This article was first published at Counterpunch, January 12, 2005. The ultimate victory will depend on the hearts and minds of the people who actually live out there. –Lyndon Johnson, on Vietnam There is…
Vietnam veteran Wayne Smith: We were broken. I had so much anger and pain. I was crushed. I left like I had blood on my hands. I resisted calling the Vietnamese gooks and dinks, but…
Vietnam veteran Wayne Smith: We were broken. I had so much anger and pain. I was crushed. I left like I had blood on my hands. I resisted calling the Vietnamese gooks and dinks, but…
According to my FBI documents, [President Richard] Nixon was more obsessed with me than with the president of Russia. He was obsessed with this movie star that was working with the GIs. –Jane Fonda, from…
Many of us worry about the world situation. We don’t know when the bombs will explode. We feel that we are on the edge of time. As individuals, we feel helpless, despairing. The situation is so…
See, Wiesel has often made this claim quite explicit: I am above politics, my message is so precious and pure it cannot afford to be sullied by compromise. Such is the transcendent dignity of the…
There is something about the light and air in France. Matisse spoke of the “Silver clarity of the light in Nice.” Van Gogh said, “The air in France brightens the thoughts and is good for…
The more American troops sent to Vietnam, the more the anti-American campaign led by the NLF becomes successful. Anger and hatred rise in the hearts of the peasants as they see their villages burned, their…
The Vietnamese and we have indelibly stamped each other with our marks. We have destroyed beyond hope of remaking parts of their ancient culture; they have destroyed our innocence and belief in our own goodness….
Over poetry, you didn’t gush. You read it. You read it with the tongue. You lived it. You felt how it moved you, changed you. How it contributed to giving your own life a form,…