tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/vietnam-war-15287/articlesVietnam War – The Conversation2024-03-13T12:38:35Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2250692024-03-13T12:38:35Z2024-03-13T12:38:35ZHopes that Biden will quit his reelection campaign ignore the differences – and lessons – of LBJ and 1968’s Democratic catastrophe<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580739/original/file-20240308-16-a0f8xb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=22%2C5%2C3671%2C2447&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago was not a peaceful event.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-sign-over-archway-leading-to-the-international-news-photo/515578006?adppopup=true">Bettmann/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s just over six months until Election Day. The president faces a tough fight for reelection. His approval rating has cratered below 40% in the polls, his party is divided over a foreign war, and a bipartisan chorus declares that he’s no longer up to the job. Polls show him running neck and neck with the likely Republican nominee. </p>
<p>Faced with this grim situation, the president decides to put country before his own political ambition and declares he won’t run for reelection.</p>
<p>Joe Biden in 2024? </p>
<p>Nope, it’s Lyndon Johnson in 1968. On March 31 of that year, <a href="https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/march-31-1968-remarks-decision-not-seek-re-election">LBJ shocked the nation when</a>, at the end of a televised address on the Vietnam War, he declared, “I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president.”</p>
<p>Today, a chorus of <a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2024/0227/Biden-should-drop-out!-No-he-shouldn-t!-Debate-rages">political commentators predict or hope</a> that Biden will follow LBJ’s example. But 2024 is not 1968, and Joseph Robinette Biden is not Lyndon Baines Johnson.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">‘I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president,’ said LBJ on March 31, 1968.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Divisions over a war</h2>
<p>In 1968, the Democratic Party was deeply divided over the Vietnam War. Despite having deployed over 500,000 troops and suffered over 20,000 deaths, the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2015/03/the-vietnam-war-part-ii-losses-and-withdrawal/389192/">U.S. seemed no closer to victory</a>. </p>
<p>So-called “<a href="https://news.gallup.com/vault/191828/gallup-vault-hawks-doves-vietnam.aspx">hawks</a>” demanded that the president hold the line in Vietnam or even escalate further in order to achieve total victory. “<a href="https://news.gallup.com/vault/191828/gallup-vault-hawks-doves-vietnam.aspx">Doves</a>” argued that the war was unwinnable and the U.S. should look for a negotiated settlement.</p>
<p>Today, many <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/inside-democratic-rebellion-against-biden-over-gaza-war-2024-02-27/">Democrats oppose Biden’s support</a> for Israel’s military campaign against Hamas, but it’s easy to overstate this division. A recent Gallup poll found that only 1% of Americans cited “war in the Middle East” as <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/1675/most-important-problem.aspx">the nation’s top problem</a>. </p>
<p>In contrast, early in 1968, Gallup found that a majority of Americans – 53% – said that Vietnam was the <a href="https://ropercenter.cornell.edu/ipoll/study/31087737/questions#fdf0b252-9191-417f-89ba-ba32cd16c587">most important issue facing the nation</a>. </p>
<p>Furthermore, most Democrats remain supportive of Israel. A recent Reuters poll found that 46% of Democrats blame Hamas for the war compared with <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-dogged-by-democrats-anger-over-israel-reutersipsos-poll-finds-2024-02-29/">only 22% who blame Israel</a>. </p>
<p>Whatever concerns Democrats might have over Biden, the fact remains that no prominent Democrats have chosen to oppose him for the party nomination. Even leading progressive Democrats like <a href="https://apnews.com/article/bernie-sanders-biden-endorsement-2024-d8f0772b117e2bf83e1062708ea651c0">Sen. Bernie Sanders</a> and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/aoc-endorses-biden-2024-president-democrats-3c722f5ac1bc2c568b6d962d4fe4e2b7">Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez</a> have endorsed Biden. Ocasio-Cortez even went so far as to call Biden “one of the <a href="https://nbcmontana.com/news/nation-world/aoc-calls-biden-one-of-the-most-successful-presidents-in-history-amid-age-concerns-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-2024-election-special-counsel-report-donald-trump-president-white-house">most successful presidents</a> in modern American history.”</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580744/original/file-20240308-28-p15lv5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A crowd of people in a convention hall, with some holding signs that say 'Stop the war.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580744/original/file-20240308-28-p15lv5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580744/original/file-20240308-28-p15lv5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580744/original/file-20240308-28-p15lv5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580744/original/file-20240308-28-p15lv5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580744/original/file-20240308-28-p15lv5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580744/original/file-20240308-28-p15lv5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580744/original/file-20240308-28-p15lv5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Bitter differences over the Vietnam War were on display at the 1968 Democratic convention.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/members-of-the-new-york-delegation-protesting-against-the-news-photo/51247068?adppopup=true">Washington Bureau/Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>After LBJ, no unity</h2>
<p>In contrast, differences over the Vietnam War and other issues led two sitting U.S. senators, <a href="https://features.apmreports.org/arw/campaign68/c2.html">Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota</a> and <a href="https://features.apmreports.org/arw/campaign68/a1.html">Robert F. Kennedy of New York</a>, to challenge Johnson for the Democratic nomination. And despite low name recognition and a shoestring campaign, McCarthy even managed a near upset of Johnson in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2018/03/12/eugene-mccarthy-vs-lbj-the-new-hampshire-primary-showdown-that-changed-everything/">the New Hampshire primary</a>, held on March 12, 1968. </p>
<p>Given these differences, it seems very unlikely that Biden will seek to follow LBJ’s example by dropping out of the race. And for those who hope Biden will do so anyway, they should be careful what they wish for. </p>
<p>Johnson’s withdrawal failed to unify the party. Far from it. </p>
<p>McCarthy, Kennedy and Vice President Hubert Humphrey, who joined the race after Johnson’s exit, <a href="https://features.apmreports.org/arw/campaign68/e1.html">fought a bitter battle</a> for the nomination. Tensions exploded during that year’s <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/1968-democratic-convention-931079/">Democratic convention in Chicago</a>. </p>
<p>Americans watched on live television as <a href="https://time.com/5377386/1968-democratic-national-convention-protesters/">police brutally beat anti-war demonstrators</a> in the streets outside the convention hall. </p>
<p>Inside the convention, Sen. Abraham Ribicoff of Connecticut denounced “<a href="https://75.stripes.com/archives/chicago-democratic-convention-68-embodies-clash-over-future-america">Gestapo tactics on the streets of Chicago</a>.” In response, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley unleashed a torrent of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1996/08/25/nyregion/ribicoff-and-daley-head-to-head.html">vulgar, antisemitic comments</a>. <a href="https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/politics/camp/680830convention-dem-ra.html">Humphrey eventually won the nomination</a>, but his candidacy was deeply wounded and he went on to narrowly lose the election to Richard Nixon.</p>
<p>Should Biden decide not to run, Democrats might face a similar situation. </p>
<p>There is no obvious candidate to replace him, and the contest to do so would likely inflame Democratic divisions over ideology, gender and race. Furthermore, at this late date, it would be nearly impossible to win the nomination via the remaining caucuses and primaries. </p>
<p>Instead, the Democratic convention, slated for late August in Chicago, would probably end up choosing the nominee, leaving him or her open to criticism that they were selected by party bosses rather than the people.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225069/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Philip Klinkner does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>An unpopular president. A war that’s dividing the country. An upcoming election. What year is it?Philip Klinkner, James S. Sherman Professor of Government, Hamilton CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2201292024-01-10T19:11:47Z2024-01-10T19:11:47ZMartin Luther King Jr.’s moral stance against the Vietnam War offers lessons on how to fight for peace in the Middle East<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568105/original/file-20240106-29-vtf394.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=269%2C287%2C1769%2C1708&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., center, leads an anti-Vietnam War demonstration on March 16, 1967, in New York City. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/civil-rights-leader-rev-martin-luther-king-jr-is-news-photo/150253595?adppopup=true">AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since the onset of Israel’s deadly assault on Gaza and the West Bank after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack, <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/11/martin-luther-king-jr-mlk-israel-palestine-1967-video/">debates have arisen</a> among historians and media pundits about Martin Luther King Jr.’s stance on Israel and its conflicts with Palestinians.</p>
<p>Some claim King was a <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/martin-luther-king-and-israel">fierce Zionist</a> and point to his speech on Mar. 25, 1968, before the annual convention of the <a href="https://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/story/conversation-dr-martin-luther-king-jr">Rabbinical Assembly</a>.</p>
<p>“Peace for Israel means security, and we must stand with all of our might to protect its right to exist, its territorial integrity,” King said. “I see Israel as one of the great outposts of democracy in the world, and a marvelous example of what can be done, how desert land almost can be transformed into an oasis of brotherhood and democracy.” </p>
<p>Others, like American-Israeli scholar Martin Kramer, have pointed to <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/11/martin-luther-king-jr-mlk-israel-palestine-1967-video/">King’s views on Palestinian rights to their homeland</a>. During a 1967 interview with ABC News, shortly after Israel launched the <a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1961-1968/arab-israeli-war-1967">Six-Day War</a> against Egypt, Syria and Jordan and seized control of land in Gaza and the West Bank, King said that Israel should return Palestinian lands. </p>
<p>“I think for the ultimate peace and security of the situation it will probably be necessary for Israel to give up this conquered territory, because to hold on to it will only exacerbate the tensions and deepen the bitterness of the Arabs,” <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/11/martin-luther-king-jr-mlk-israel-palestine-1967-video/">he said</a>. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=J44UCvEAAAAJ&hl=en">scholar who researches social movements</a>, racial politics and democracy, I believe there is a larger story beyond King’s stance on Israel and Palestinians. That story is on King’s views of war – and his courage to stand for peace.</p>
<p>This is the story of the anti-war King who understood that <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/loving-your-enemies-sermon-delivered-detroit-council-churches-noon-lenten">violence begets violence</a> and that the political courage to speak for peace is essential to democracy. </p>
<h2>Breaking his silence</h2>
<p>For King, joining the peace movement was tantamount to walking a political tightrope. On one hand, the Civil Rights Movement had <a href="https://prde.upress.virginia.edu/conversations/4002519">a great supporter</a> in U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, who signed the <a href="https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2004/summer/civil-rights-act#:%7E:text=On%20the%20same%20day%20President,Voting%20Rights%20Act%20of%201965.">Civil Rights Act of 1964</a> and the <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/voting-rights-act-1965">Voting Rights Act of 1965</a>. </p>
<p>But LBJ was also at the heart of the <a href="https://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/11202009/profile.html">escalation of the war</a> in Vietnam, and many believed <a href="https://time.com/5505453/martin-luther-king-beyond-vietnam/">King’s anti-war statements</a> could and would be used against him.</p>
<p>The U.S. government’s hypocrisy in supporting the Vietnam War was not lost on King.</p>
<p>In 1965, <a href="https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/active_learning/explorations/vietnam/vietnam_pubopinion.cfm">61% of Americans supported</a> U.S. military involvement. </p>
<p>At the same time, King was asking hard questions about Johnson’s wartime decision-making and unmet promises of social uplift through his <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/22/opinion/vietnam-war-great-society.html">Great Society</a> programs. King wondered how a nation could drop tons of bombs and napalm on civilians in <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/vietnam-war#:%7E:text=In%20his%20last%20Sunday%20sermon,Remaining%20Awake%2C%E2%80%9D%20219">the name of peace and freedom</a> while violently subjugating its own Black citizens. </p>
<p>How could a nation spend so much money on a war, King asked, when it could not feed or protect its own people? </p>
<p>“The promises of the Great Society have been shot down on the battlefield of Vietnam,” <a href="https://www.aavw.org/special_features/speeches_speech_king02.html">King said</a> in a speech in Beverly Hills on Feb. 25, 1967. “Billions are liberally expended for this ill-considered war. … The security we profess to seek in foreign adventures we will lose in our decaying cities. The bombs in Vietnam explode at home. They destroy the hopes and possibilities for a decent America.”</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.nps.gov/gwmp/learn/historyculture/lbjandmlk.htm">Johnson administration</a> argued that military force was essential to protect South Vietnam from the encroachment of communism from the north. As Johnson saw it, North Vietnam and its National Liberation Front were a threat to democracy in Southeast Asia.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A white man is shaking the hands of a Black man as a crowd of other men stand behind them." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568329/original/file-20240108-19-jsmytv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568329/original/file-20240108-19-jsmytv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568329/original/file-20240108-19-jsmytv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568329/original/file-20240108-19-jsmytv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568329/original/file-20240108-19-jsmytv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568329/original/file-20240108-19-jsmytv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568329/original/file-20240108-19-jsmytv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, left, shakes hands with Martin Luther King Jr. after signing the Civil Rights Act on July 3, 1964, at the White House.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/president-lyndon-johnson-shakes-hands-with-the-us-clergyman-news-photo/150253569?adppopup=true">AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>King’s <a href="https://www.thirteen.org/blog-post/martin-luther-kings-most-controversial-speech-beyond-vietnam/">advisers pleaded</a> with him not to speak out and argued that the political costs would be too high. Most importantly, they reminded King that there was more than enough work to do in the U.S. to end poverty and secure equal rights for Black citizens. </p>
<p>But King ultimately broke with his advisers and President Johnson. </p>
<p>By 1967, King followed the lead of his wife – and anti-war activist – <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/02/coretta-scott-king/552557/">Coretta Scott King</a> and began speaking out. </p>
<p>In March 1967, King led his first anti-war march in Chicago. <a href="https://www.jofreeman.com/photos/KingAtChicago.html">At the rally</a>, he called on peace activists to organize “as effectively as the war hawks.” </p>
<p>A month later, on April 4, 1967, King gave the speech at the Riverside Church in New York City that changed the course of the last year of his life – <a href="https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkatimetobreaksilence.htm">“Beyond Vietnam − A Time to Break the Silence</a>.” In that <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/beyond-vietnam">revolutionary speech</a>, King described how he was morally compelled to speak out against the war.</p>
<p>In the days and weeks after, he would lose masses of supporters, Black and white alike. He lost hard-earned political allies, <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/johnson-lyndon-baines">including President Johnson</a>.</p>
<p>King was also shunned and denounced by <a href="https://www.npr.org/2010/03/30/125355148/the-story-of-kings-beyond-vietnam-speech">168 newspapers</a> that questioned King’s failure to condemn the enemy, fueling long-standing rumors about communist ties.</p>
<h2>Saving the soul of America</h2>
<p>King had no regrets.</p>
<p>He understood the difficulty of speaking out against the war. “Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government’s policy, especially in time of war,” he said. </p>
<p>For King, a preacher at heart, silence had become betrayal.</p>
