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Vietnam War 1959 - 1975 : Afghanistan War 2002 - ?

"Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it." - Edmund Burke (1729-1797)

Watching Bill Moyers’ Journal tonight on PBS brought this famous quote to mind. (http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/11202009/watch.html) Moyers recounts President Lyndon Johnson’s agonizing deliberations and decision to escalate the Vietnam War. The story is heartbreaking, especially in retrospect. We know now that the cost of that war damaged the United States for decades and generations. The pain of the massive loss of American and Vietnamese life is felt to this day. The program shows that Johnson was under tremendous pressure and that the decisions made were based on the perceived realities of the day. There is no way to watch and hear LBJ try to avoid escalation while being goaded by Republicans to enlarge the war, even to use atomic bombs against the North, without feeling his pain. His decisions seem somehow inevitable. But we now know they shouldn’t have been. They destroyed his Presidency and led to his decision not to run for re-election in 1968. President Johnson was aware that the war stifled his domestic agenda and regretted not being able to do more at home. What would his re-election in 1968 have accomplished if he had been a viable candidate in that election? Where would the Great Society have gone? For instance, would universal health care have followed the creation of Medicare and Medicaid? It seems a natural progression that was interrupted by the events of history.

The thought that has me feeling depressed is that you cannot watch the Moyers program without clearly seeing the parallels between Vietnam in the sixties and Afghanistan today. Like LBJ, President Obama inherited a war that was not of his making. Like LBJ, President Obama is being advised by the military that he needs to go in big for a win. Like LBJ, President Obama seems to be looking for another course of action. Like LBJ, President Obama faces tremendous political pressure by the Republicans and some in his own party to escalate the war. President Johnson feared he could not be re-elected or govern as a strong President if he was painted as weak by his opponents. We can clearly see that Johnson’s flawed conclusions were disastrous for the country and for his political future. The lives of countless Americans were devastated by his decisions made under terrible circumstances.

President Obama is clearly trying to find better choices in Afghanistan. But is he strong enough and wise enough to do so? The anti-war forces of the 60s and 70s were massive and included many voices of reason including lots of soldiers who returned and spoke out against the futility of trying to prop up a weak and corrupt government half way around the world. But it took years for those forces to finally become strong enough to sway President Nixon to withdraw. Where is the massive anti-war sentiment today? Where are the numbers that can give President Obama political cover to buck the Pentagon and the Republicans and refuse to escalate?

On October 27^th the Washington Post reported that Matthew Hoh resigned from the Foreign Service in Afghanistan where he was the senior U.S. civilian in Zabul province, a Taliban hotbed. (http://newstrust.net/stories/343138/toolbar?utm_campaign=daily%2B20091027&utm_medium=email&utm_source=daily) Hoh, a former Marine Corp captain who served in Iraq and in uniform at the Pentagon, wrote in his resignation letter that “I have lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States' presence in Afghanistan.” Upon receiving his letter of resignation both U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl W. Eikenberry and the administration's special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard C. Holbrooke offered Hoh positions on their staffs. While Hoh initially accepted the position with Holbrooke he later reconsidered saying, “I recognize the career implications, but it wasn't the right thing to do.”

Days later, on November 11^th, the Washington Post reported that Ambassador Eikenberry sent two classified cables to Washington expressing deep concerns about sending additional troops to Afghanistan. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/11/AR2009111118432_pf.html) Eikenberry, a retired general in NATO and former commander of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, now finds himself at odds with his former Pentagon colleagues who are requesting that President Obama send an additional 40,000 U.S. troops.

With the voices of these two influential men questioning the course the Pentagon is proposing, where are the public protests demanding an end to the war? Will enough voices of dissent be heard before it is too late? There is so little time left.

President Obama’s decision on an altered course for the nearly eight year old war in Afghanistan may well lead us down the same path that LBJ followed in South East Asia. Or perhaps he will prove himself to be strong enough to stand up to the generals and steer a better course. President Kennedy did during the Cuban Missile crisis in 1962. Many have argued that his assignation only 13 months later was related but we will probably never know if that is true.

President Obama clearly knows history. How will our history effect his decision?

Ted Kennedy

To me, it feels like the 60s have died. Senator Edward Kennedy is gone. For those of my generation what voice, what symbol of that turbulent and violent decade remains? Our world view was formed by the events that a younger generation thinks of as history. Ted Kennedy buried two brothers who struggled to lead their country in a time of chaos. He went on to take his place as a leader in his own right, as spokesman for fairness and rights for all oppressed people. For all of his personal failings and weaknesses, this man was truly a great American.

The election of President Obama signaled the transitions to a new generation of leadership and I believe that is a good thing. The death of Ted Kennedy is almost like the close of that transition. Yes, there are many of my generation still in leadership positions but only for a short while. New, younger leaders with fresh ideas not shaped by the 60s are already moving into place. And the sooner some of those older neo-cons step aside the better (yes, Mitch McConnell, your days should be numbered).

I can’t help but wonder who will fill the void of the man who is being buried today. Where will we find the voice to speak for the oppressed, who will have the kind of understanding of the best values of our country that Ted Kennedy consistently put forth to remind us all of the principals that are the foundation of this country?

It’s a beautiful summer day in Kentucky. But it is a sad day for the United States and all Americans, even those who don’t share my admiration for Senator Kennedy.

