Tag Archives: Vietnam

Afghanistan : Tom Friedman’s ‘Cronkite Moment’?

Posted on October 29, 2009 by Thorne Dreyer

Tom Friedman’s “Walter Cronkite Moment”?Times columnist reverses field on Afghanistan.By Harvey Wasserman / The Rag Blog / October 29, 2009 The Iraq war’s chief New York Times cheerleader has reversed field on Afghanistan. Does it mean there will be no … Continue reading →

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Dick J. Reavis : SDS and the Great Divide

Posted on October 29, 2009 by Thorne Dreyer

Image from Students for a Democratic Society: A Graphic History.Today’s Red Book and the demise of SDS Nobody present had repudiated Leftism, but everyone seemed to have reached a consensus that the heedlessness of youth had been our common flaw. … Continue reading →

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Virtual Coup : Times, Pentagon Returning us to Vietnam?

Posted on October 24, 2009 by Thorne Dreyer

Afghanistan:Beware a Times/Pentagon ‘virtual coup’ It was the military’s manipulative misreporting in Vietnam that fueled Lyndon Johnson’s 1965 disastrous escalation. By Harvey Wasserman / The Rag Blog / October 24, 2009 Some military coups are still done the old-fashioned way. … Continue reading →

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McChrystal Clear : More Boots on the Ground

Posted on October 8, 2009 by Thorne Dreyer

Gen. Stanley McChrystal: Repeating the cliches.Do the numbers:500,000 troops for Pashtunistan? McChrystal repeats the clichés of classic counterinsurgency… American generals used the same vintage phrases in Vietnam, where efforts to ‘protect the population’ led to forcing rural peasants into fortified … Continue reading →

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Larry Ray : Echoes from Vietnam

Posted on October 4, 2009 by Thorne Dreyer

Larry Ray in Cu Chi Vietnam, late summer 1966.Echoes from Vietnam: Dying again in Afghanistan Afghanistan is an even older and thornier problem [than Vietnam]. And one that cannot be bombed into submission. By Larry Ray / The Rag Blog … Continue reading →

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Afghanistan : Get Out Before It’s Too Late

Posted on October 3, 2009 by Thorne Dreyer

Learn from history:Withdraw from Afganistan now …the United States and its NATO allies [have] slipped deeper and deeper into the Afghanistan quagmire with the same historical ignorance that characterized American lack of awareness of Vietnamese history. By Harry Targ / … Continue reading →

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Harvey Wasserman : Obama’s LBJ Moment

Posted on September 27, 2009 by Thorne Dreyer

President Lyndon B. Johnson listens to tape sent by Captain Charles Robb from Vietnam, July 31, 1968. Photo by Jack Kightlinger / LBJ Library.Obama’s LBJ moment He has inherited from George W. Bush the beginnings of a horrific quagmire. How … Continue reading →

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John McMillian : Mac the Knife: The Passing of a War Criminal

Posted on July 9, 2009 by Thorne Dreyer

Robert S. McNamara, U.S. Secretary of Defense for Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, speaks at Harvard on March 3, 2004. J. Errol Morris’ Academy Award-winning documentary, ‘The Fog of War,’ plays on the monitor as McNamara (left) and Ernest May address … Continue reading →

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Robert McNamara : Expanding the Imperial Mission

Posted on July 7, 2009 by Thorne Dreyer

LBJ and Robert McNamara. Photo from Dr. X’s Vintage Photos.The hallmark of the McNamara era: Modernization, scientific management, mutually assured destruction The most critical contribution to U.S. imperialism… for which McNamara was a leading advocate, was to foster the belief … Continue reading →

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Robert McNamara and his Band of Brothers

Posted on July 7, 2009 by Thorne Dreyer

Political cartoon by Ralph Solonitz / The Rag Blog / July 6, 2009[Ralph Solonitz’ cartoons also appear at MadasHellClub.net]The Rag Blog

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You’re in the Army Now : Despair, Dissent and Refusal

Posted on July 2, 2009 by Thorne Dreyer

‘Bad apple?’ Soldier with peace symbol on his helmet patrols south of Baghdad, Feb. 4, 2008. Photo by Maya Alleruzzo / AP.Refusing to comply:The tactics of resistance in an all-volunteer military Present-day G.I. resistance to the occupations of Iraq and … Continue reading →

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Randy Rowland : Lindy’s Great Escape

Posted on April 21, 2009 by Thorne Dreyer

The sit-in of the Presidio 27, Oct. 14, 1968, to be known as the Presidio Mutiny. Photo from the archives of Sir! No Sir!. The Presidio mutiny was a sit-down protest carried out by 27 prisoners at the Presidio stockade … Continue reading →

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