<p>Calling the U.S “the greatest purveyor of violence today,” King said the soul of America “can never be saved so long as it destroys the deepest hopes of men the world over.” He warned that America had lost moral authority abroad and derided “the deadly Western arrogance that has poisoned the international atmosphere for so long.”</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A Black man wearing a dark suit stands behind a lecturn atop a sign that says clergy and laymen concerned about Vietnam." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568104/original/file-20240106-27-wlq19b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568104/original/file-20240106-27-wlq19b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1006&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568104/original/file-20240106-27-wlq19b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1006&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568104/original/file-20240106-27-wlq19b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1006&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568104/original/file-20240106-27-wlq19b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1265&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568104/original/file-20240106-27-wlq19b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1265&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568104/original/file-20240106-27-wlq19b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1265&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Martin Luther King Jr. speaks at an anti-Vietnam War demonstration on Feb. 6, 1968, in Washington, D.C.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/view-of-american-civil-rights-leader-dr-martin-luther-king-news-photo/156039788?adppopup=true">Joseph Klipple/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>King pointed to the role of the U.S. in prohibiting the realization of “a revolutionary government seeking self-determination” in Vietnam.</p>
<p>Most poignantly in that 1967 speech at Riverside Church, King detailed the devastating costs of the Vietnam War and described the millions of children and women who were killed by American bombs and bullets and the poor masses who were spared slaughter only to face a slow, painful death by disease and starvation. </p>
<p>Then King turned to the so-called “enemy,” the North Vietnamese. “Even if we do not condone their actions,” King said in the speech, “surely we must see that the men we supported pressed them to their violence. Surely we must see that our own computerized plans of destruction simply dwarf their greatest acts.” </p>
<p>Then King called for a cease-fire. </p>
<h2>The fight for justice and humanity</h2>
<p>King’s words resonate today. </p>
<p>Unlike in King’s time, <a href="https://www.dataforprogress.org/blog/2023/12/5/voters-want-the-us-to-call-for-a-permanent-ceasefire-in-gaza-and-to-prioritize-diplomacy">61% of potential voters support</a> a permanent cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. Anti-war <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/12/09/palestinian-protests-us-israel-gaza-war">protests abound across the nation</a> and <a href="https://acleddata.com/2023/11/07/infographic-global-demonstrations-in-response-to-the-israel-palestine-conflict/">around the world</a>. </p>
<p>How can the U.S., as King would ask the nation, move forward from here? </p>
<p>In the 1960s, King grappled with this very question. On the one hand, he felt a deep solidarity with the Jewish struggle against persecution, and on the other hand, he rejected the violent occupation of Palestinian lands that would run counter to the noble cause. </p>
<p>He saw resolution through a commitment to breaking cycles of violence and practicing radical peace, “a worldwide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one’s tribe, race, class, and nation.”</p>
<p>Nearly 60 years later, the fight for King’s “radical revolution of values,” where human life and dignity were the most valued, still rages. But as the life of King reminds us, speaking out for justice can be costly. Yet he would also say that the cost of remaining silent is far greater.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220129/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hajar Yazdiha does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. knew the political consequences of speaking out against the Vietnam War − and he did it anyway.Hajar Yazdiha, Assistant Professor of Sociology, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and SciencesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2189442023-11-30T17:03:54Z2023-11-30T17:03:54ZHenry Kissinger was a global – and deeply flawed – foreign policy heavyweight<p>Declarations of the end of an era are made only in exceptional circumstances. Henry <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-67574495">Kissinger’s death</a> is one of them. </p>
<p>Kissinger was born into a Jewish family in Germany, and fled to the US in 1938 after the Nazis seized power. He rose to one of the highest offices in the US government, and became the <a href="https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/kissinger-henry-a">first person to serve</a> as both secretary of state and national security adviser. </p>
<p>The 1973 <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1973/summary/">Nobel Peace prize</a>, which Kissinger shared with his North Vietnamese counterpart <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1973/tho/facts/">Le Duc Tho</a>, recognised his contribution to the negotiations that ended the Vietnam war. </p>
<p>Kissinger advised a dozen US presidents, from Richard Nixon to Joe Biden. For advocates of realpolitik – a quintessentially pragmatic, utilitarian approach to foreign affairs – Kissinger was both author and master. </p>
<p>Across many years, his viewpoint remained largely unchanged: national security is the centrepiece of sovereignty, as both a means, and end in itself. From this perspective, Kissinger’s transformative diplomatic involvement in seminal events in the 20th century, and iconic insights in the 21st have shaped swathes of western geopolitics. </p>
<p>His fierce ambition was a key part of his vision, namely to rework the bipolar structure of the cold war, bent on establishing both US power, and arguably his own role in it. </p>
<p>Kissinger had no qualms backing the military dictatorship behind <a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/indonesia-invades-east-timor">Indonesia’s invasion of East Timor</a> in the 1970s. He supported the CIA in overthrowing president <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/24483554">Salvador Allende of Chile</a> in 1970, advocated sustained bombing in <a href="https://www.vietnamwar50th.com/1965_stemming_the_tide/Operation-ROLLING-THUNDER-Begins-the-Sustained-Bombing-of-North-Vietnam/">areas of North Vietnam</a>, and encouraged the wiretapping of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1982/04/14/article-accuses-haig-kissinger-on-wiretaps/7b504a95-48d5-480e-8521-a63dd4150f33/">journalists</a> critical of his Vietnam policy. He prioritised security over human rights, and commercial control over self-determination. </p>
<p>None of this was surprising. Kissinger’s entire approach to foreign policy was unsentimental at best, and brutish at worst. Peace, and the power to conclude a peace, could only be hewn coarsely from the unforgiving fibre of state relations, he believed. </p>
<p>To his critics, Kissinger’s actions in Vietnam, Chile, Indonesia and beyond significantly challenged his legacy of negotiation and diplomacy, and – in the eyes of some – were tantamount to war crimes.</p>
<h2>Peacemaker or polariser?</h2>
<p>Kissinger’s legacy will remain a mixed one. It incorporated truly ground-breaking efforts in opening up talks between <a href="https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/nixon-china-week-changedwhat">the US with China</a> and the Soviet Union, alongside visibly polarising outcomes for US foreign policy in its relations with South America and south-east Asia. </p>
<p>As secretary of state to presidents Richard Nixon and <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/gerald-r-ford/">Gerald Ford</a>, Kissinger’s geopolitical achievements established him as an elder statesman of the Republican Party. This rested on a trinity of endeavours: pulling the US out of the Vietnam War, establishing a host of new diplomatic connections between the US and China, and cultivating the first stages of détente (improved relations) with the Soviet Union. </p>
<p>Vietnam remains the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/11/nobel-peace-prize-henry-kissinger-vietnam">most contentious of these areas</a>, with accusations that Kissinger blithely applied <a href="https://theconversation.com/henry-kissingers-bombing-campaign-likely-killed-hundreds-of-thousands-of-cambodians-and-set-path-for-the-ravages-of-the-khmer-rouge-209353">bombing and destruction in Cambodia</a> to extract the US from the Vietnam war. The peace was fragile and hostilities <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-30/henry-kissinger-vietnam-war-legacy/103172192">continued for years</a> afterwards without the Americans.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/henry-kissingers-bombing-campaign-likely-killed-hundreds-of-thousands-of-cambodians-and-set-path-for-the-ravages-of-the-khmer-rouge-209353">Henry Kissinger's bombing campaign likely killed hundreds of thousands of Cambodians − and set path for the ravages of the Khmer Rouge</a>
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<h2>Nixon and China</h2>
<p>Kissinger’s reputation is on sturdier grounds with the grand strategy to permanently open relations between the US and both <a href="https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB66/">China</a> and the Soviet Union. This facilitated a reduction in east-west tensions that materially benefited the US. It also saw Kissinger effectively playing the two communist powers against each other. </p>
<p>Concentrated through the lens of the cold war, the majority of Kissinger’s interactions were based on an approach that balanced caution with aggression, and pragmatism with the acquisition of power. </p>
<p>This was sometimes directly, but often through the use of proxy wars, including Vietnam and the 1973 Yom Kippur War between Israel and Arab states, which descended into a power play with the Soviets, as did the 1971 India-Pakistan war. The image of Kissinger entirely comfortable with the high-stakes poker game between superpowers is an arresting one. </p>
<p>Post-cold war geopolitics did not diminish Kissinger’s overall approach. He counselled generations of US decision-makers to remember the virtues of allying with smaller states as well as superpowers for reasons of power and commerce, and a commitment to retain lethal force in the <a href="https://www.nixonlibrary.gov/sites/default/files/virtuallibrary/releases/jun12/jun12/jun12_declass16.pdf">US foreign policy toolbox</a>.</p>
<p>For scholars of international relations, Kissinger’s numerous books, from the iconic <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/781183">Diplomacy</a> and <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2010474.Nuclear_Weapons_And_Foreign_Policy?ref=nav_sb_ss_5_16">Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy</a>, to <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58652519-leadership?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=VLyaF3eBNd&rank=1">Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy</a> are an inventory of hard-headed views on the unrelenting demands of classic and modern statecraft and the challenges of crafting not just foreign policy, but grand strategy.</p>
<p>They are also a masterclass in European history, with a powerful message regarding sovereignty and the supreme role of the national interests in foreign policy, regionally and globally. </p>
<p>Kissinger’s relentless dedication to realpolitik as the fiercest approach to managing international affairs is at odds with the many elements of his personality. Nowhere is this more evident than in his writing, with “characteristics ranging from brilliance and wit to sensitivity, melancholy, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/96110#:%7E:text=Stanley%20Karnow%27s%20Vietnam%3B%20A%20History,when%20the%20book%20was%20published.">abrasiveness and savagery”</a>.</p>
<p>Kissinger’s final impact is on the hardware and software of global diplomacy: guns versus ideas. A pragmatic, even cynical approach tackling the imbalance of power between states impelled Kissinger to promote seemingly paradoxical approaches: ground-breaking diplomatic approaches to ensure peace, easily reconciled with a ruthless reliance on military power. </p>
<p>This, in turn, gave his counterparts little option other than to cooperate, which they generally did, from the North Vietnamese to Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, to China’s prime minister <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Zhou-Enlai">Zhou Enlai</a>. </p>
<p>In his later years, seemingly immune to his foreign policy bungles, Kissinger’s celebrity diplomat status remained undimmed, somehow confirming the sense that international relations routinely transcends domestic politics, and in doing so, remains both a high stakes game, and a distinctive area of practice. His passion for foreign affairs never dimmed, commenting on the October 7 Hamas attack just a <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/1c73cfff-c2f4-4ad7-9c7a-dd5db70b883d?emailId=565a3f42-873d-4f06-9d23-3683c23efd61&segmentId=22011ee7-896a-8c4c-22a0-7603348b7f22">few weeks before his death</a>.</p>
<p>For every one of Kissinger’s brilliant moves, there was a bungling countermove. Students of foreign policy need therefore to consider both Kissinger’s scholarship and his practice. </p>
<p>They should look through examples of his work in which one side seizes upon anything resembling a diplomatic opportunity, and commandeers its potential to produce a win, and then calls that a victory. Such victories however could be fleeting and left behind tensions that frequently came home to roost.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218944/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amelia Hadfield does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>For every one of Kissinger’s brilliant moves, there was a bungling countermove.Amelia Hadfield, Head of Department of Politics, University of SurreyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2189172023-11-30T05:02:58Z2023-11-30T05:02:58ZHenry Kissinger has died. The titan of US foreign policy changed the world, for better or worse<p>Henry Kissinger was the ultimate champion of the United States’ foreign policy battles. </p>
<p>The former US secretary of state <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-30/henry-kissinger-dies-aged-100/103171512">died</a> on November 29 2023 after living for a century.</p>
<p>The magnitude of his influence on the geopolitics of the free world cannot be overstated. </p>
<p>From world war two, when he was an enlisted soldier in the US Army, to the end of the cold war, and even into the 21st century, he had a significant, sustained impact on global affairs.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/kissinger-at-100-his-legacy-might-be-mixed-but-his-importance-has-been-enormous-206470">Kissinger at 100: his legacy might be mixed but his importance has been enormous</a>
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<h2>From Germany to the US and back again</h2>
<p>Born in Germany in 1923, he came to the United States at age 15 as a refugee. He learned English as a teenager and his heavy German accent stayed with him until his death.</p>
<p>He attended George Washington High School in New York City before being drafted into the army and serving in his native Germany. Working in the intelligence corps, he identified Gestapo officers and worked to rid the country of Nazis. He won a <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/30/henry-kissinger-nobel-prize-winning-warmonger">Bronze Star</a>. </p>
<p>Kissinger returned to the US and studied at Harvard before joining the university’s faculty. He advised moderate Republican New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller – a presidential aspirant – and became a world authority on nuclear weapons strategy. </p>
<p>When Rockefeller’s chief rival Richard Nixon prevailed in the 1968 primaries, Kissinger quickly switched to Nixon’s team. </p>
<h2>A powerful role in the White House</h2>
<p>In the Nixon White House, he became national security advisor and later simultaneously held the office of secretary of state. No one has held both roles at the same time since.</p>
<p>For Nixon, Kissinger’s diplomacy arranged the <a href="https://www.history.com/news/henry-kissinger-vietnam-war-legacy">end of the Vietnam war</a> and the pivot to China: two related and crucial events in the resolution of the cold war. </p>
<p>He won the <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1973/summary/">1973 Nobel Peace Prize</a> for his Vietnam diplomacy, but was also condemned by the left as a war criminal for perceived US excesses during the conflict, including the <a href="https://theconversation.com/henry-kissingers-bombing-campaign-likely-killed-hundreds-of-thousands-of-cambodians-and-set-path-for-the-ravages-of-the-khmer-rouge-209353">bombing campaign in Cambodia</a>, which likely killed hundreds of thousands of people.</p>
<p>That criticism <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/henry-kissinger-dies_n_6376933ae4b0afce046cb44f">survives him</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/nixon-mao-meeting-four-lessons-from-50-years-of-us-china-relations-176485">pivot to China</a> not only rearranged the global chessboard, but it also almost immediately changed the global conversation from the US defeat in Vietnam to a reinvigorated anti-Soviet alliance.</p>
<p>After Nixon was compelled to resign by the Watergate scandal, Kissinger served as secretary of state under Nixon’s successor, Gerald Ford.</p>
<p>During that brief, two-year administration, Kissinger’s stature and experience overshadowed the beleaguered Ford. Ford gladly handed over US foreign policy to Kissinger so he could focus on politics and running for election to the office for which the people had never selected him.</p>
<p>During the turbulent 1970s, Kissinger also achieved a kind of cult status. </p>
<p>Not classically attractive, his comfort with global power gave him a charisma that was noticed by Hollywood actresses and other celebrities. His romantic life was the topic of many <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/may/27/henry-kissinger-100-war-us-international-reputation">gossip columns</a>. He’s even <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1998/02/05/uncovering-the-sex-lives-of-politicians/3bb26a91-03ec-4a14-8958-f6ac0d95b260/">quoted</a> as saying “power is the ultimate aphrodisiac”.</p>
