As we are stunned every day by the support given a person with virtually no morals or compassion, we need only look back to 1969 to see that things haven't changed all that much. In addition to the excellent reporting on the battles and conflicts in Southeast Asia, now including Cambodia, the focus of this episode is the callousness and ugliness of Nixon's administration and two atrocities, My Lai and Kent State. As the number of dead Americans reached 50,000, Nixon knew that the U.S. could not win this war. What does he do? He sends thousands of new draftees into combat in the South. Time after time it is reported that these troops were not prepared for what they faced. They fought to the death, but became numbers. As images of these atrocities were being reported on the six o'clock news, more and more young people were motivated to make this stop. Remember, these were the ones who were fighting and dying for a war in a country that was no threat to them, a people they didn't even know, egged on by an unbalanced leader. Of course, horrible things happened. William Calley became the poster boy for the ugliness of it all, leading a massacre of civilians (including old men and women, children, and babies). Obviously there were violent factions that emerged, but on most college campuses, the demonstrations were loud and peaceful. Kent State changed that when National Guard troops, children themselves, opened fire on a crowd that was simply standing by a road. Here's the kicker. Polls said that nearly 60% of Americans approved of those troops firing into a crowd of unarmed people. Meanwhile the politicians continued to play games with the minds of the citizens. But things were starting to unwind. One thing I learned was that the draft lottery was strictly and political move to get people off Nixon's back. It worked. Sometimes we are so stupid. Excellent show.
The Vietnam War (TV Mini Series)
The History of the World (April 1969-May 1970) (2017)
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"When you kill someone for your country, all things change." - Army Medic Wayne Smith
classicsoncall4 December 2017
Warning: Spoilers
By the time the period under review for this episode occurred, I personally became military draft eligible. I turned 18 in December of 1969, and was subject to the 1970 draft lottery conceived by President Richard Nixon in an effort to tamp down assertions that only the poor wound up in service while those who were better advantaged got a pass via deferment, medical discharge or some other miscellaneous reason. I'll let you know how it went at the end of this review.
By the time Richard Nixon became President, he knew that military victory was impossible, and that things would have to be settled at the bargaining table. But instead of winding the war down, he managed to widen it at first. April of 1969 marked the high point of America's military commitment to Vietnam with 543,482 men and women in country, at a toll of nearly forty one thousand dead and a cost of seventy billion dollars.
A new term entered the political lexicon with Secretary Of Defense Melvin Laird's invention of the word 'Vietnamized'. The term meant that the U.S. would gradually turn over the defense of the country to the regular South Vietnamese Army, rather a moot point since our effort couldn't get victory done with a half million of our soldiers. How was South Vietnam supposed to win without our help?
With this episode of the Vietnam Series, all the memories of that confusing time come flooding back in droves. The 'Days of Rage' in Chicago, the Weather Underground turning to violence, a National Moratorium to call attention to the war. The My Lai Massacre, Kent State and the geographical expansion of the war into Cambodia. In stark counterpoint to the national soul searching on the war, in August of 1969 Country Joe McDonald was leading a crowd of half a million in a spelling lesson at the Woodstock Music and Arts Festival. My God, it seems like just yesterday.
It was only a week or so after Kent State that my own campus at the State University of Buffalo, New York had it's own taste of teargas and anti-war hysteria. Things never got as bad as it did in other parts of the country and at other colleges across the nation, but events became surreal in their own way. A televised broadcast of 'The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour' from Canada opened with a cracked egg with the latest developments on the War - inside was nothing. The American broadcast immediately following censored the clip.
Like everyone else that it affected, I was riveted to the TV during the first (and only) draft lottery that took place later in 1970. The order in which one could expect to be drafted coincided with one's date of birth pulled at random via a little blue capsule. The unlucky first date drawn was September 4th. My birth date came in at #123. When it came time to call up the number of draftees needed, the cutoff occurred at number #120!
