Congenial-speak #46

First Throes of Democracy

When LBJ—I mean RFK—was assassinated in 1968 the nation was a tinder-box. It was a cauldron of primordial soup that had spilled over many, many times. The reaction to Kennedy's candidacy and subsequent murder by a vengeful Palestinian was bifurcated. The New York senator was reluctant to challenge an incumbent president for the Democratic nomination that year—that is until he saw Minnesota senator Eugene McCarthy succeeding at it. For some in the DFL (Democratic Farmer-Labor) his sudden death (which occurred while he was celebrating a win) did not erase the fact that he had basically pirated McCarthy's success, surfed on a wave that was not his, plagiarized a lesser-known candidate's rhetoric. (Did someone do that more recently?)

Assassination is assassination. Kennedy's came two months after MLK's. The night of King's slaying on April 4, from a flat-bed truck in Indianapolis, Kennedy spoke of his own white brother's death. His words were credited as having prevented rioting in that city. They errupted in almost every other major city. Humphrey felt remorse. In June (Johnson had withdrawn from the race March 31) he thought the nomination was his. The vice president did not want it that way though, as the consequence of someones death. History marches on and the happy warrior got his nomination, his American dream.

I was too young to conceptualize much of anything 1968. The more I learn about the war and Johnson now, in 2017, the more it is oddly, disturbingly, out-of-contextually similar. At the end of 1967, in response to the bloody “border battles” in prelude to Tet, the war was barely getting the support of half the country. Johnson launched a PR campaign. It saw (until the Tet Offensive struck) of some success—kind of like how Trump's rallies feed his ego and his base's red meat diet until his next blunder. Johnson also commanded loyalty. Although he specified that it should “kiss his ass at high noon in Macy's window.” By the end of 1967 Defense Secretary Robert McNamara had admitted to himself that the was was going nowhere. He sent a memo to Johnson suggesting a bombing halt and turning the fighting over to the south Vietnamese. The president ignored it. Johnson thought the young protesters, the card burners, the dodgers, were Communists. It was a plot. I thought we were fighting the dreaded red menace. It doesn't make sense. If the protesters were truly Communists they would not be in the streets or going to Canada. They would be going to North Vietnam to promote Communism. They would be working for the other side. Johnson, by the end of his first full term, was paranoid and delusional. He was, in a more mature, presidential way, playing Thieu in a similar way that Trump is playing Un. The administration was cavalier. They put their needs before all the young men who had “gone to graveyards everywhere.” There were incidents of our bombs dropped on our ground troops. There were incidents of faulty M-16s costing lives. Most wars have, as in football, an objective of ground acquisition. We were the proxies in the war. We often did not know our enemy. No ground was won or lost and numbers (casualties) became the objective, kind of like a—CBO score. When I am told General Westmorland conveyed the casualty count of Viet Cong after each battle, suggesting he my have over-estimated it to make it look like we were winning, I look at the health care debate. I squarely look at McConnell and Ryan, how they play with number for their own gain, how, at the end of the day (or battle) all that matter is a win for their delusional boss. I get the distinct feeling that some presidents, senators and their most loyal and trusting “constituents” hide behind the flag. Old glory, in such cases, provides the curtain which hides the man to who no one should pay attention

During the “summer of love” Harvard professor Henry Kissinger is negotiating a deal. He is going to work for Nixon, he is paving a way for him to the White House. He is Putin, he is Bannon. Like Trump, Nixon preaches law and order. He fine tunes the paranoia, the scourge of the times that is Communism. It could have been Humphrey. The war might have actually ended early. It was fixed though by candidate Nixon, his Asian liaison, and running-mate Spiro Agnew. Thieu, had finally been brought to the table in Paris to talk peace, was thwarted, told to “hold on.” Nixon, as president, could secure him a better deal than Humphrey. The political grandstanding, the minimizing of the human factor involved, was so similar to today. Trump has sought, and usually gotten, political momentum from human calamities ranging from Assad's use of chemical weapons on his people to hurricanes affecting the lives of thousands. But the line between using heath care and the passage of a disastrous bill while millions of lives hang in the balance is the boldest.

Minnesota senator Al Franken was asked by Jimmy Kimmel whether he liked being a senator better than his days as a comedian. Al admitted that while comedy was more fun, he loves his job in the senate. There he is able to change peoples' lives for the better. I just don't think the most well-intentioned Republican does that. It is like they are afraid to go out of the lines, where colors might run. Democrats, I have always known, change lives for the better. If they have to go out of the lines to do it—which they usually do—they will, gladly, and in many cases altruistically. What a beautiful thing. To see that there are people in this country who deserve, who are entitled to, better. The Democrats, the “Communists” I wrote about in my book Ten Years and Change sought a better life for themselves and their children, for their childrens' children and for those asked rhetorically to fight an immoral and illegal war. I see the term communist as having taken a beating in those insipid years of the war. The people getting beaten in Chicago at August's end in '68 weren't Communists. They weren't “pinkos” or even bleeding heart liberals. To me they were just people trying to exist on this planet. They were trying to stop violence (ironically), to (hyperbolically) stop the extinction of the human race. The government was not listening to (by then) the majority. The institution which some random document claims is “by and for the people” was not listening to its constituents, its people without whose taxes and willingness (at the beginning) to fight a war, would, ironically, not exist.