<p>His legacy in US foreign policy continued to grow after the Ford administration. He advised corporations, politicians and many other global leaders, often behind closed doors but also in public, testifying before congress well into his 90s. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-nobel-peace-prize-offers-no-guarantee-its-winners-actually-create-peace-or-make-it-last-213340">The Nobel Peace Prize offers no guarantee its winners actually create peace, or make it last</a>
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<h2>Criticism and condemnation</h2>
<p>Criticism of Kissinger was and is harsh. Rolling Stone magazine’s <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/henry-kissinger-war-criminal-dead-1234804748/">obituary of Kissinger</a> is headlined “War Criminal Beloved by America’s Ruling Class, Finally Dies”. </p>
<p>His association with US foreign policy during the divisive Vietnam years is a near-obsession for some critics, who cannot forgive his role in what they see as a corrupt Nixon administration carrying out terrible acts of war against the innocent people of Vietnam. </p>
<p>Kissinger’s critics see him as the ultimate personification of <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-tortured-and-deadly-legacy-kissinger-and-realpolitik-in-us-foreign-policy-192977">US realpolitik</a> – willing to do anything for personal power or to advance his country’s goals on the world stage. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562590/original/file-20231130-19-h7o8mw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man sitting at a desk gives directions to three other men at the desk" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562590/original/file-20231130-19-h7o8mw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562590/original/file-20231130-19-h7o8mw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562590/original/file-20231130-19-h7o8mw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562590/original/file-20231130-19-h7o8mw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562590/original/file-20231130-19-h7o8mw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562590/original/file-20231130-19-h7o8mw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562590/original/file-20231130-19-h7o8mw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Former US Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, leaves behind a controversial legacy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/washington-dc-usa-january-6-1983-1858047433">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>But in my opinion, this interpretation is wrong.</p>
<p>Niall Ferguson’s <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Kissinger.html?id=H_ujBwAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y">2011 biography</a>, Kissinger, tells a very different story. In more than 1,000 pages, Ferguson details the impact that world war two had on the young Kissinger. </p>
<p>First fleeing from, then returning to fight against, an immoral regime showed the future US secretary of state that global power must be well-managed and ultimately used to advance the causes of democracy and individual freedom.</p>
<p>Whether he was advising Nixon on Vietnam war policy to set up plausible peace negotiations, or arranging the details of the opening to China to put the Soviet Union in checkmate, Kissinger’s eye was always on preserving and advancing the liberal humanitarian values of the West – and against the forces of totalitarianism and hatred. </p>
<p>The way he saw it, the only way to do this was to work for the primacy of the United States and its allies. </p>
<p>No one did more to advance this goal than Henry Kissinger. For that he will be both lionised and condemned.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-tortured-and-deadly-legacy-kissinger-and-realpolitik-in-us-foreign-policy-192977">A tortured and deadly legacy: Kissinger and realpolitik in US foreign policy</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218917/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lester Munson works for BGR Group, a Washington DC consultancy, Johns Hopkins University and the U.S. Studies Centre. He is affiliated with George Mason University and the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC.</span></em></p>Former US secretary of state, Henry Kissinger has died, aged 100. His legacy, including his involvement in the Vietnam war, is long, complicated and divisive.Lester Munson, Non-resident fellow, United States Studies Centre, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2093532023-11-30T02:50:05Z2023-11-30T02:50:05ZHenry Kissinger’s bombing campaign likely killed hundreds of thousands of Cambodians − and set path for the ravages of the Khmer Rouge<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562233/original/file-20231128-29-pn24j5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=13%2C40%2C2980%2C1925&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The aftermath of U.S. bombs in Neak Luong, Cambodia, on Aug. 7, 1973.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/CambodiaDestructionNeakLuong/64e54641784d404d8be12149a0b65694/photo?Query=US%20bombing%20cambodia&mediaType=photo,video,graphic,audio&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:asc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=49&currentItemNo=23">AP Photo</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Henry Kissinger, who died on Nov. 29, 2023 at the age of 100, stood as a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2023/11/29/henry-kissinger-dead-obituary/">colossus of U.S. foreign policy</a>. His influence on American politics lasted long beyond his eight-year stint guiding the Nixon and Ford administrations as national security adviser and secretary of state, with successive <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/5/9/11640562/kissinger-pentagon-award">presidents</a>, <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/defense/280402-trump-meets-with-former-nixon-adviser-henry-kissinger/">presidential candidates</a> and <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/4037547-state-department-asked-about-birthday-party-what-does-secretary-blinken-like-about-henry-kissinger/">top diplomats</a> seeking his advice and approval ever since.</p>
<p>But his mark extends beyond the United States. Kissinger’s policies in the 1970s had immediate impact on countries, governments and people <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-latin-american-studies/article/abs/stephen-g-rabe-kissinger-and-latin-america-intervention-human-rights-and-diplomacy-ithaca-ny-and-london-cornell-university-press-2020-ix-316-pp/9ECA0805AEF4A0F01D1C7A72DB68A5BE">across South America</a>, the <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/events/kissinger-in-the-middle-east/">Middle East</a> and <a href="https://www.history.com/news/henry-kissinger-vietnam-war-legacy">Southeast Asia</a>. Sometimes the fallout – and it was that – lasted decades; in some places it continues to be felt today. Nowhere is that more true than Cambodia.</p>
<p>I’m a <a href="https://search.asu.edu/profile/4031078">scholar of the political economy of Cambodia</a> who, as a child, escaped the brutal Khmer Rouge regime with four siblings, thanks in large part to the cunning and determination of my mother. In both a professional and personal sense, I am aware of the <a href="https://theintercept.com/2023/05/23/henry-kissinger-cambodia-bombing-survivors/">near 50-year impact</a> Kissinger’s policies during the Vietnam War have had on the country of my birth.</p>
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<img alt="A man in spectacles speaks into a microphone." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562234/original/file-20231128-17-sp0qw3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562234/original/file-20231128-17-sp0qw3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562234/original/file-20231128-17-sp0qw3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562234/original/file-20231128-17-sp0qw3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562234/original/file-20231128-17-sp0qw3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562234/original/file-20231128-17-sp0qw3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562234/original/file-20231128-17-sp0qw3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Henry Kissinger in 1973.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/DrHenryKissinger/11f28708044a4e17a31fef86986716e1/photo?Query=henry%20kissinger%20cambodia&mediaType=photo,video,graphic,audio&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:asc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=8&currentItemNo=3">AP Photo</a></span>
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<p>The rise of the murderous regime that forced my family to leave was, in part, encouraged by Kissinger’s policies. The cluster bombs dropped on Cambodia under Kissinger’s watch <a href="http://www.the-monitor.org/en-gb/reports/2023/cambodia/impact.aspx">continue to destroy the lives</a> of any man, woman or child who happens across them. Indeed, when the current U.S. administration announced its intention in 2023 to provide cluster bombs to Ukraine, the prime minister of Cambodia was quick to call out the <a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3227129/ukraine-should-shun-us-cluster-bombs-learn-cambodias-painful-experience-pm-hun-sen">lingering damage the munition causes</a>.</p>
<h2>‘Island of peace’</h2>
<p>Counterfactuals are not the best tool of the historian; no one can say how Cambodia would have developed were it not for the Vietnam War and U.S. intervention in Southeast Asia.</p>
<p>But prior to the U.S. bombing of Cambodia, the country was touted as an “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1997/09/01/world/in-cambodia-king-sihanouk-once-more-moves-deftly-among-powers.html">Island of Peace</a>” by then-leader Prince Norodom Sihanouk, with a <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-11-08-me-813-story.html">developing economy and relative stability</a>.</p>
<p>After Cambodia gained independence from its French colonial masters in 1953, Sihanouk presided over what was <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/violence-and-the-civilising-process-in-cambodia/golden-years-of-sihanoukism-19551966/14A4A3B5B9AF2C9846BCDF518302B5D8">seen as a golden age</a> for Cambodia. Even Lee Kuan Yew, the founder of modern-day Singapore, visited Cambodia to learn lessons on nation-building.</p>
<p>The country’s independence from France did not require any hard fight. Neighboring Vietnam, meanwhile, gained independence only after the bitter anti-colonial First Indochina War, which concluded with a rout of French troops <a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1953-1960/dien-bien-phu">at Điện Biên Phủ</a> in 1954.</p>
<p>However, Cambodia’s location drew it into the subsequent war between the newly independent communist North Vietnam and U.S.-backed South Vietnam.</p>
<p>Cambodia wasn’t officially a party in the Vietnam War, with Sihanouk declaring the country neutral. But Washington looked for ways to disrupt communist North Vietnamese operations along the <a href="https://www.nga.mil/defining-moments/Ho_Chi_Minh_Trail.html">Ho Chi Minh Trail</a> – which cut across Cambodia’s east, with Sihanouk’s blessing, and allowed the resupply of North Vietnamese troops on Cambodian soil.</p>
<h2>Kissinger’s ‘menu’</h2>
<p>Kissinger was the chief architect of the plan to disrupt that supply line, and what he came up with was “<a href="https://www.vietnamwar50th.com/1969-1971_vietnamization/Operation-MENU-Begins/">Operation Menu</a>.” The secret carpet-bombing campaign – with breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack, dessert and supper representing different targets and missions within Cambodia – was confirmed at a meeting in the Oval Office on March 17, 1969. The <a href="https://www.nixonlibrary.gov/sites/default/files/virtuallibrary/documents/haldeman-diaries/37-hrhd-journal-vol01-19690317.pdf">diary entry of Richard Nixon’s chief of staff, H. R. Haldeman</a>, reads: “ … Historic day. K[issinger]‘s 'Operation Breakfast’ finally came off at 2:00 pm our time. K really excited, as is P[resident].”</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.nixonlibrary.gov/sites/default/files/virtuallibrary/documents/haldeman-diaries/37-hrhd-journal-vol01-19690318.pdf">following day</a>, Haldeman wrote: “K’s ‘Operation Breakfast’ a great success. He came beaming in with the report, very productive.”</p>
<p>And so began four years of Kissinger’s legally dubious campaign in Cambodia.</p>
<p>To Kissinger, Cambodia was a “sideshow,” to use the <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780815412243/Sideshow-Kissinger-Nixon-and-the-Destruction-of-Cambodia-Revised-Edition">title of William Shawcross’ damning book</a> exposing the story of America’s secret war with Cambodia from 1969 to 1973. </p>
<p>During that period, the U.S. bombing of neutral Cambodia saw an estimated <a href="https://apjjf.org/Ben-Kiernan/4313.html">500,000 tons of ordnance dropped on 113,716 targets in the country</a>.</p>
<h2>Secret and illegal war?</h2>
<p>Kissinger and others in the White House tried to keep the campaign from the public for as long as they could, for good reason. It came as public opinion in the U.S. was <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/2009/11/23/polling-wars-hawks-vs-doves/">turning against American involvement</a>. The bombing campaign is also <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780815412243/Sideshow-Kissinger-Nixon-and-the-Destruction-of-Cambodia-Revised-Edition">considered illegal under international law</a> by many experts.</p>
<p>But to Kissinger, the ends – containing communism – seemingly justified the means, no matter the cost. And the cost to Cambodians was huge.</p>
<p>It resulted in the direct <a href="https://gsp.yale.edu/sites/default/files/walrus_cambodiabombing_oct06.pdf">deaths of hundreds of thousands of Cambodians</a>. With the U.S. government keeping the bombings secret at the time, comprehensive data and documentation are limited. But <a href="https://www2.irrawaddy.com/article.php?art_id=2412">estimates on the number of deaths</a> range from as few as 24,000 to as many as a million. <a href="https://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/cambodia/tl02.html">Most estimates</a> <a href="https://www2.irrawaddy.com/article.php?art_id=2412">put the death toll</a> <a href="https://sites.tufts.edu/atrocityendings/2015/08/07/cambodia-u-s-bombing-civil-war-khmer-rouge/">in the hundreds of thousands</a>.</p>
<p>Kissinger’s campaign also destabilized Cambodia, leaving it vulnerable for <a href="https://cla.umn.edu/chgs/holocaust-genocide-education/resource-guides/cambodia">the horrors to come</a>. The capital, Phnom Penh, ballooned in population because of the displacement of more than a million rural citizens fleeing U.S. bombs.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the bombing of Cambodian citizens contributed to an erosion of trust in Camodia’s leadership and put at question Sihanouk’s policy of allowing the North Vietnamese access through the country’s east. On March 18, 1970, Sihanouk was <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2020/03/remembering-cambodias-1970-coup/">ousted in a coup d’etat</a> and replaced by the U.S.-friendly Lon Nol. Direct U.S. involvement in the coup has never been proven, but certainly opponents to Lon Nol <a href="https://archive.org/details/mywarwithcia00noro">saw the hand of the CIA</a> in events.</p>
<p>The ousted Sihanouk called on the country’s rural masses to support his coalition government in exile, which included the Khmer Rouge. Until then, the Khmer Rouge had been a ragtag army with only revolutionary fantasies. But with Sihanouk’s backing, they grew. As journalist <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-fantasy-of-king-sihanouk">Philip Gourevitch noted</a>: “His name became the Khmer Rouge’s greatest recruitment tool.”</p>
<p>But Kissinger’s bombs also served as a recruitment tool. The Khmer Rouge were able to capitalize on the anger and resentment of Cambodians in the areas being shelled. Rebel leaders portrayed themselves as a force to protect Cambodia from foreign aggression and restore order and justice, in contrast to the ruling government’s massive corruption and pro-American leanings.</p>
<p>Kissinger’s bombing campaign was certainly not the only reason for the Khmer Rouge’s rise, but it contributed to the overall destabilization of Cambodia and a political vacuum that the Khmer Rouge was able to exploit and eventually seize power – which it did in 1975, <a href="https://sfi.usc.edu/collections/cambodian-genocide">overthrowing the government</a>.</p>
<p>Led by Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge inflicted unimaginable atrocities upon the Cambodian people. Its genocidal campaign against political opponents, Cambodian minorities and those deemed counterrevolutionaries saw <a href="https://sfi.usc.edu/collections/cambodian-genocide">between 1.6 and 3 million people killed</a> through executions, forced labor and starvation – a quarter of the country’s then population.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A young soldier in fatigues props a human skull on top of his rifle." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562236/original/file-20231128-23-a1qdp1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562236/original/file-20231128-23-a1qdp1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562236/original/file-20231128-23-a1qdp1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562236/original/file-20231128-23-a1qdp1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562236/original/file-20231128-23-a1qdp1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1136&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562236/original/file-20231128-23-a1qdp1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1136&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562236/original/file-20231128-23-a1qdp1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1136&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A young Khmer Rouge soldier.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/with-a-skull-on-the-muzzle-of-his-m-16-rifle-a-khmer-rouge-news-photo/515109502?adppopup=true">Bettmann/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>The scars from that period are still felt in Cambodia today. Recent research even points to the economic impact Kissinger’s bombs continue to have on farmers, <a href="https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2021/03/20/american-bombing-50-years-ago-still-shapes-cambodian-agriculture">who avoid richer, darker soil</a> over fears that it hides unexploded ordnance.</p>