American Experience: We Shall Remain

PBS is airing the series We Shall Remain on American Experience.  This amazing but under publicized and under reviewed series tells the history of America since the arrival of Europeans from the perspective of Native American Indians. 

I have long had an interest in history, especially American history and consider myself to be fairly well read.  I am shocked to realize how little we have been taught about the real story that is American history.  History has always been written by the victors but over time a more balanced view of that history usually emerges.  So far that really hasn’t happened in the United States. 

We denounce those who deny the holocaust and demand that other countries meet our human rights standards but hide our own history of genocide.  We deliberately destroyed cultures older, more sophisticated and certainly more in harmony with nature than that which we were importing from Europe. 

The first four episodes have aired and the final episode will air on Monday, May 9^th.  The entire series will be available online at www.pbs.org.  This outstanding program should be required viewing for all high school history students.  I hope you will take the time to watch, learn and discuss with your family and friends. 

American Experience:  We Shall Remain

    After the Mayflower

Tecumseh’s Vision

The Trail of Tears

Geronimo

Wounded Knee

SS United States

SS United States

The SS United States is the fastest ocean liner ever built, and at 990 feet it is the largest liner built in the United States.  Built between 1949 and 1952 in Newport News, Virginia, the SS Unites States shattered world eastbound speed records for crossing the Atlantic on its maiden voyage.  On its first return voyage it also captured the world westbound speed record.  It was not only faster than any other passenger ship, it beat the record held for 14 years by the SS Queen Mary by 10 hours. 

Built in cooperation with the US Navy, the ship was the safest and most technologically advanced ship afloat when it was launched in 1952.  Its distinctive red, white and blue funnels came to represent the best of America in every port of call.  Carrying 2,000 passengers with a crew of 1,000 it provided luxurious accommodations and consistently met its schedule regardless of weather conditions.  Even in the fiercest North Atlantic storms the ship maintained speed and comfort for its passengers. 

The hull and propulsion system designs where top secret as the ship was intended for use in times of emergency by the US military as a troop transport ship capable of carrying up to 15,000 troops nonstop for as much as 10,000 miles.

This magnificent ship sailed the high seas from its launch in 1952 until it was abruptly pulled from service in November, 1969.  Today the ship can still be seen at a pier in Philadelphia, the only liner of its era not scrapped.  A series of owners with various plans to restore the ship have been unable to put together viable financing to make it a reality. 

The most recent, American based Norwegian Cruise Lines had planned to rebuild the interior to include modern cabins with private terraces so much in demand in today’s market and sail the ship along the east and west coasts of the United States and through the Panama Canal.  Those plans were dropped and the ship was once again put up for sale due to the poor economy. 

Fortunately the company announced that this historic national icon will not be sold for scrap and will not be sold to interests outside the United States. 

The documentary about this amazing vessel is currently being shown on PBS stations.  Check with your local station and be sure the watch this fascinating film, SS United States: Lady in Waiting. 

You can learn more about efforts to save this symbol of American design and engineering excellence at http://www.ssunitedstatesconservancy.org/SSUS/Home.html 

You can also explore more information about the ship at 

http://www.ss-united-states.com/i2.html  

Inauguration 2009

Tomorrow we will have a new President. It is incredible being in DC for this historic event. I arrived on Amtrak after 14 hours on a train that originated in Chicago. A train full of people as excited and as hopeful as I am. Everyone believes this man can change the world. Everyone wants him to be successful. The sense that our country can once again live up to its founders’ vision, that it can live up to the rest of the world’s expectations of us, is palpable. A new generation of leadership is about to move into the Oval Office and young people feel that anything is possible, that all the mistakes of past generations and of the previous administration can be corrected. The time is now!

But for me, the sense of hope, the desire to believe things can be different is tempered by a deeply suppressed feeling of dread. Fear, really.

I remember a very similar feeling of hopefulness around the 1960 election of John Kennedy. Perhaps the sense of possibility, the sense of hopefulness and the belief that it was possible to fundamentally change the world as we knew it was enhanced by being Catholic and attending a parochial school, but I remember the feeling very well. With the election of JFK anything seemed possible.

I had just turned 13 and was in the eighth grade when President Kennedy was assassinated. The sixties raged around me during high school and college. Vietnam, Martin Luther King, Jr. and the ultimate horror, the death of all hope with the assassination of Bobbie Kennedy. I think all of us who experienced the sixties during those formative years were damaged. I’m working really hard to overcome the disillusionment and cynicism that is a part of me.

I want to believe that a majority white country that can elect a black man as its President is a different country than the violent and hate filled one that I grew up in. I want to believe that the sixties are in our past and cannot be repeated. There should never be another generation of American youth exposed to the worst of human nature, to Americans attacking their own democracy, killing their fellow countrymen.

So my sense of hope is tempered by a knot in my stomach, that place that holds the memory of that decade deep inside and the effort to keep it there, to hold it in is almost painful. As much as I am looking forward to tomorrow, to hearing President Obama’s Inaugural address, to the ceremony, to the many balls and especially to the Out for Equality Ball that we will be attending, really, I think I just want it to be over. I want the swearing in to be official and the Obama’s safely in the White House.

I want to believe that we can be a country in touch with our better angels, that we are ready and able to pursue a course of fairness and peace. I know we can be, I guess. But I wonder if we will be? Hope lives but fear is not far away.