Selling America like a used car

A lot of Republican administrations, and in Johnson's case Democratic, seem to love a scam, a four to eight year ponzi scheme. In Vietnam's case what eventually became the war started on a Democrat's (Truman's) watch. He aided the French, I guess in reciprocation for their help 179 years earlier, in fighting the Communists. In September of 1954 we entered SEATO (Southeast Asia Treaty Organization) along with Australia, New Zealand, France, Great Britain, the Philippines, Thailand and Pakistan. France and Britain refused to get involved. Its goal was to prevent the spread of Communism in that region. Eisenhower, a decorated general in WWII and Korea was the first Republican president involved. During his second term, 1955-60, there were between 750 and 1,500 advisors sent by the US to assist the new republic of Vietnam's president Diem in building an effective army. Sound familiar? As Ike left the White house to Kennedy he advised him to watch Communism, to keep a lid on Laos in particular. JFK, while dealing with issues such as the Cuban missile crisis and the erection of the Berlin Wall, had concern for America's standing in the world as a leading power. Hubris, honor, commitment. Ike had advised him to regard communism in Southeast Asia as a “required priority.” By the end of 1961, due to a predominance of the Viet Cong, Kennedy increased the number of military advisors from 1,100 to a total of 1,600 in the next two years. He also sent, in secrecy from the American people, special forces such as green berets trained in guerrilla warfare. The true extent of our involvement was not known, and young men went to war thinking they were doing something noble and relatively safe.

LBJ assumed the presidency at the end of November 1963. He maintained Kennedy's policy of advisors and special forces. In August of 1964 an attack occurred in the South China Sea's Gulf of Tonkin. Two North Vietnamese islands were hit by the US. An alleged attack on US forces by Hanoi was documented, justifying an air strike. On arch 8, 1965 Johnson, with the bogus authority granted him from the Gulf of Tonkin incident, committed the first ground troops in Vietnam with levels reaching 184,000. That spring he also began the air assault over North Vietnam code named operation rolling thunder. That offensive action lasted three years and seven months. By 1968 troop levels were 536,000. The US had suffered, since January of 1961, over 31,000 casualties. Over 200,000 US personnel had been wounded. Nixon protracted the war. With a pledge to end the war with honor, he began immediately in January 1969 “the bitter end to the war.” he sent troops to Cambodia in an effort to cut supply lines. He created the illusion of the war ending when, in July that year, 814 young men were the first of 25,000 troops to be withdrawn from Southeast Asia.

Code named hubris

As I look at those few pages of America's less proud history, all the myriad ways the tale's been spun to me, in my final analysis that war was from Kennedy to Nixon a scam. It was at the very least nine years of lies and cover ups, of hubris and face saving, of political gain at the financial, mortal, and emotional expense of the American people. Had it not been for Watergate, which led to Nixon's resignation, which led to Ford and a Democratically controlled House, I wager our involvement would have stayed. Nixon would never have accepted the Vietnam War ending as it did.

It should come as no surprise that Trump scammed his voters, those red capped,meated patriots willing to live the American dream if only they are happy. He played them like a fast—talking New York huckster, his milieu. They are eternal optimists, they're patient, they don't care, or they're not very bright. My money's on the latter.

Thank god for cynics like Thomas Jefferson who saw that government can easily grow corrupt, that all the power should not be at the federal level. For the current and last century, the federal government, depending what motivates the “man” in the Oval Office, has become accomplished at scamming, playing numbers games, minimizing life changing (ending) situations either for political gain or simplification. In an episode of MASH a gung ho soldier holds Hawkeye at gunpoint so his sergeant will be operated on first. Hawkeye tries reasoning with him. He say that to them the war is no some Geo-political conflict with the US and North Korea sticking their tongues out at each other. It is, more or less, today. With each rocket man or taunt of fury like the world's never seen, Trump is doing that gesture to Kim Jong Un. NUCLEAR annihilation is at stake and to Trump the world is a giant schoolyard! Who has any interests but their own in mind with education, health care, climate change, immigration. . .the fate of one, maybe several human populations? Who had in mind the interests of the young men who fought an illegal war? Who reduced their lives to a numbers race to feed into a mammoth computer in the pentagon basement? Usually everyone but the ruling party, whoever has the power to do something proactive.