<p>Anti-Americanism is no longer prevalent at the everyday level in Cambodia; indeed, the opposite is increasingly becoming true as China’s financial and political embrace becomes suffocating. But anti-Americanism is <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/the-former-khmer-rouge-commander-who-still-leads-cambodia-is-again-stoking-anti-american-sentiment/2018/05/11/679ea9c8-4cf6-11e8-b966-bfb0da2dad62_story.html">frequently used in rhetoric</a> by leading politicians in the country.</p>
<p>I don’t agree with some other scholars that Kissinger’s bombing campaign can be definitively proven to have resulted in Khmer Rouge rule. But in my view, it no doubt contributed. Hun Sen, Cambodia’s autocratic leader who ruled for 38 years before passing the prime minister baton to his son in August 2023, has <a href="https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/talk-prime-minister-hun-sen">cited the U.S. bombing of his birthplace</a> as the reason he joined the Khmer Rouge. Many others joined for similar reasons.</p>
<p>As such, the devastating impact of Kissinger’s policies in Cambodia cannot be overstated – they contributed to the unraveling of the country’s social fabric and the suffering of its people, leaving behind a legacy of trauma.</p>
<p><em>This article was amended on Dec. 4, 2023, to revise the estimate of tonnage of ordinance dropped on Cambodia in U.S. bombing campaign.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209353/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sophal Ear does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A Cambodian scholar who fled the Khmer Rouge as a child writes about the legacy of Henry Kissinger, who died at the age of 100 on Nov 28, 2023.Sophal Ear, Associate Professor in the Thunderbird School of Global Management, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2120392023-10-10T17:00:40Z2023-10-10T17:00:40ZThe Exorcist at 50: a terrifying film that symbolises the decline of America’s faith and optimism<p><em>Please note this piece contains spoilers.</em></p>
<p>Having made a <a href="https://www.irishnews.com/arts/2018/10/12/news/irish-film-maker-aislinn-clarke-on-her-new-horror-the-devil-s-doorway-1454950/">film about priests making a film</a>, I find myself discussing cinema with actual priests more than most. Invariably, the fathers’ favourite film is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/sep/28/the-exorcist-review-friedkins-head-swivelling-horror-is-still-diabolically-inspired">The Exorcist</a>, in which two priests battle the ancient evil that has possessed a pre-teen girl. </p>
<p>At the climax, Father Damien Karras leaps from the child’s window, plunging down 75 steps to his death, exorcising the demon and saving the child. A hero.</p>
<p>There’s a thrill in seeing yourself depicted on screen, in seeing your vocation elevated to a <a href="https://time.com/6304708/heros-journey-psychology/">hero’s journey</a> and enmeshed into pop culture. I don’t want to know the chef who doesn’t enjoy Pixar’s <a href="https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/ratatouille-2007">Ratatouille</a>.</p>
<p>But what about the rest of us? Most of us aren’t priests. Most aren’t even Catholic. Indeed, since the release of the film, the reputation of the Catholic church has sunk lower and lower, as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/apr/21/boston-globe-abuse-scandal-catholic">scandal, corruption and abuse</a> have become common knowledge. Yet the priests’ favourite film, which turns 50 this year, remains a household word, where other outstanding movies of the period have found themselves on the street.</p>
<p>The Exorcist is not Catholic propaganda. While the film’s director, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Friedkin">William Friedkin</a>, an agnostic Jew, described the film as being about faith, he meant the concept of faith itself – what the philosopher <a href="https://iep.utm.edu/kierkega/">Søren Kierkegaard</a> considered “holding on to the objective uncertainty with infinite passion”.</p>
<p>For Kierkegaard, faith was a venture, an action one takes in spite of – or because of – not knowing. Friedkin’s faith is not placed in anything named, but the film itself is riddled with uncertainty and culminates in action in the absence of certainty.</p>
<h2>America in crisis</h2>
<p>Friedkin was recognised as one of the premier directors of the 1970s’ all-male <a href="https://www.newwavefilm.com/international/new-hollywood.shtml">New Hollywood</a>, alongside peers such as <a href="https://www.biography.com/movies-tv/francis-ford-coppola">Frances Ford Coppola</a>, <a href="https://www.biography.com/movies-tv/martin-scorsese">Martin Scorsese</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alan-J-Pakula">Alan Pakula</a>, and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/jan/07/peter-bogdanovich-obituary">Peter Bogdanovich</a>. This movement responded to the experience of previous decades with films that captured the uncertainty and irresolution of American life: the Vietnam war, the civil rights movement, the Kennedy assassinations, Watergate.</p>
<p>If 1950s, America was a teenybopper full of hope and confidence, the America of the late 1960s was a young adult learning that her parents are only human after all and no one is taking the wheel. Not even Jesus.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/oct/10/all-the-presidents-men-watergate-conspiracy-richard-nixon-woodward-bernstein-redford-hoffman">All The President’s Men</a> Pakula reveals the corruption at the heart of American democracy. Watergate was a watershed and faith in American institutions and the “<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1939/04/the-great-american-experiment/653768/">great experiment</a>” never recovered.</p>
<p>Under more recent administrations corruption is expected, even accepted. All The President’s Men is surely a hit among journalists, but the hero class of Pakula’s film has taken a <a href="https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/impact-declining-trust-media">reputational drubbing in recent decades</a>, a notch above the priesthood.</p>
<p>Yet The Exorcist retains a legacy and place in popular culture that the other paranoid films of New Hollywood don’t.</p>
<p>For Friedkin, uncertainty in our institutions and our understanding is built in. When Regan McNeil becomes possessed by a demon, her mother takes her to a doctor, but psychiatry, psychoanalysis and hypnotherapy don’t work. The latest medical advances don’t work either.</p>
<p>And neither does a medieval Catholicism: the demon chuckles at the priests’ efforts to exorcise it. It mocks them. It even takes a crucifix and – rather than shrinking from it, as any self-respecting screen monster should, it repeatedly inserts the crucifix inside the body of its host. </p>
<p>The Exorcist is not a film about a successful exorcism, but about what we do in the face of uncertainty and the cynical grinning face of the demon doubt. It is not a film about a priest, but about a human being. When Karras takes the demon into himself and jumps from the window, it is literally a leap of faith. He can’t know that it will work, but he acts. Pazuzu, the demon of doubt, would prefer he didn’t act at all.</p>
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<h2>The great unknown</h2>
<p>For me, the film’s most chilling moment comes when Regan interrupts her mother’s raucous shindig to flatly tell a guest (an astronaut): “You’re gonna die up there.” Then she pisses on the carpet like an untrained animal.</p>
<p>The administration that presided over “one giant leap for mankind” was also responsible for Watergate: optimism gave way to cynicism and, in a cynical mindset, it is easier to do nothing at all. The demon here is a head-swivelling personification of imposter syndrome, it comes to remind us of our smallness, our irrelevance, our hopelessness. It speaks with such certainty.</p>
<p>Faith is about not being defeated by the limits of our understanding. We may not have all the answers, but we can be courageous and curious. Faith is action and the hope that action is worth taking. At a time when our institutions and frameworks for understanding the world continually let us down, perhaps we need this lesson more than ever.</p>
<p>While astronauts facing a journey into the unknown chasm of space may die up there, it is the giant leap for mankind that inspires them to go. The Exorcist perseveres, because it is hopeful, not hopeless. It says something necessary about humanity. It has faith in us.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aislinn Clarke does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Made at a time when America was facing crises on many fronts, William Friedkin’s film has profound things to say about humanity and society.Aislinn Clarke, Lecturer in Film Studies, Queen's University BelfastLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2089522023-08-27T20:04:28Z2023-08-27T20:04:28ZHow cartoonist Bruce Petty documented the Vietnam War – and how his great satire keeps finding its moment<p>After seven decades as a visual satirist provoking Australia as it is and might be, <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/culture/art-and-design/bruce-petty-cartoonist-sculptor-and-oscar-winner-dies-aged-93-20230406-p5cysa.html">Bruce Petty passed away</a> at 93 on April 6 this year. </p>
<p>His career as a political cartoonist started with a trip to London in the late 1950s, then a stint at young Rupert Murdoch’s afternoon paper in Sydney, the Mirror. </p>
<p>He had a lead role as The Australian’s political cartoonist during the newspaper’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-australian-helped-political-cartoonists-sharpen-their-edge-28845">radical first decade</a>, until it turned right during the Whitlam dismissal and Larry Pickering was promoted to favoured cartoonist. </p>
<p>Petty then moved to The Age in its glory days, where he was the acknowledged godfather of the troupe of brilliant cartoonists there at the time. He stayed until 2016, with Malcolm Turnbull his last prime minister, by which time the collapse of the broadsheet model was well advanced.</p>
<p>Throughout the decades, he moonlighted as an animator and author of books we might now call graphic essays or even novels, always at the cutting edge of thought and technology. </p>
<p>Inevitably, profiles stress he won an Academy Award for animation with <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bf50WytAC5Y">Leisure</a> (1976), but his deepest cultural intervention in the story of post-Menzies Australia came during the Vietnam War years. Australia changed and he was one of the <a href="https://insidestory.org.au/pettys-golden-thread/">major prophets</a> of change. </p>
<p>With a handful of others like Les Tanner and George Molnar, he woke editorial cartooning from a sleepy period telling fairly anodyne jokes and turned it into a mode of serious – if also often hilarious – satirical commentary on politics and society.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-australian-helped-political-cartoonists-sharpen-their-edge-28845">The Australian helped political cartoonists sharpen their edge</a>
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<h2>In the vanguard</h2>
<p>Flinders University Museum of Art has <a href="https://www.flinders.edu.au/museum-of-art/collections/take-5/bruce-petty">a remarkable collection</a> of 73 cartoon originals and sketches from Petty’s most formative period. They were a characteristically generous gift by the artist, for a university then only three years old, and solicited by inaugural fine arts lecturer Robert Smith. </p>
<p>Among them are these five particularly vivid cartoons published in The Australian between May 1966 and September 1967. </p>
<p>These fragile objects, sometimes stuck together with glue when he changed a line of thought, take us straight into the maelstrom of the Vietnam War before the moratorium marches, when Prime Minister Harold Holt won the 1966 election in a landslide. </p>
<p>Petty was in the vanguard of a small but vocal opposition, drawing the war as a deep tragedy for the Vietnamese and a reckless farce perpetrated by the West. </p>
<p>One cartoon, Getting there is half the fun, about President Lyndon B. Johnson’s imperial triumph of a visit to Australia, marks the contrast.</p>
<p>The jagged black blob, which covers about half of the box, colours the movement from farce to tragedy arrestingly black.</p>
<p>Petty’s busy line attracted more than its fair share of the “my grandchild could draw better than that” sort of criticism, but it was entirely deliberate and brilliantly expressive. He doesn’t aim to please visually. He wants to stop readers with a shock of the unfamiliar and make them think. He is also a humane but stern critic of fools and villains. </p>
<p>Look at Hospitals – regrettable, but in the name of democracy, don’t hit a polling booth.</p>
<p>Are Johnson and his adipose generals conscious villains, or merely fools being driven by murderous ideas and scarcely sublimated self-interest? </p>
<p>I think Petty gives them the benefit of the doubt, just. But then he drives home the fact that being venal fools does not excuse them from the crime of bombing innocent people. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-forgotten-australian-veterans-who-opposed-national-service-and-the-vietnam-war-158958">The forgotten Australian veterans who opposed National Service and the Vietnam War</a>
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<h2>Intimate sympathy</h2>
<p>Something similar happens with the privileged women under the hairdryers in the cartoon, Who says we women aren’t interested in politics?</p>
<p>Is this the moral fecklessness of consumer society projected onto women, or is it the dawn of concern for the people ravaged by a needless imperial war? As so often for Petty, it is both.</p>
<p>A large part of the power of these cartoons comes from Petty’s deep engagement with people forced to live with the war. His first book, Australian Artist in South East Asia (1962), is a graphic account of his journey through seven countries. He went to Vietnam again during the war as a cartoonist-correspondent. </p>
<p>He is drawing the Other – how could it be otherwise for a still White Australian audience? – but he is doing it with an intimate sympathy born of real knowledge. </p>
<p>I must say, I’ve found the first day of democracy a little disappointing is a wry and ironic cartoon about the debauched South Vietnamese election then under way, but it takes you to the people actually affected.</p>
<p>Finally, Peace Feeler, published in 1967. </p>
<p>Johnson talked peace with South Vietnamese generals in Honolulu, even while continuing to bomb the Viet Cong with huge and brutal firepower. </p>
<p>Publish this cartoon unchanged today, and everyone would see it as about the war in Ukraine. Sadly, great satire like Petty’s keeps finding its moment.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-political-cartooning-the-end-of-an-era-81680">Friday essay: political cartooning – the end of an era</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208952/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert Phiddian receives funding from the Australian Research Council for “Cartoon Nation: Australian Editorial Cartooning - Past, Present, and Future” DP230101348. </span></em></p>Bruce Petty woke editorial cartooning from a sleepy period telling fairly anodyne jokes and turned it into a mode of serious – if also often hilarious – satirical commentary on politics and society.Robert Phiddian, Professor of English, Flinders UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2091522023-07-10T15:54:25Z2023-07-10T15:54:25Z2001: A Space Odyssey still leaves an indelible mark on our culture 55 years on<p>2001: A Space Odyssey is a landmark film in the history of cinema. It is a work of extraordinary imagination that has transcended film history to become something of a cultural marker. And since 1968, it has penetrated the psyche of not only other filmmakers but society in general. </p>
<p>It is not an exaggeration to say that 2001 single-handedly reinvented the science fiction genre. The visuals, music and themes of 2001 left an inedible mark on subsequent science fiction that is still evident today. </p>
<p>When <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Kubrick/Robert-P-Kolker/9781639366248">Stanley Kubrick</a> began work on 2001 in the mid-1960s, he was told by studio executive Lew Wasserman: “Kid, you don’t spend over a million dollars on science fiction movies. You just don’t do that.” </p>
<p>By that point, the golden age of science fiction film had run its course. During its heyday, there was a considerable variety of content within the overarching genre. There had been serious attempts to foretell space travel. Destination Moon, directed by Irving Pichel and produced by George Pal in 1950, and, in mid-century, Byron Haskin’s Conquest of Space both fantasised space travel and, in Haskin’s film, a space station, which Kubrick would elaborate on in 2001. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/oR_e9y-bka0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The trailer for 2001: A Space Odyssey.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Most 1950s science fiction films, though, were cheap B-movie fare and looked it. They involved alien invasions with an ideological and allegorical subtext. They were cultural, cinematic imaginations of the danger of communism, which in the overheated political atmosphere of the time was seen as an imminent threat to the American way of life. </p>
<p>The aliens in most science fiction films were out simply to destroy or take over humanity; they were expressions, to use the title of a Susan Sontag essay, of “<a href="https://americanfuturesiup.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/sontag-the-imagination-of-disaster.pdf">the imagination of disaster</a>”. There were some exceptions, including Byron Haskin’s film version of The War of the Worlds and Robert Wise’s The Day the Earth Stood Still. </p>
<p>By 1968, then, as the lights went down, very few people knew what was about to transpire and they certainly were not prepared for what did. The film opened in near darkness as the strains of Thus Spake Zarathustra by Richard Strauss were heard. The cinema was dazzled into light, as if Kubrick had <a href="https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/stanley-kubrick/9780813587110">remade Genesis</a>. </p>
<p>The subsequent 160 or so minutes (the length of his original cut before he edited 19 minutes out of it) took the viewer on what was marketed as “the ultimate trip”. Kubrick had excised almost every element of explanation leaving an elusive, ambiguous and thoroughly unclear film. His decisions contributed to long silent scenes, offered without elucidation. It contributed to the film’s almost immediate critical failure but its ultimate success. It was practically a silent movie.</p>
