I was born in 1969. I have a few memories that date to the Vietnam era. My earliest political memory was the death, on December 26, 1972, of Harry Truman. I remember the gas lines from 1973. I remember Gerald Ford coming to Philadelphia for the 1976 bicentennial. I even remember Ford quoting FDR:
But, even though I can recollect a few political snapshots from my early childhood, I only became aware of Vietnam through the movies The Deer Hunter (1978) and Apocalypse Now (1979).
I don’t remember anyone disparaging the service of Vietnam veterans. I never heard anyone call them ‘baby-killers’ or saw anyone spitting on returning vets. I’m sure it happened here and there, but it wasn’t part of my worldview.
Growing up in the liberal bastion of Princeton, New Jersey, it was an universal truism that Vietnam had been a blunder, but the men and women that served there were never blamed for the failures of our leadership in Washington.
And I will never blame Iraq veterans for the bad leadership of the Bush administration. Moreover, I will be active in making sure that Iraq veterans get better medical treatment than their Vietnam predecessors:
NYT
I am most disturbed to learn the following about my former Congressman, wingnut Chris Smith:
I’ve worked tirelessly against Chris Smith, who is so crazed in his opposition to abortion that he wont even visit the largest hospital in his district because abortions are performed there. But he doesn’t deserve this, and neither do the casualties of our ill-advised war in Iraq.