24 April 2006
I felt forced to see Vietnam for myself
Posted by Bob Keith at 4/24/2006 9:33 PM
Categories: Vietnam meets academia
You can't handle the truth
I felt forced to see Vietnam for myself
Posted by Bob Keith at 4/24/2006 9:33 PM
Categories: Vietnam meets academia
You can't handle the truth
I had heard and seen so much information about Vietnam in my lifetime by the time I was 40 years old my head spun ever time the subject came up. But I had learned something by 40. I did not have to believe anything if I did not want to. Just because you have a lab coat, a reporters ID tag, a PhD, a Hollywood name recognition, or a management title I could still dismiss you at my leisure; I do not have to buy into the paradigms you enable or are advocates for.
There is something haunting about A Few Good Men's Jack Nicolson's character. "You can't handle the truth." A professor once confided to me that old students scare the hell out of academia because we have lived the crap they only pontificate about. He actually looked over his shoulder and lowered his voice when he said it. And so it is with the Vietnam Era. It is surrealistic to sit in a class and hear a younger professor prattle on about an era you lived through. I had often been told in the blue collar world, "you have interesting observations about what you've seen in your work, life, and in the Army Bob; but, let me tell you what you probably saw." I was completely disgusted when I got to college and the anecdote only slightly changed, "you have interesting observations about what you've seen in your work, life, and in the Army Bob; but, let me tell you what you actually saw." So academic hacks and blue collar hacks are closer in smug condescension than they let themselves believe.
The war that never ends in American
There is something haunting about A Few Good Men's Jack Nicolson's character. "You can't handle the truth." A professor once confided to me that old students scare the hell out of academia because we have lived the crap they only pontificate about. He actually looked over his shoulder and lowered his voice when he said it. And so it is with the Vietnam Era. It is surrealistic to sit in a class and hear a younger professor prattle on about an era you lived through. I had often been told in the blue collar world, "you have interesting observations about what you've seen in your work, life, and in the Army Bob; but, let me tell you what you probably saw." I was completely disgusted when I got to college and the anecdote only slightly changed, "you have interesting observations about what you've seen in your work, life, and in the Army Bob; but, let me tell you what you actually saw." So academic hacks and blue collar hacks are closer in smug condescension than they let themselves believe.
The war that never ends in American
By 2004 I had heard the war re-fought in arguments too many times to count. Every political season the candidates still argue about each other's opinions about, or actions during the war. I have heard so many stories about Vietnam from actual news casts during the war, friends, GIs, neighbors, documentaries, movies, and finally academia, that I was forced to go there out of 40 years of utter conflicting information fatigue.
Couple all the above with the fact that in 2003 my interest in sorting out "Vietnam the country then and now," and "Vietnam the war" had got notched up to full gear; yet, the Afghanistan and Iraq wars were well under way and drawing critical analysis. The study of a former war adversary like Vietnam seemed at first not so relevant in the midst of new wars. But, as the new wars became ongoing wars, the study of a former war like Vietnam seems to gain relevance by the hour. The Vietnam War that went so long and ended so sour for the United States, and the study of the countries that emerged from that war and their status today begs analysis.
Couple all the above with the fact that in 2003 my interest in sorting out "Vietnam the country then and now," and "Vietnam the war" had got notched up to full gear; yet, the Afghanistan and Iraq wars were well under way and drawing critical analysis. The study of a former war adversary like Vietnam seemed at first not so relevant in the midst of new wars. But, as the new wars became ongoing wars, the study of a former war like Vietnam seems to gain relevance by the hour. The Vietnam War that went so long and ended so sour for the United States, and the study of the countries that emerged from that war and their status today begs analysis.
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