<p>2001 was an experiment in film form and content. It exploded the conventional narrative form, restructuring the conventions of the three-act drama. The narrative was linear, but radically, spanning aeons and ending in a timeless realm, all without a conventional movie score. Kubrick used 19th-century and modernist music, such as Strauss, György Ligeti and Aram Khachaturian.</p>
<h2>Vietnam</h2>
<p>The movie was made during a tumultuous period of American history, which it seemingly ignored. The war in Vietnam was already a highly divisive issue and was spiralling into a crisis. The <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tet-Offensive">Tet offensive</a>, which began on January 31 1968, had claimed tens of thousands of lives. As US involvement in Vietnam escalated, domestic unrest and violence at home intensified. </p>
<p>Increasingly, young Americans expected their artists to address the chaos that roared around them. But in exploring the origins of humanity’s propensity for violence and its future destiny, 2001 dealt with the big questions and ones that were burning at the time of its release. They fuelled what Variety magazine called the “coffee cup debate” over “what the film means”, which is still ongoing today. </p>
<p>The design of the film has touched many other films. Silent Running by Douglas Trumbull (who worked on 2001’s special effects) owes the most obvious debt but Star Wars would be also unthinkable without it. Popular culture is full of imagery from the film. The <a href="https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/stanley-kubrick-2001-a-space-odyssey-music/">music</a> Kubrick used in the film, especially Strauss’s The Blue Danube, is now considered <a href="https://theweek.com/articles/702734/planetarium-brief-history-space-music">“space music”</a>. </p>
<p>Images from the movie have appeared <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfK9pEQZyy0">in iPhone adverts</a>, in The Simpsons and even the trailer for the new <a href="https://metro.co.uk/2022/12/16/trailer-for-greta-gerwigs-barbie-spoofs-classic-film-in-best-way-17951854/">Barbie movie</a>. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8zIf0XvoL9Y?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">2001: A Space Odyssey’s influence on this Barbie movie trailer couldn’t be more obvious.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The warnings of the danger of technology embodied in the film’s murderous supercomputer HAL-9000 can be felt in the “tech noir” films of the late 1970s and 1980s, such as Westworld, <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-alien-mutated-from-a-sci-fi-horror-film-into-a-multimedia-universe-204567">Alien</a>, Blade Runner and Terminator. </p>
<p>HAL’s single red eye can be seen in the children’s series, Q Pootle 5, and Pixar’s animated feature, Wall-E. HAL has become shorthand for the untrammelled march of artificial intelligence (AI).</p>
<p>In the age of ChatGPT and other AI, the metaphor of Kubrick’s computer is <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/22/movies/ai-movies-microsoft-bing-robots.html">frequently evoked</a>. But why when there have been so many other images such as Frankenstein, Prometheus, terminators and other murderous cyborgs? Because there is something so uncanny and human about HAL who was deliberately designed to be more <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01439685.2017.1342328?journalCode=chjf20">empathic and human than the people in the film</a>. </p>
<p>In making 2001, Stanley Kubrick created a cultural phenomenon that continues to speak to us eloquently today.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209152/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nathan Abrams receives funding from charities and research councils. </span></em></p>If you haven’t seen Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 sci-fi classic, then it’s likely you will have seen other films influenced by it.Nathan Abrams, Professor of Film Studies, Bangor UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2084722023-07-03T03:29:29Z2023-07-03T03:29:29ZNot just a youth movement: history too often forgets older protesters<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535202/original/file-20230703-146989-33ppan.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=29%2C2%2C1967%2C994&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikipedia</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Recent sustained anti-coal action by Blockade Australia in the Hunter Valley has brought public protest back into the news cycle. Activists have <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-21/coal-protests-block-rail-lines-to-newcastle-port/102504056">occupied trains, railway lines and machinery</a> in an attempt to obstruct coal production and broadcast their message about the climate crisis. </p>
<p>Under recent <a href="https://www.humanrights.unsw.edu.au/research/commentary/explainer-what-are-your-rights-to-protest-australia#:%7E:text=In%202022%2C%20Tasmania%20passed%20anti,%E2%80%9C%E2%80%A6">anti-protest legislation</a> in New South Wales, which has been matched by similar laws in other states, some protesters have been charged by police for their activism. </p>
<p>Internationally, protesters faced with arrest have devised new ways to protest. Recently, Iranian activists have started engaging in “<a href="https://www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty-research/policy-topics/international-relations-security/civil-upheaval-iran-why-widespread">micro-protests</a>”, which are small-scale protests over a shorter period of time, to evade arrest.</p>
<p>My historical research into the infrastructure of protest, using the anti-Vietnam War campaign in New South Wales as a case study, has found that many Australians who did not or could not actively or publicly protest similarly found “quieter” ways to express their opposition to the conflict. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535203/original/file-20230703-215550-locoac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535203/original/file-20230703-215550-locoac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535203/original/file-20230703-215550-locoac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535203/original/file-20230703-215550-locoac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535203/original/file-20230703-215550-locoac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535203/original/file-20230703-215550-locoac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1129&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535203/original/file-20230703-215550-locoac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1129&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535203/original/file-20230703-215550-locoac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1129&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An anti-Vietnam War protest in Amsterdam.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikipedia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The youth are revolting</h2>
<p>In the popular Australian imagination, it seems the protester is a young person creating a public spectacle – holding up a sign, occupying a building or marching down a city street, even though older activists regularly play a part in protest movements. </p>
<p>Many might think of figures like <a href="https://theconversation.com/lidia-thorpes-mardi-gras-disruption-is-the-latest-in-an-ongoing-debate-about-acceptable-forms-of-protest-at-pride-200713">Lidia Thorpe</a> disrupting the 2023 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade or ongoing protests by <a href="https://www.schoolstrike4climate.com/">School Strike 4 Climate</a>, which have shown how willing young people are to agitate for their collective futures. </p>
<p>But, in fact, one of the two anti-coal activists charged on last month for occupying a train in Singleton, New South Wales, is <a href="https://www.police.nsw.gov.au/news/news?sq_content_src=%2BdXJsPWh0dHBzJTNBJTJGJTJGZWJpenByZC5wb2xpY2UubnN3Lmdvdi5hdSUyRm1lZGlhJTJGMTA3MTc3Lmh0bWwmYWxsPTE%3D">64 years old</a>. </p>
<p>My research shows our public memory of protest doesn’t come close to capturing everyone who used their energies to protest Australian involvement in Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s, so we need to shift our idea of both protest and the protester to understand the potential scope of activism.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Thm03IUiJ6U?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>Quiet protest</h2>
<p>Vietnam War-era protest organisations, such as the Association for International Cooperation and Disarmament, Save Our Sons, Youth Campaign Against Conscription and the Vietnam Moratorium Campaign, were aware of how important “quiet protest” was to the wider movement. </p>
<p>They <a href="https://collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/1JkmeexY">continually appealed to supporters</a> for help selling buttons, putting up posters, selling raffle tickets, filling envelopes, leafleting and other clerical work. These were all carried out by people who were opposed to the war, and are all considered acts of protest. </p>
<p>Social movement theorists agree that time and availability are crucial in drawing people to protest. As far back as 1974, the sociologist <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/002188637401000206">Anthony Orum</a> wrote: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Without people who have time on their hands, great revolutions would probably never get off the ground. </p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535205/original/file-20230703-212987-vy6x8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535205/original/file-20230703-212987-vy6x8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535205/original/file-20230703-212987-vy6x8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535205/original/file-20230703-212987-vy6x8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535205/original/file-20230703-212987-vy6x8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535205/original/file-20230703-212987-vy6x8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535205/original/file-20230703-212987-vy6x8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535205/original/file-20230703-212987-vy6x8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Anti-war protest in Melbourne, 1970.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikipedia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Time and capacity</h2>
<p>But what of those who did not have the time or capacity to march on streets, but who still saw themselves as part of the anti-Vietnam War movement? </p>
<p>The <a href="https://collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/1l4dPbX1">administrative records</a> of protest organisations held in the <a href="https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/">State Library of New South Wales</a> let us into the lives of such people. </p>
<p>These include Ian Robertson, a full-time Macquarie University student, whose parents had banned political activity because they feared it would disrupt his studies. Another silent protester was a Mrs Thomson, who was too busy organising her daughter Sue’s wedding to participate in anti-Vietnam protest activities. Public servants were also not permitted to publicly support the movement.</p>
<p>Most such records come from elderly members of the movement. In November 1969, Mabel Wilson, who in her words was “six years an octogenarian,” sent $5 to the <a href="https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C96428">Committee in Defiance of the National Service Act</a>, writing:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I admire your courage and am completely in sympathy with your ideals. Alas! I am very old […] As you can see I can be of practically no use to you – or anyone […] My heart is with you all the way. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Similarly, on March 21 1970, Doris J Wilson of Asquith sent a donation to the Northern Districts Vietnam Moratorium Group with a letter saying: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I am past the age where I can do very much more than be just a voice. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>On September 14 1970, L.T. Withers sent the same group a letter saying:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Congratulations for what you have accomplished. I feel rather guilty at being so useless […] myself and my wife are not as energetic as we used to be as the years are catching up on us a bit. I have enclosed a small donation to your local funds […] I would also be grateful if you could keep me informed of your activities. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Ruth Fryer of Hornsby sent a letter on February 9 1971 with a $3 donation: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Sometimes you wish you were young & strong again! But the hard work seems to be left to the young ones. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>These Australians, among many others, were interested in the anti-Vietnam campaign and wanted to be involved as much as they could, given their limitations. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/lidia-thorpes-mardi-gras-disruption-is-the-latest-in-an-ongoing-debate-about-acceptable-forms-of-protest-at-pride-200713">Lidia Thorpe’s Mardi Gras disruption is the latest in an ongoing debate about acceptable forms of protest at Pride</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The infrastructure of historical protest</h2>
<p>Studying the infrastructure of historical protest organisations shows us that we need to expand our idea of what a protest movement is and who it includes if we want to achieve the present-day goals of activist campaigning. </p>
<p>These findings are exciting because they capture a larger group of Australians in the protest tradition, and move past a limited, and often ableist and ageist, vision of protest to incorporate many others who feel just as strongly about the issues governing their lives.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208472/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Effie Karageorgos received funding from the State Library of New South Wales for this project.</span></em></p>Historical research into the infrastructure of protest found that many Australians found ‘quieter’ ways to express their opposition to conflict.Effie Karageorgos, Lecturer, University of NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2081432023-06-28T12:35:20Z2023-06-28T12:35:20ZThe New York Times worried that publishing the Pentagon Papers would destroy the newspaper — and the reputation of the US<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534167/original/file-20230626-5693-i6hmnh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C17%2C2975%2C1808&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The New York Times resumed publication of its series of articles based on the Pentagon Papers in its July 1, 1971, edition, after it was given the green light by the Supreme Court. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/PentagonPapersInTheTimes/61378866a8224e64be95556e7b29dcb5/photo?Query=Pentagon%20Papers%20New%20York%20Times&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=1247&currentItemNo=0&vs=true">AP Photo/Jim Wells</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The late <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/16/us/daniel-ellsberg-dead.html">Daniel Ellsberg</a> was a former government contractor who leaked the classified history of the Vietnam War known as the Pentagon Papers to The New York Times. </p>
<p>In doing so, Ellsberg, who died on June 16, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/06/18/1007573283/how-the-pentagon-papers-changed-public-perception-of-the-war-in-vietnam">accelerated a shift in public opinion</a> against U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War and, some historians argue, led the Nixon administration to become ever more paranoid and secretive, eventually leading to the Watergate scandal and Nixon’s resignation. </p>
<p>But perhaps the most lasting effect the publication of the Pentagon Papers had was on The New York Times, which had been a solidly pro-establishment newspaper. </p>
<p>The Times almost chose not to publish the papers, since the editor and publisher worried about being sued or prosecuted by the federal government. But they also worried about ruining the international reputation of the U.S., which had reached new highs after World War II. </p>
<p>The leadership of the Times in the early 1970s was a generation older than the <a href="https://upress.missouri.edu/9780826222886/provoking-the-press/">younger reporters who agitated for change</a> from within and from without. They saw the stodgy, institutional Times as unable to accurately portray the turmoil of the 1960s and 1970s and pushed for the paper to reform itself to better speak to younger readers.</p>
<p>The decision to publish did not destroy the Times or the global standing of the U.S. It did begin to chip away at the hidebound paper’s reluctance to change too quickly or to damage political ties to the establishment. </p>
<p>While The New York Times is still slow to change, even more than 50 years after the Pentagon Papers affair, the incident did demonstrate that the paper was willing to jeopardize its connections to other powerful institutions, including the government, in order to serve the greater good – the public interest.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534172/original/file-20230626-33139-1gwq8z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A cover page of a publication, labeled 'Top Secret - Sensitive' and entitled 'United States - Vietnam Relations, 1945-1967'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534172/original/file-20230626-33139-1gwq8z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534172/original/file-20230626-33139-1gwq8z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=805&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534172/original/file-20230626-33139-1gwq8z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=805&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534172/original/file-20230626-33139-1gwq8z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=805&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534172/original/file-20230626-33139-1gwq8z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1012&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534172/original/file-20230626-33139-1gwq8z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1012&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534172/original/file-20230626-33139-1gwq8z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1012&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The cover page of ‘The History of U.S. Decision-making Process on Vietnam,’ otherwise known as the Pentagon Papers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://nara-media-001.s3.amazonaws.com/arcmedia/research/pentagon-papers/Pentagon-Papers-Part-I.pdf">US National Archives</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The conservative New York Times?</h2>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=gJ-kc4sAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">I</a> am a historian of American journalism who has studied the turbulent 1960s and early 1970s and the turmoil it created in news organizations, and <a href="https://www.pennpress.org/9780812248883/media-nation/">I have written about the Pentagon Papers</a> and The New York Times’ publication process. I based this research on the journal of A.M. “Abe” Rosenthal, who was the top editor at the paper during this period. Rosenthal’s journal is held at the <a href="https://www.nypl.org/locations/schwarzman/manuscripts-division">New York Public Library</a>.</p>
