I'm curious as to what level of ideological support the Vietnam war had from old

[CC27]

howard112211 (1000+ posts)  Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list    Thu Mar-31-11 08:11 AM
Original message
I'm curious as to what level of ideological support the Vietnam war had from older DU members.
   
Edited on Thu Mar-31-11 08:11 AM by howard112211
I'm specificly talking not about people who were actually drafted to fight in it, an event that as I understand was beyond anyones personal opinion on the matter, but about the general opinion that people had about the war, its goals, its justification and so on.

I was born decades after the war ended, so I really don't have that unique perspective that people had who actually lived in those times.

 

Atman Donating Member (1000+ posts)  Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list    Thu Mar-31-11 08:21 AM
Response to Original message
9. Absolutely none.
   
Zilch. Hating that war consumed us. We fought with family and friends over it. We marched against it. Today...we post

Today we post in our underwear in a basement o lord of the shitbox 

Scuba Donating Member (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list    Thu Mar-31-11 08:31 AM
Response to Original message
20. I grew up in a very conservative household...
   
..in a very conservative community. My father (John Birch member) took me aside in 1965 (I was 16) and told me about the "domino theory" and the importance of stopping the Communists in Viet Nam before they got to our shores (sound familiar?).

But like many of that generation, I was more interested in girls and beer than in wars and such. At least until the draft board came breathing down my neck. Then I gave two minutes consideration to the whole thing and did the most cowardly thing possible - I enlisted in the Air Force.

No combat, that's for Officers in the AF, unlike the other branches of service.

No shaming my family by going to Canada.

I was still pretty much apolitical when I was sent to Southeast Asia. Not when I came home.

I've been a leftist/activist ever since.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x780301

[Rebel]

Scuba Donating Member (1000+ posts)
20. I grew up in a very conservative household...


No combat, that's for Officers in the AF, unlike the other branches of service.

Tell that to the combat controllers, para-rescue, enlisted members of bomber and tanker crews, and anyone on an airbase that was constantly being shelled or any of them that were attacked during Tet, you moron.

[JohnnyReb]

Scuba is a damn lie. If the draft was breathing down his neck, there's no way he joined the Air Force. Back in those days the Air Force had a year long waiting list. I know because I tried.

Momma told me to go join the Air Force and like a good little son, I tried. The recruiter told me he'd put me on his list but that the draft would get to me before he did.

When I got home that day, momma asked if I got in, I said I did. 2 weeks later the letter from the Marines came telling me when to report.... Hey, I never lied to my mother...I just didn't always tell her the whole story....

[DumbAss Tanker]

It was actually rather well-suppported even by the Left right up 'til the press turned on Johnson after the Tet Offensive.  But it was not just the press (Which was a much narrower field of the three big networks, major metro newspapers, and about three main news magazines) or those simply following the lead of the press, because by the end of '68, enough info was seeping out of the services about ridiculously-self-defeating ROE and political restrictions that a lot of people, even on the Right, were beginning to seriously question whether the crazy bastard SOB LBJ and his criminally-militarily-ignorant SECDEF McNamara had the slightest clue WTF they were doing, and getting so many young men killed.   

[GOBUCKS]

I never knew of anyone who did not support the war effort in SE Asia, except for the dirty, hairy freaks who showed up on TV breaking windows, and who made possible the election of Richard Nixon. Those same dirty, hairy freaks are the small contingent of white folks in today's democrat party.

[DumbAss Tanker]

I never knew of anyone who did not support the war effort in SE Asia, except for the dirty, hairy freaks who showed up on TV breaking windows, and who made possible the election of Richard Nixon. Those same dirty, hairy freaks are the small contingent of white folks in today's democrat party.

I can't say that, though of course I did live in a major university town with tons of Libruls underfoot; I do remember from 68 onwards that despite broad support (Outside the Librul community), a lot of non-Lib ordinary people were getting very frustrated with the waste of life involved in fighting with one hand tied behind our back, legs shackled together, and a "Kick me" sign on our balls.  The general reaction to the Cambodian Parrot's Beak offensive was "'Bout damn' time."