad's political anti-hero Richard Nixon won the presidency. I was sickened.

Vietnam became my nightmare. What in the fuck were we doing there? I argued thru 8th grade and 9th grade about this atrocity. To be honest I knew just thissssss much more than anybody else. And I let em know. Thus my 4 year fight through a Jesuit high school. I became a pariah in that school. Known as the guy most likely to firebomb the place, it was a struggle. And it was all cuz of Vietnam.

I knew I'd never be forced to go there so that wasnt a problem. I could hide out in college for years if I had to because I was white and had that opportunity. Not to mention my Dad saying with my lousy eyesight and bad attitude I'd never make it past the draft board. But the draft ended and it didnt affect my hatred of that war at all. I still think it was America's initial road to irrelevance. Bad choices doubled down on lead to more bad choices and wow, have we made some horrible choices since 1975 when we officially lost.

Presidents have come and gone since then. The first Vietnam era guy was Bill Clinton, who used his intelligence to avoid being sent to that crapfest. George W Bush used his connections to avoid being sent there, Barack Obama was 10, and finally Donald Trump used his bone spurs and connections to avoid it. Vietnam vets dont win elections. John Kerry and John McCain prove that fact. Christ, even Mitt Romney was laying on French beaches pushing Planet Kolob nonsense during that trying time.

Vietnam was a huge failure. Watch the series. If you still believe it was a "noble cause" well good for you. Have fun at your Trump rallies.