<p>To those who charge – wrongly – that The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/24/public-editor/liz-spayd-the-new-york-times-public-editor.html">New York Times is a left-wing mouthpiece</a>, it may come as a surprise that The New York Times of 1971 was a conservative institution, unwilling to make waves or make itself the story. The paper’s editorial and business leadership was also fairly politically conservative.</p>
<p>Harrison Salisbury, who was then an associate editor at the paper, recalled the politics of the paper’s executives and top editors in his 1980 memoir. None of the editors could “have won a prize in a flaming liberal contest,” he wrote. And Rosenthal was “the most conservative editor on the paper.” According to Salisbury, Rosenthal chafed at the counterculture and positioned himself “firmly against what he saw as shapeless anarchy swirling up from the streets.”</p>
<p>In the pages of the Times, this manifested as pro-establishment stories. </p>
<p>Times reporter and Pulitzer Prize winner <a href="http://www.davidhalberstam.com">David Halberstam</a> criticized his employer for choosing the government’s version of events in Vietnam over what Halberstam knew from his reporting to be true. </p>
<p>J. Anthony Lukas, another Pulitzer Prize winner for the paper, fought to characterize the trial of <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-story-trial-chicago-7-180976063/">the Chicago 7</a>, a prosecution of political agitators at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, as a political show trial. The Times insisted that Lukas take the trial at face value, as the government presented it, which agitated Lukas enough that <a href="https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1970/11/17/chicago-the-barnyard-epithet-and-other/">he wrote a book about it</a>.</p>
<p>The Pentagon Papers were the government’s version of the early days of the Vietnam War, but they were a version that the government had not released to the public. The Defense Department had commissioned a secret history of the Vietnam War in order to avoid making the same mistakes it had made in that war in the future. </p>
<p>This study was highly classified because the story it told was not the same story that President Lyndon Johnson’s administration had told to the public, to news organizations or even to Congress. Instead, the papers showed that the government had systematically lied.</p>
<p>When reporter <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/07/us/pentagon-papers-neil-sheehan.html">Neil Sheehan photocopied all of the documents</a> that Ellsberg had pilfered and made available to him, he did not immediately inform the Times’s top editor, or even Ellsberg himself. Sheehan knew that the papers were an explosive story, but he also knew that they were classified and that merely possessing them, let alone publishing them, would be a federal crime. </p>
<p>Ellsberg was certainly at risk of going to prison for smuggling them out, and the Times might also face substantial legal penalties. Rosenthal first heard of the papers in April 1971, at least a few weeks after Sheehan obtained them and long after Sheehan knew of their existence. </p>
<p>In his journal, Rosenthal wrote that the Times was “involved in one of the biggest, most voluminous and probably one of the saddest and most damaging stories it has ever confronted journalistically.” </p>
<p>Rosenthal immediately realized just how important the handling of the Pentagon Papers would be to the Times and for the country. In his journal, he ruminated on his loyalty to the Times and the risk that publishing the Pentagon Papers might damage or even destroy the paper if the government prosecuted individual reporters or editors – or successfully sued the Times out of business. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534179/original/file-20230626-5418-rq42h7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A dark-haired man in a suit and tie, wearing glasses and sitting down, looking happy." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534179/original/file-20230626-5418-rq42h7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534179/original/file-20230626-5418-rq42h7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=747&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534179/original/file-20230626-5418-rq42h7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=747&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534179/original/file-20230626-5418-rq42h7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=747&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534179/original/file-20230626-5418-rq42h7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=939&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534179/original/file-20230626-5418-rq42h7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=939&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534179/original/file-20230626-5418-rq42h7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=939&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Abe Rosenthal in 1965. He joined The New York Times in 1943 and worked there for 56 years, until 1999.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/AbeRosenthal/c50b3644ffc545368fc4cad4bc1075d8/photo?Query=Abe%20Rosenthal&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=1&currentItemNo=0">AP</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Challenging the establishment</h2>
<p>The Times was not the only institution that might be damaged by publication. The reputation of the entire nation was at stake, and this caused Rosenthal more worry than protecting the paper. </p>
<p>He wondered if loyalty to country lay in “adhering to a set of long accepted rules and laws, designed not only to protect politicians in general but, to the minds of many, to protect the country itself? Or did it lie in facing a decision to break those rules and laws?” In other words, would breaking the government’s rules on classification make the United States stronger by forcing the country to publicly grapple with its shortcomings?</p>
<p>Rosenthal even worried for a time that the Pentagon Papers were fake, concocted by a student activist group to lure the Times into legal peril and public disrepute.</p>
<p>Rosenthal rented first one, and then two suites at a hotel in New York so that the writers and editors could work in total secrecy away from the paper’s newsroom, sorting through the papers and making sense of them. Editors, executives and lawyers debated over whether stories about the papers could or should be published at all.</p>
<p>Despite his own doubts, Rosenthal eventually decided to move ahead. He had to persuade the publisher, Arthur Ochs “Punch” Sulzberger, that the paper should run the stories, and Sulzberger agreed – against the advice of the paper’s law firm. </p>
<p>Rosenthal told Sulzberger that “it would make a mockery of everything we ever told reporters, because how could we possibly ask them to go out in search for the truth at a time when the ultimate truth, the biggest story ever presented to The Times, had been placed in our laps and we turned away from it out of fear of the consequences of publication?”</p>
<p>Ellsberg himself only learned the Times would publish their series on the Pentagon Papers when the pages of the first installment had already been set in type and prepared for publication. At that point, even the source of the documents couldn’t stop the presses.</p>
<p>For the Times, the Pentagon Papers stories were an early reform of many that would come under Rosenthal and his successors. The reforms tried to address the concerns of the younger generation of reporters who were better in touch with a changing United States. They included expanded arts and cultural coverage, better treatment of women’s issues, and accountability measures such as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00947679.2017.12059156">a daily corrections box</a>.</p>
<p>Rosenthal, and ultimately the Times as a whole, recognized that as the nation and world changed, so must the Times, to fulfill its duty to the public – and the public interest.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208143/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kevin M. Lerner does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The New York Times’ publication of the Pentagon Papers showed the paper was willing to jeopardize connections to other powerful institutions, including the government, to serve the public interest.Kevin M. Lerner, Associate Professor of Journalism, Marist CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2071102023-06-06T06:34:57Z2023-06-06T06:34:57ZAustralia’s ties with Vietnam are important in their own right – not just in relation to the US and China<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530235/original/file-20230606-17-bv2foh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Luong Thai Linh/ AAP </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s recent trip to Vietnam is a recognition that Australia’s relationship with the Southeast Asian nation is important on its own terms – not just in how it relates our broader relationships with the United States and China. </p>
<p>As such, it was surprising to see that a nicely executed state visit to a mid-power in the region, which resulted in the mooted <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-04/vietnam-australia-hanoi-visit-anthony-albanese-agreement/102439008">upgrading</a> of a “strategic partnership” to a “comprehensive strategic partnership”, had failed to generate substantive headlines, or capture the public imagination. </p>
<p>Australians need to see the enhancement of regional partnerships such as the one with Vietnam as having significant interest to us all, with implications for our future. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1665251963741827072"}"></div></p>
<h2>Decades of rebuilding relations</h2>
<p>This is not the first bilateral visit of an Australian prime minister to Vietnam. The most recent was <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7382881/Scott-Morrison-touches-Hanoi-Australian-PM-visit-Vietnam-25-years.html">Scott Morrison’s visit</a> in 2019. But there was a particular resonance to this occasion.</p>
<p>This year marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Australia and Vietnam. This was, of course, a particularly potent moment due to Australia’s involvement in the war in Vietnam (known there as the “American War”). </p>
<p>Over the course of the war, more than <a href="https://anzacportal.dva.gov.au/wars-and-missions/vietnam-war-1962-1975#:%7E:text=Some%2060%2C000%20Australian%20defence%20personnel,a%20task%20force%20in%201966.">60,000 Australians</a> were deployed to the country and 523 died. The war and the means of its prosecution – particularly conscription – became heated points of polarisation domestically. </p>
<p>The cost of the war to Vietnam itself was incalculable. </p>
<p>Australian commitment to the war began to wind down from late 1970, with the last Australian troops returning in December 1972, soon after the election of the Whitlam government. Our involvement formally ended a month later.</p>
<p>The decades following the war were devastatingly difficult for Vietnam as it rebuilt itself amid international isolation, especially from the United States. A large number of refugees fled the <a href="https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/vietnamese-refugees-boat-arrival#:%7E:text=On%2026%20April%201976%20the,established%20throughout%20South%2DEast%20Asia">authoritarianism of the new Communist regime</a>, with many establishing strong and vibrant communities in Australia.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/50-years-on-the-vietnam-moratorium-campaigns-remind-us-of-a-different-kind-of-politics-137883">50 years on, the Vietnam moratorium campaigns remind us of a different kind of politics</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In 1986, the Vietnamese Communist Party announced its <a href="https://www.globalasia.org/v4no3/cover/doi-moi-and-the-remaking-of-vietnam_hong-anh-tuan">Đổi Mới reforms</a> to transition the country from a highly centralised economy based on state ownership to a form of market socialism. This began a process of opening Vietnam up economically and politically to the world.</p>
<p>In subsequent years, there has been a bipartisan effort in Australia to consolidate the relationship with Vietnam in both economic and defence agreements. </p>
<p>During the visit of Vietnamese Communist Party General Secretary <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/australia-vietnam-strengthen-links-20090907-fdu8.html">Nong Duc Manh to Australia in 2009</a>, the countries upgraded their relationship to one of “comprehensive partnership”. In 2018, to mark the 45th anniversary of diplomatic relations, this was upgraded further to a “strategic partnership”.</p>
<p>There are obvious economic and diplomatic benefits to enhancing the connections between the countries. According to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, <a href="https://www.dfat.gov.au/australia-vietnam/eees/en/strategy/overview.html">trade between the countries</a> has grown on average by 8.6% per year over the past two decades. </p>
<p>But the attitude of the Morrison government to Vietnam was overtly inflected by its hardening hostility towards China. </p>
<p>Morrison trumpeted the growth in trade during his visit, but within the framework of his government’s foreign policy it was clear that such relationships were, relatively speaking, a sideshow to the main game: Australia’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/20/opinion/AUKUS-australia-us-china.html">future was bound</a> to the United States.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/with-aukus-australia-has-wedded-itself-to-a-risky-us-policy-on-china-and-turned-a-deaf-ear-to-the-region-201757">With AUKUS, Australia has wedded itself to a risky US policy on China – and turned a deaf ear to the region</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Why Vietnam matters</h2>
<p>Since its election, the Albanese government has demonstrated its determination to rebuild and repair regional relationships. While this has included taking the heat out of the recent tensions with China, it also included <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-28/fm-penny-wong-visit-to-malaysia-vietnam/101187186">enhancing collaborations</a> with countries such as <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/albanese-indonesia-news-20220606-p5arfl.html">Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia</a> and others.</p>
<p>The government’s approach has not been a repudiation of Australia’s ongoing defence and political ties with the United States, and is far from a passive stance towards China’s positioning in the region. The staunch commitment of the Albanese government to AUKUS makes this abundantly clear.</p>
<p>But it was a recognition that the overwhelming emphasis of Australian foreign policy in recent years had diminished the significance of our relationships with these middle-sized regional countries that were similarly seeking to adapt to the changing relationships and balance of power in the Asia-Pacific region. </p>
<p>As a recent <a href="https://www.pm.gov.au/australia-vietnam-looking-to-the-future">prime ministerial statement</a> outlined, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Stepping-up Australia’s relations with Vietnam is an important part of the government’s determination to rebuild Australia’s links with the countries of Southeast Asia.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Vietnam has experienced its own economic woes of late. It has a notable reliance on <a href="https://www.afr.com/companies/energy/vietnam-curbs-enthusiasm-for-coal-20230601-p5dd9l">Australian coal</a> for its power generation, and this is likely to remain the case in the short term. Its government is authoritarian. This should not be obscured in discussions of our relationship.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zPyDAidBbLE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">During Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s official trip to Hanoi, Australia and Vietnam inked a $105 million decarbonisation agreement.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But <a href="https://www.austrade.gov.au/australian/export/export-markets/countries/vietnam/doing-business">Vietnam</a> is a dynamic country with an economy that has been on the upswing. It also has a young population that is increasingly skilled and has demonstrated itself to be globally connected. </p>
<p>On our side, Australia is a country increasingly integrating itself into the region and exploring new economic opportunities in renewable energy. Among the agreements Albanese signed in Hanoi was a $105 million package to help Vietnam decarbonise its economy.</p>
<p>Australia also has a large population of citizens with <a href="https://www.dfat.gov.au/australia-vietnam/eees/en/strategy/overview.html">Vietnamese heritage</a> with enduring ties – both familial and economic – to Vietnam. Current exchanges in trade and education are mutually beneficial, and growing. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530277/original/file-20230606-21-beokaj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530277/original/file-20230606-21-beokaj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530277/original/file-20230606-21-beokaj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530277/original/file-20230606-21-beokaj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530277/original/file-20230606-21-beokaj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530277/original/file-20230606-21-beokaj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530277/original/file-20230606-21-beokaj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Australia has a vibrant community of citizens with Vietnamese background.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And all this is happening between two countries who, within living memory, were at war. </p>
