I first read John Updike’s Vietnam War essay “On Not Being a Dove” in 1989. That’s when his memoir Self-Consciousness, the book in which it was included, was first published. At the time the essay seemed to me to be … Continue reading →
Joe Conason thinks McCain doesn’t know much about history, in particular the Vietnam War and the lessons he should have learned from it. Conason, as the possessor of a 1975 degree in history from Brandeis where they no doubt taught … Continue reading →
John Kerry has a piece in today’s Washington Post that champions Obama’s policy of talking to any and all comers, friend and foe alike. It’s full of Kerry’s overheated and outraged rhetoric towards the opposition. Bush’s mention of appeasement in … Continue reading →
In National Journal, Linda Douglass offers us a glimpse into a phase of McCain’s career I hadn’t previously known about. In the late 70s, he was the Navy’s liaison to the Senate, and it turns out to have been one … Continue reading →
First we had the new counterinsurgency manual. Now the army has a new operations manual with an emphasis on postwar stabilization. This is referred to as a “newly minted doctrine” and “a major development that draws on the hard-learned lessons … Continue reading →
Anyone who reads this blog knows I consider the Iraq war one of the biggest issues of the day. Yes, it’s faded in the news, mostly because it’s going relatively well now. But Vietnam was also going relatively well in … Continue reading →
I’m still reading Lewis Sorley’s A Better War, about the second half of our involvement in Vietnam. It’s slow going, for many reasons. One of them is that it’s painful to read it and think what might have been. Not … Continue reading →
I’ve been reading Lewis Sorley’s A Better War, an examination of what I’ve referred to as the “second act” of the Vietnam War, the period of Vietnamization under General Creighton Abrams. I have a feeling I’ll be writing quite a … Continue reading →
[Part 7A can be found here. The rest of the series is located by clicking on the category “A mind is a difficult thing to change: my story” on the right sidebar.] The last thing I was thinking about during … Continue reading →
The book A Better War by Lewis Sorley has just gone on my all-too-lengthy must-read list (to find the book review, scroll down a bit after you click on the link). Yes, more “Vietnam revisionist” history. Dismissed by those who … Continue reading →
Here’s a great summary of a recent symposium on Vietnam history. It was written by Cinnamon Stillwell, another “changer”—and, in the interests of full disclosure, a friend of mine. Stillwell writes: The significance of the Vietnam War, both from a … Continue reading →
[Part I here.] The 60s in Vietnam represented a sea-change in attitude towards the military, and not only on the fringes of the Left. Respected mainstream jounalists began to see their task less as transmitting information and more as questioning … Continue reading →