“We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
What would ol\u2019 Ike have thought of the forever wars of Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq? Trillions in profits were made on the production and sale of sophisticated armaments. Millions of people perished in those catastrophes; including the deaths of thousands of American soldiers. Each war ended in complete tragedy and disaster for the US due to the venality and corruption in Washington D.C. And yet, here we stand once again, ready for war with Russia over Ukraine; only this time Mr. Potato Head will march the troops to the glorious battleground.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m old enough to remember the Vietnam war as it unfolded, it was a war that shaped my consciousness and world view. I started to read about Vietnam in 1963 when I was 10-years-old, and by the time I was a teenager I was well versed in Vietnamese history and could tell you the names of Vietnamese political figures. The draft ended just weeks before I was old enough to be inducted; though I didn\u2019t serve in the armed forces, I feel like a veteran of that war. I was obsessed with the conflict and its national and international implications.<\/p>\n I\u2019m illustrating this Veteran\u2019s Day post with drawings from my high-school sketch book. The drawings were made in 1970 when I was 17-years-old; they exemplify my concerns and misgivings about the war. My Vietcong Guerrilla<\/em> pencil sketch was based on a news clipping photo, and the pen drawing was after a cartoon by the fabulous Ron Cobb<\/a>, who at the time I idolized as one of the best political cartoonists in the US; his works only appeared in underground newspapers.<\/p>\n This Veteran\u2019s Day I\u2019m left wondering, what do we remember about Nam? Do you recall the meaning of \u201cfragging,\u201d \u201cpunji sticks,\u201d \u201cTiger cages,\u201d \u201cRolling Thunder,\u201d \u201cDaisy Cutter,\u201d or \u201cPuff the Magic Dragon\u201d? Who can tell me about the Buddhist crisis, Ngo Dinh Diem, Nguyen Cao Ky, or Madam Nguyen Thi Binh? What happened during the 1968 Tet Offensive, or My Lai? What was the National Liberation Front? Who were the ARVN?<\/p>\n As Americans we should recognize that these expressions, names, and events are part of our history\u2014but what do you say when the words draw a blank. The aphorism of \u201cThose who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,\u201d is attributed to philosopher George Santayana. The words certainly apply to the Vietnam war, but to the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts as well. They are also a caveat for US military action in Ukraine.<\/p>\n A fellow named Joseph Allen McDonald served in the US Navy and was trained as an \u201capproach controller\u201d for US Navy aircraft carriers at sea. In 1965 he received his honorable discharge, and ended up in Berkeley where he fell in with the flower power crowd and subsequently founded the psychedelic rock band, Country Joe and the Fish.<\/p>\n The band is best known for their anti-Vietnam war anthem, I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ To Die Rag<\/em>, but in 1986, Country Joe as a solo performer put out Vietnam Experience<\/em>, an album of songs about the Vietnam war from a soldier\u2019s perspective. It is a sympathetic and surprising collection of songs; Agent Orange<\/em><\/a> is a tear-jerker and Foreign Policy Blues<\/em><\/a> is a dark, shell-shocked jingle. I decided to celebrate Veteran\u2019s Day by publishing the words of Joe McDonald’s song Vietnam Never Again<\/em><\/a>, which seems most fitting for those of us with historic amnesia and a zest for war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n I\u2019l like to be a General, in the Pentagon Ah Vietnam… you took my heart and mind I\u2019d like to be a doctor, with a practice way down town Ah Vietnam… you took my heart and mind November 11, 2022 is Veteran\u2019s Day in America, but you\u2019d hardly know it by reading the corporate press; there\u2019s not a single mention of it on the \u201cGoogle News\u201d web page. To honor the veterans of all wars fought by the United States, Veteran\u2019s Day is celebrated annually in November. It is a day of reflection, contemplation, and gratefulness. Many…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art-of-war"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13114\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/vallen_vietnam_war_dead.jpg\")
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\ninstead of a foot soldier, here in Vietnam
\nI\u2019d like to be a Congressman in Washington D.C.
\ninstead of at a firebase<\/a>, surrounded by VC<\/a>
\nI\u2019d like to be a business man, selling guns and planes
\ninstead of in this bunker with rounds coming in
\nI\u2019d like to be the President, talking to the press
\ninstead of here in Khe Sanh<\/a>, with shrapnel in my chest<\/p>\n
\nAh Vietnam… you made me old before my time
\nAh Vietnam… I still can\u2019t explain
\nAh Vietnam… if I should, maybe I could
\ndo it all again.<\/p>\n
\ninstead of standing here in blood, on the killing ground
\nI\u2019d like to be an RN, in a quite nursing home
\ninstead of with the wounded, hearing them scream and moan
\nI\u2019d love to be an actor, in a film about Vietnam
\ninstead I\u2019m in this hole, with punji sticks<\/a> in my arm
\nI\u2019d like to be a Hippie, thinking love with prevail
\ninstead of a grunt with an attitude, locked in the Long B\u00ecnh Jail<\/a><\/p>\n
\nAh Vietnam… you made me old before my time
\nAh Vietnam… I still can\u2019t explain
\nAh Vietnam… if I should, maybe I could,
\nnever do it again.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"