<p>The experience of the Vietnam War should remind all Australians of the dangers of following our American ally in pursuing its foreign policy ambitions without regard for our own. And the current relationship with Vietnam demonstrates how we can do it our way.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/penny-wong-said-this-week-national-power-comes-from-our-people-are-we-ignoring-this-most-vital-resource-203145">Penny Wong said this week national power comes from 'our people'. Are we ignoring this most vital resource?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207110/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Liam Byrne does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The emphasis on the US and China in our foreign policy in recent years had diminished the significance of our relationships with middle-sized regional countries like Vietnam.Liam Byrne, Honorary Fellow, School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2064702023-05-26T16:10:35Z2023-05-26T16:10:35ZKissinger at 100: his legacy might be mixed but his importance has been enormous<p>Henry Kissinger, who <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2023/05/23/opinions/henry-kissinger-100-birthday-legacy-andelman/index.html">turns 100 on May 27</a>, is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in 20th-century international relations. The German-born American diplomat, scholar and strategist has left an indelible legacy in global politics that continues to act as a bookmark for international relations scholars, students and today’s practitioners of statecraft.</p>
<p>From the late 1960s, Kissinger played a momentous role in shaping US foreign policy and navigating the complex dynamics of the cold war era. His contributions to international relations have had a lasting impact, earning him recognition as a visionary strategist and diplomat. </p>
<p>Few would disagree that Kissinger’s influence on US foreign policy has been immense, importantly as a thinker and academic. But his most significant impact was through his work as secretary of state and national security adviser to US presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. </p>
<p>One of his key contributions was his work towards US rapprochement with the People’s Republic of China, planning Nixon’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/nixon-mao-meeting-four-lessons-from-50-years-of-us-china-relations-176485">historic trip to China in 1972</a> through covert negotiations and deft diplomacy. It was a milestone event in US foreign policy that has shaped Washington’s engagement with Beijing since.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/nixon-mao-meeting-four-lessons-from-50-years-of-us-china-relations-176485">Nixon-Mao meeting: four lessons from 50 years of US-China relations</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Kissinger’s participation in negotiations for the <a href="https://ash.harvard.edu/50-years-later-legacy-paris-peace-accords-isn%E2%80%99t-one-peace">Paris peace accords</a> from 1968 to 1973, which effectively ended the direct US involvement in the Vietnam War, was another key achievement. His relentless efforts in shuttle diplomacy between the US, North Vietnam and South Vietnam, contributed to establishing a ceasefire and evacuating US soldiers, ending direct US involvement.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Henry Kissinger, Richard Nixon and John Wayne sit around a desk in an office in front of flags." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528612/original/file-20230526-21-6lc99m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528612/original/file-20230526-21-6lc99m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528612/original/file-20230526-21-6lc99m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528612/original/file-20230526-21-6lc99m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528612/original/file-20230526-21-6lc99m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528612/original/file-20230526-21-6lc99m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528612/original/file-20230526-21-6lc99m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">All smiles: Henry Kissinger with Richard Nixon and actor John Wayne at Nixon’s home in San Clemente, California, July 1972.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wayne_meets_with_President_Richard_Nixon_and_Henry_Kissinger_in_San_Clemente,_California,_July_1972.jpg">EatPay3/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But despite the accolades, triumphs – and even the <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1973/kissinger/acceptance-speech/#:%7E:text=Though%20I%20deeply%20cherish%20this,of%20social%20and%20political%20discontent.">Nobel peace prize in 1973</a> for his contribution to the Paris accords – Kissinger’s record and legacy are controversial. There has long been a debate concerning Kissinger’s approach to international affairs, which according to his many detractors often overlooked ethical considerations. </p>
<p>Concerns about links to violations of human rights and the undermining of democratic values were sparked by his backing for authoritarian regimes such as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/feb/28/pinochet.chile">Chile under Augusto Pinochet</a>. Regardless, Kissinger never wavered in his conviction that his diplomacy should put US interests first while appreciating the complexity of the international scene.</p>
<h2>Foreign policy</h2>
<p>From his days in government, and then through his continuing influence as a renowned scholar, Kissinger’s strategic thinking and diplomatic approach have shaped US foreign policy in significant ways.</p>
<p>The biggest contribution Kissinger made to US foreign policy was his advocacy for <a href="https://warontherocks.com/2015/12/the-kissinger-effect-on-realpolitik/">“realpolitik”</a>. He believed that the US should base its foreign policy decisions on a clear and systematic assessment of power dynamics and the pursuit of geopolitical stability. </p>
<p>It was an approach that emphasised the pragmatic pursuit of national interests instead of a strict adherence to abstract ideological principles. </p>
<p>The key feature of this realpolitik was the importance of maintaining a balance of power, believing the US should actively engage with other major powers to prevent any one nation from gaining hegenomy or threatening US dominance. </p>
<p>This approach shaped his handling of major geopolitical events during the cold war, such as the aforementioned <a href="https://www.kcl.ac.uk/the-50th-anniversary-of-kissingers-secret-trip-to-china-from-the-cold-war-to-a-new-cold-war">normalisation of the relations with China</a> as well as the development of a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/45181235">détente policy towards the USSR</a> in the early 1970s. This perspective also emerged clearly in <a href="https://unherd.com/thepost/henry-kissinger-nato-membership-for-ukraine-is-appropriate/">his approach towards the Russian invasion of Ukraine</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_FlTgLxcZ88?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Kissinger also made significant contributions to arms control and nuclear non-proliferation efforts during his tenure at the state department. His thinking on nuclear deterrence emphasised strategic stability and the need to prevent proliferation. </p>
<p>In this sense, his emphasis on negotiations and diplomatic engagement – intensified by his shuttle diplomacy method – managed to reduce the nuclear threat. </p>
<p>He played a pivotal role in negotiating the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Strategic-Arms-Limitation-Talks">strategic arms limitation talks</a> (Salt) in the 1970s, which resulted in the landmark agreements <a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1969-1976/salt">Salt I (1972) and Salt II (1979)</a>, fostering <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/45331142">stability in US-USSR relations</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Henry Kissinger, Richard Nixon and Golda Meir stood smiling with aides." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528613/original/file-20230526-21-83cym8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528613/original/file-20230526-21-83cym8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528613/original/file-20230526-21-83cym8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528613/original/file-20230526-21-83cym8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528613/original/file-20230526-21-83cym8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528613/original/file-20230526-21-83cym8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528613/original/file-20230526-21-83cym8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Big player: Kissinger with US president Richard Nixon and Israeli prime minister Golda Meir outside the White House in 1973.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://picryl.com/media/israeli-prime-minister-golda-meir-standing-with-president-richard-nixon-and">Library of Congress</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the Middle East, his <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1148069">shuttle diplomacy</a> once again demonstrated his ability to bring adversaries to the negotiating table, notably during the Arab-Israeli conflicts of the 1970s and the negotiation of the <a href="https://peacemaker.un.org/egyptisrael-interimagreement75">Sinai II agreement</a> in 1975, which – temporarily at least – stabilised relations between Israel and Egypt.</p>
<h2>J'accuse: Kissinger’s critics</h2>
<p>But Kissinger’s legacy has also attracted foreceful criticism. Among his most vocal and persistent critics was the late British writer and journalist Christopher Hitchens. Hitchens’ book “<a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Trial-Henry-Kissinger-Christopher-Hitchens/dp/1859843980">The Trial of Henry Kissinger</a>” presented a series of arguments about alleged war crimes committed by his American “nemesis”. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="Cover of Christopher HItchens' book, The Trial of Henry Kissinger." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528614/original/file-20230526-23-i8ocrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528614/original/file-20230526-23-i8ocrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=825&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528614/original/file-20230526-23-i8ocrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=825&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528614/original/file-20230526-23-i8ocrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=825&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528614/original/file-20230526-23-i8ocrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1037&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528614/original/file-20230526-23-i8ocrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1037&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528614/original/file-20230526-23-i8ocrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1037&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Christopher Hitchens accused Henry Kissinger of war crimes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Amazon</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Hitchens accused Kissinger of disregarding international law and violating the sovereignty of many nations. His alleged involvement in controversial military actions such as the <a href="https://gsp.yale.edu/sites/default/files/walrus_cambodiabombing_oct06.pdf">secret bombing campaigns</a> of Cambodia and Laos has drawn substantial criticism and raised concerns about accountability and transparency in US foreign policy decision-making. </p>
<p>Moreover, America – under his guidance – also stands accused of launching in covert operations to <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/11/newsid_3199000/3199155.stm">overthrow the legitimately elected president of Chile</a>, Salvador Allende, in 1973 in order to install Pinochet), and of turning a blind eye to human rights abuses that occurred during Pinochet’s regime. </p>
<p>Similarly the country’s ostensible support for the Suharto dictatorship in Indonesia disregarded human rights and basic ethics. Of this, Kissinger had <a href="https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/there-are-three-possible-outcomes-to-this-war-henry-kissinger-interview/">this to say</a> in a interview with The Spectator in 2022:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I am, by instinct, a supporter of a belief that America – with all its failings – has been a force for good in the world and is indispensable for the stability of the world. It is in that region that I have made my conscious effort.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Despite all the criticism, Kissinger endured and remains a respected international relations scholars and advisor to this day. After leaving government in 1977, he reentered academia, serving as a professor at Harvard University, where he had previously earned his doctorate in government. As a scholar, Kissinger wrote several influential books, including Diplomacy (1994), On China (2011), and World Order (2014).</p>
<p>That he was <a href="https://www.weforum.org/events/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2023/sessions/a-conversation-with-henry-kissinger-historical-perspectives-on-war">invited to address the World Economic Forum at Davos</a> this year shows that, although divisive, even today Henry Kissinger remains a highly influential figure.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206470/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anurag Mishra is affiliated with ITSS Verona. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>André Carvalho and Zeno Leoni do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Love him or hate him, you can’t ignore the importance of Henry Kissinger’s legacy in government and as a public intellectual.André Carvalho, PhD Researcher, Department of War Studies, King's College LondonAnurag Mishra, PhD Researcher at the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University Zeno Leoni, Lecturer, Defence Studies Department and Lau China Institute, King's College LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2042442023-05-11T12:14:19Z2023-05-11T12:14:19Z‘Courage is contagious’: Daniel Ellsberg’s decision to release the Pentagon Papers didn’t happen in a vacuum<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524975/original/file-20230508-245278-dy5r7b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C7%2C1016%2C689&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Daniel Ellsberg addresses supporters during an anti-war protest in 2010 in front of the White House.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/daniel-ellsberg-former-military-analyst-who-released-the-news-photo/107633814?adppopup=true">Karen Bleier/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 1971, when Daniel Ellsberg arrived at a federal court in Boston, a journalist asked if he was concerned about the prospect of going to prison for leaking a 7,000-page top-secret history of the Vietnam War. Ellsberg responded with <a href="https://www.umass.edu/ellsberg/">a question of his own</a>: “Wouldn’t you go to prison to help end this war?” </p>
<p>The classified documents Ellsberg released to The New York Times and 18 other newspapers were quickly dubbed <a href="https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1971/06/13/170503942.html?pageNumber=1">the Pentagon Papers</a>. They exposed more than two decades of government deceit about U.S. involvement in Vietnam, from 1945 to 1968.</p>
<p>Ellsberg <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2023/06/16/daniel-ellsberg-pentagon-papers-dead/">died June 16, 2023</a>, three months after announcing that he had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. To millions of Americans <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/288895/patriots-by-christian-g-appy/">who opposed the war</a>, his whistleblowing was an act of patriotism – but millions of others regarded it as treason. In <a href="http://scua.library.umass.edu/services-at-scua/research-guides/daniel-ellsberg-papers/">Ellsberg’s own papers</a> at UMass Amherst, where <a href="https://www.umass.edu/history/member/christian-appy">I teach history</a> and direct <a href="https://www.umass.edu/ellsberg/initiative/">the Ellsberg Initiative for Peace and Democracy</a>, you can read hundreds of letters to him from ordinary citizens expressing both extremes: the highest possible praise, and vitriolic, often antisemitic, hostility.</p>
<p>How a young war planner became a peace activist is one of the most striking conversion stories in American history. But Ellsberg’s political and moral transformation did not happen in a vacuum. It reflected a titanic shift in public attitudes about the Vietnam War. The massive anti-war movement inspired and reinforced Ellsberg’s dissent – and, in turn, his example has emboldened activists and whistleblowers in the decades since.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524966/original/file-20230508-247807-ifidbq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A pile of old papers, mostly typed with handwritten notes on them, and an ID card." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524966/original/file-20230508-247807-ifidbq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524966/original/file-20230508-247807-ifidbq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524966/original/file-20230508-247807-ifidbq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524966/original/file-20230508-247807-ifidbq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524966/original/file-20230508-247807-ifidbq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524966/original/file-20230508-247807-ifidbq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524966/original/file-20230508-247807-ifidbq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Some of the papers from the archive of Daniel Ellsberg pictured at UMass Amherst in 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/some-of-the-papers-from-the-archive-of-daniel-ellsberg-are-news-photo/1170829568?adppopup=true">Jonathan Wiggs/The Boston Globe via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A ‘knightly calling’</h2>