By the time Richard Nixon became President, he knew that military victory was impossible, and that things would have to be settled at the bargaining table. But instead of winding the war down, he managed to widen it at first. April of 1969 marked the high point of America's military commitment to Vietnam with 543,482 men and women in country, at a toll of nearly forty one thousand dead and a cost of seventy billion dollars.
A new term entered the political lexicon with Secretary Of Defense Melvin Laird's invention of the word 'Vietnamized'. The term meant that the U.S. would gradually turn over the defense of the country to the regular South Vietnamese Army, rather a moot point since our effort couldn't get victory done with a half million of our soldiers. How was South Vietnam supposed to win without our help?
With this episode of the Vietnam Series, all the memories of that confusing time come flooding back in droves. The 'Days of Rage' in Chicago, the Weather Underground turning to violence, a National Moratorium to call attention to the war. The My Lai Massacre, Kent State and the geographical expansion of the war into Cambodia. In stark counterpoint to the national soul searching on the war, in August of 1969 Country Joe McDonald was leading a crowd of half a million in a spelling lesson at the Woodstock Music and Arts Festival. My God, it seems like just yesterday.
It was only a week or so after Kent State that my own campus at the State University of Buffalo, New York had it's own taste of teargas and anti-war hysteria. Things never got as bad as it did in other parts of the country and at other colleges across the nation, but events became surreal in their own way. A televised broadcast of 'The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour' from Canada opened with a cracked egg with the latest developments on the War - inside was nothing. The American broadcast immediately following censored the clip.
Like everyone else that it affected, I was riveted to the TV during the first (and only) draft lottery that took place later in 1970. The order in which one could expect to be drafted coincided with one's date of birth pulled at random via a little blue capsule. The unlucky first date drawn was September 4th. My birth date came in at #123. When it came time to call up the number of draftees needed, the cutoff occurred at number #120!
The History of the World (April 1969-May 1970)
Prismark107 November 2017
President Nixon in preparation for any peace talks in Paris withdraw troops from Vietnam but then escalates the conflict in Cambodia.
America is still divided and protests against the war is growing. Soldiers who fought in Vietnam or their family members are confused but they themselves are supporting the anti war movement or speaking out against the war.
Stories of American war crimes become public and they were not an isolated incident. The My Lai massacre where civilians including babies, women, children and the old were slaughtered. More would have died if not for another US helicopter that deliberately got in the way in order to protect the civilians at risk. The perpetrators for these criminal actions were let off easy.
The ugliness of the war in the far east came closer to home when in an anti war demo at Kent State University on May 4 1970,. Twenty nine National Guardsmen fired approximately 67 rounds over a period of 13 seconds, killing four students, wounding nine others, one of whom suffered permanent paralysis.
One of the dead and some of the injured were innocent bystanders who were just walking between classes. The parents of the dead bystander received hate mail calling their slain son a communist.
For some ex army veterans like John Musgrave this was the tipping point. It was a shock to see that photograph of a guy with long curly black hair and beard at the end of the episode with the caption John Musgrave, now a fully fledged anti war protester.
America is still divided and protests against the war is growing. Soldiers who fought in Vietnam or their family members are confused but they themselves are supporting the anti war movement or speaking out against the war.
Stories of American war crimes become public and they were not an isolated incident. The My Lai massacre where civilians including babies, women, children and the old were slaughtered. More would have died if not for another US helicopter that deliberately got in the way in order to protect the civilians at risk. The perpetrators for these criminal actions were let off easy.
The ugliness of the war in the far east came closer to home when in an anti war demo at Kent State University on May 4 1970,. Twenty nine National Guardsmen fired approximately 67 rounds over a period of 13 seconds, killing four students, wounding nine others, one of whom suffered permanent paralysis.
One of the dead and some of the injured were innocent bystanders who were just walking between classes. The parents of the dead bystander received hate mail calling their slain son a communist.
For some ex army veterans like John Musgrave this was the tipping point. It was a shock to see that photograph of a guy with long curly black hair and beard at the end of the episode with the caption John Musgrave, now a fully fledged anti war protester.
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