Vietnam and the Lessons We Don't Learn

There are so many reasons to deplore the Vietnam War, its escalations, it's "causes", and its simmering aftermath. But even more deplorable are the efforts and resources expended to ensure we continue to learn the wrong lessons from it all. These efforts and their monumental success are emblematic of cultural conditions explaining how our electoral process was recently trimped in such a shameful way.

Nearly all of has were raised believing that fighting in the military equates to "serving one's country".  There are even well-intentioned efforts to amend this belief in light of the uncomfortable consequences the Vietnam experience has had on our culture.  One of these is the idea that "the armed services [should] be just one of many ways young people can serve their country".  This is indisputably true in principal, but effectively false with regard to the actual uses of "our" US military.

"Our" military, in principle, still defends the independence and security of our troubled nation.  But in actuality, the US military is almost wholly used in the service of empire. And the greatest enemies of this empire are not invaders, terrorism or communism - unless such labels are used to describe the efforts of foreign nations to control their own resources and choose their own paths for development.

The lesson of Vietnam, which could be learned by anyone who seriously studies the Pentagon Papers, is that the US consistently works against democracy and self-determination wherever they might conflict with "our" national interests. But, as trimp voters know in their guts, these interests are preponderantly defined by the private, profit-seeking motives of the directors of "our" economy.

Our presidents and our governments lied about Vietnam because telling the truth might have preempted such atrocities. Does anyone really believe there's been any war since Vietnam that was particularly different?  Vietnam was but one of many US interventions into other small countries before, during, and after the 1960s. It was not even the longest lasting.  For one example: the US still conducts regular military operations in the Philippines as it has, more or less consistently, since our invasion in 1898.  Honduras is another "abject" example of "our good intentions", and so (in another way) is Cuba.

Most of us have still not learned this lesson. It is a lesson that goes well beyond Vietnam - and even beyond empire. It is a lesson that could let us clearly see the long way to go before we can actually claim to be participating in any democracy.  

But first, we would have to want to.