<p>Once a fervent Cold Warrior, Ellsberg joined the Marine Corps in the mid-1950s, earned his doctorate in economics from Harvard and in 1959 became a nuclear war analyst for the Rand Corp., a think tank that, at the time, was funded mostly by the Air Force. In 1964, he was one of the brainy young analysts, dubbed “whiz kids” by the media, that <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2009/07/death-of-the-whiz-kid-robert-strange-mcnamara-1916-2009.html">Defense Secretary Robert McNamara</a> recruited to the Pentagon.</p>
<p>Throughout his 20s and early 30s, Ellsberg believed that serving the president <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/288895/patriots-by-christian-g-appy/">was a “knightly calling</a>,” even if it required lying to the public. So how did he come to believe that loyalty to truth-telling <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Papers-on-the-War/Daniel-Ellsberg/9781439193761">superseded loyalty to the chief of state</a>?</p>
<p>From 1965 to 1967, Ellsberg went to Vietnam for the State Department, believing the war was a challenging but necessary part of a global struggle to contain communism. Yet he became deeply disillusioned, convinced that the war could not be won. He was particularly disturbed by indiscriminate <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250045065/killanythingthatmoves">U.S. bombing and shelling</a>, most of it on South Vietnam, the land the U.S. claimed to be protecting. About 20,000 American lives had already been lost, and roughly a million Vietnamese people had been killed, about half of them civilians. By the war’s end eight years later, 58,000 Americans and 3 million Vietnamese had died. </p>
<h2>Pivotal moments</h2>
<p>By 1968, Ellsberg was trying to persuade U.S. leaders to seek a negotiated end to the war. On his own time, meanwhile, he was beginning to meet anti-war activists who advocated a bottom-up effort to demand immediate U.S. withdrawal.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524970/original/file-20230508-195023-603w13.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black and white photo of a huge crowd seated in a park, with skyscrapers in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524970/original/file-20230508-195023-603w13.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524970/original/file-20230508-195023-603w13.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524970/original/file-20230508-195023-603w13.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524970/original/file-20230508-195023-603w13.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524970/original/file-20230508-195023-603w13.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524970/original/file-20230508-195023-603w13.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524970/original/file-20230508-195023-603w13.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Thousands of demonstrators sit in Sheep Meadow in Central Park in New York City protesting the war in Vietnam on April 27, 1968.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/thousands-of-demonstrators-sit-in-sheep-meadow-in-central-news-photo/1320037070?adppopup=true">Dick Yarwood/Newsday RM via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One of them, <a href="https://www.gazettenet.com/Ellsberg-hg-102819-29645137">a Gandhian pacifist named Janaki Natarajan</a>, convinced Ellsberg that he should study leading advocates of nonviolent resistance, such as <a href="https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkatimetobreaksilence.htm">Martin Luther King Jr.</a>, <a href="https://xroads.virginia.edu/%7EHyper2/thoreau/civil.html">Henry David Thoreau</a> and <a href="https://www.warresisters.org/store/revolution-and-equilibrium-barbara-deming">Barbara Deming</a>. To this day, one of Ellsberg’s favorite quotations comes from Thoreau’s “<a href="https://xroads.virginia.edu/%7EHyper2/thoreau/civil.html">Civil Disobedience</a>”: “Cast your whole vote, not a strip of paper merely, but your whole influence.”</p>
<p>But most galvanizing for Ellsberg were the Pentagon Papers, which he helped compile for McNamara. Full of technocratic euphemisms for <a href="https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/coldwar/documents/episode-11/02.pdf">lethal policies</a>, the documents convinced him that the entire history of U.S. involvement in Vietnam <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/307777/american-reckoning-by-christian-g-appy/">was marked by deception</a>: that it was an aggressive counterrevolution that denied the Vietnamese people the right of self-determination, disguised as a battle for democracy.</p>
<p>Ellsberg had first viewed the Vietnam War as a just cause to be won, then as an unwinnable stalemate to be gradually abandoned. By late 1969, however, he saw it as an immoral war to be ended unilaterally and immediately.</p>
<p>Millions of Americans had already come to that conclusion. Back in 1965, in fact, Ellsberg’s future wife, Patricia Marx, <a href="https://www.ellsberg.net/secrets-a-memoir-of-vietnam-and-the-pentagon-papers/">agreed to a first date</a> only if it included an anti-war demonstration in Washington.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524968/original/file-20230508-180826-czd1cx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An older man in a suit flashes a peace sign, one arm around an older woman in an orange top and black slacks." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524968/original/file-20230508-180826-czd1cx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524968/original/file-20230508-180826-czd1cx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524968/original/file-20230508-180826-czd1cx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524968/original/file-20230508-180826-czd1cx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524968/original/file-20230508-180826-czd1cx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524968/original/file-20230508-180826-czd1cx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524968/original/file-20230508-180826-czd1cx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Daniel Ellsberg and his wife, Patricia Marx Ellsberg, attend the Cinema for Peace gala in Berlin in 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/daniel-ellsberg-and-his-wife-patricia-marx-ellsberg-attend-news-photo/1097988162?adppopup=true">Tristar Media/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Just as he finished reading the Pentagon Papers, Ellsberg attended <a href="https://credo.library.umass.edu/view/full/mums1093-s10a-i003">a War Resisters League conference</a> that proved pivotal to his decision to leak the documents. There he met a few of the 3,250 young Americans who were sentenced to up to three years in prison for <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9780807854365/confronting-the-war-machine/">resisting the draft</a>. Deeply moved by their courage, Ellsberg asked himself <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/288895/patriots-by-christian-g-appy/">what he could do</a> if he were willing to risk prison and his career.</p>
<p>A month later, with help from his friend and Rand colleague Anthony Russo, Ellsberg began photocopying the Pentagon Papers. </p>
<h2>Going public</h2>
<p>For the next year and a half, Ellsberg tried to get anti-war members of Congress to put the documents into the congressional record and hold hearings. None was willing, so he <a href="https://fair.org/home/action-alert-what-can-now-be-told-by-nyt-about-pentagon-papers-isnt-actually-true/">eventually offered them</a> to war correspondent Neil Sheehan at The New York Times – the first newspaper to report on the papers’ revelations.</p>
<p>Public interest was scant, however, until President Richard Nixon <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-richard-nixons-obsession-with-daniel-ellsberg-and-the-pentagon-papers-sowed-the-seeds-for-the-presidents-downfall-159113">began attacking the press and Ellsberg</a>. Although the Pentagon Papers did not include Nixon’s time in office, the White House feared that Ellsberg might leak more documents – especially about Nixon’s 1968 effort to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/02/us/politics/nixon-tried-to-spoil-johnsons-vietnam-peace-talks-in-68-notes-show.html">sabotage the Vietnam peace talks</a> to improve his odds of winning the presidential election.</p>
<p>The government indicted Ellsberg on a dozen felony counts with a possible 115-year prison sentence. He was the first American ever <a href="https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1045/espionage-act-of-1917">criminally charged under the Espionage Act of 1917</a> for disclosing classified documents to the press and public rather than to a foreign agent or nation.</p>
<p>Ellsberg was spared prison. Late in his 1973 trial, Watergate prosecutors discovered that the White House <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/break-in-memo-sent-to-ehrlichman/2012/06/04/gJQAKsRCJV_story.html">had authorized crimes</a> against him, including a break-in at his psychiatrist’s office, in a failed search for incriminating information. The judge had little choice but to declare a mistrial.</p>
<h2>Post-Papers life</h2>
<p>Ellsberg was a free man, but the personal cost of his dissent was severe. He lost many friends and had to forge a new career as a writer and lecturer. For more than five decades he has been an activist and has been arrested for nonviolent civil disobedience some 80 times on behalf of peace, <a href="https://www.umass.edu/ellsberg/featured-documents/nuclear-weapons/">nuclear disarmament</a>, government accountability and First Amendment rights. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524969/original/file-20230508-244517-ed82s3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="On a snowy day, a police officer escorts a man whose hands are in zip ties, as police on horses look on." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524969/original/file-20230508-244517-ed82s3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524969/original/file-20230508-244517-ed82s3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524969/original/file-20230508-244517-ed82s3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524969/original/file-20230508-244517-ed82s3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524969/original/file-20230508-244517-ed82s3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524969/original/file-20230508-244517-ed82s3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524969/original/file-20230508-244517-ed82s3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Daniel Ellsberg flashes two peace signs behind his back while being arrested during an anti-war protest in front of the White House in 2010.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/daniel-ellsberg-former-military-analyst-who-released-the-news-photo/107633304?adppopup=true">Win McNamee/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To most government insiders, Ellsberg’s mutiny was an unpardonable breach of the national security state. No one with so much access to power and privileged information in the U.S. government has ever broken so radically with the policies they once supported.</p>
<p>Yet 50 years later, Ellsberg was <a href="https://rightlivelihood.org/the-change-makers/find-a-laureate/daniel-ellsberg/">widely lauded</a>, even by many people critical of <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/12/19/daniel-ellsberg-edward-snowden-and-the-modern-whistle-blower">the younger whistleblowers</a> <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/edward-snowden-interview/edward-snowden-says-he-was-inspired-pentagon-papers-whistleblower-n117556">he inspired</a> and defended. Since Sept. 11, 2001, more than a dozen other people have faced criminal charges under the Espionage Act, and some – including <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VCOmUfgBZE">Jeffrey Sterling</a>, <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/08/03/208602113/pentagon-papers-leaker-daniel-ellsberg-praises-snowden-manning">Chelsea Manning</a>, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/daniel-hale-drone-leak-sentence/2021/07/27/7bb46dd6-ee14-11eb-bf80-e3877d9c5f06_story.html">Daniel Hale</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/14/us/politics/reality-winner-is-released.html">Reality Winner</a> – have been incarcerated. </p>
<p>In early March 2023, Ellsberg made public <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/daniel-ellsberg-pentagon-papers">a letter to friends and supporters</a> announcing that <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/daniel-ellsberg-pentagon-papers">he had only months to live</a>. He closed by thanking fellow activists whose “dedication, courage, and determination to act have inspired and sustained my own efforts.” </p>
<p>Ellsberg’s life and legacy are reminders that individual acts of moral courage depend on examples set by others, and they have the potential to spark more, far into the future. As Ellsberg often said, “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/13/daniel-ellsberg-interview-pentagon-papers-50-years">civil courage is contagious</a>.”</p>
<p><em>This article was updated to include Ellsberg’s death on June 16, 2023.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204244/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christian Appy is the director of the Ellsberg Initiative for Peace and Democracy at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
He is currently writing a biography of Ellsberg.</span></em></p>The Vietnam War whistleblower, who died on June 16, 2023, wrestled with his decision to leak thousands of pages of government documents.Christian Appy, Professor of History, UMass AmherstLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2015702023-04-30T20:02:42Z2023-04-30T20:02:42ZAndré Dao’s brilliant debut novel explores his grandfather’s ten-year detention without trial by the Vietnamese government<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523362/original/file-20230428-18-feaoqj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3994%2C2000&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption"></span> </figcaption></figure><p>André Dao’s remarkable debut novel began as an investigation into his paternal grandfather’s ten-year detention without trial by the Vietnamese government, from 1978, three years after the war ended. </p>
<p>It turned into a full quest for the truth of his family history, which spans the two Vietnam Wars: the first, with occupying France, from 1946 to 1954 (the first Indochinese War); the second, 1954 to 1975 (the second Indochinese War, or the American War). </p>
<p>Dao was born in Australia to Vietnamese refugee parents. He’s a writer, editor and artist – and a refugee advocate who co-founded of <a href="https://behindthewire.org.au/">Behind the Wire</a>, an oral history project documenting people’s experience of immigration detention. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>Review: Anam – André Dao (Hamish Hamilton)</em></p>
<hr>
<p>His novel is not based solely on data, recorded materials and official documents: this proved impossible in dealing with repressed memory, and rendering the complexity of Dao’s family story. Instead, Anam is a work of imagination in which the narrator tries to allow all the rival voices and conflicting versions of this saga to be heard. </p>
<p>From Hanoi to Saigon, Laon to Boissy-Saint-Léger, and Melbourne to Cambridge, this richly layered novel invites the reader to join Dao in disentangling different narrative threads.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523363/original/file-20230428-113-gy0qd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523363/original/file-20230428-113-gy0qd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523363/original/file-20230428-113-gy0qd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523363/original/file-20230428-113-gy0qd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523363/original/file-20230428-113-gy0qd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523363/original/file-20230428-113-gy0qd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523363/original/file-20230428-113-gy0qd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523363/original/file-20230428-113-gy0qd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Andre Dao’s paternal grandfather (pictured) was detained without trial for ten years by the Vietnamese government.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Forgetting and remembering</h2>
<p>Readers familiar with Vietnamese history will notice the peculiar spelling of the book’s title: Anam, with one “n”. It’s a homonym of “<a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Annam">Annam</a>” (Pacified South), a name imposed on Vietnam by the Chinese imperialists in the seventh century and perpetuated by the French colonialists. It refers in fact to “anamnesis”: that is, forgetting and remembering.</p>
<p>Anam is therefore not a physical place, but an imagined, mythologised “time-place”, one the narrator has created and made his own through the torturous process of writing. He connects the reader with his story, which resonates beyond the Vietnamese diaspora to touch all diasporic peoples haunted by dispossession and unbelonging. We accompany him on his journey. </p>
<p>Reflecting the missing “n” in Anam, the book intriguingly opens with two short entries, puzzlingly labelled C and D. This points not only to the missing entries A and B, but also their recovery at the end of the novel – in the form of a series of derivatives: A, B and C. </p>
<p>Visually, this evokes Anam’s central tropes of memory loss and retrieval. It highlights the novel’s painful false starts – and its completion, as the narrator attempts one last time to relate the interwoven stories of his family in three chapters, named “Michaelmas”, “<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-lent-is-the-perfect-time-to-spiritually-prepare-for-revolution-200715">Lent</a>” and “<a href="https://theconversation.com/easter-what-the-catholic-church-teaches-about-bread-and-wine-and-christs-flesh-and-blood-115521">Easter</a>”. </p>
<p>The significance of this deliberate structure is twofold. It references the three important periods in the Catholic calendar, and the three academic terms at Cambridge University, where the narrator completes his thesis on the life story of his grandparents. </p>
<p>It’s a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mise_en_abyme"><em>mise-en-abyme</em></a>, highlighting the embedding of one story within another, in an intricate weaving of voices that alternates between the narrator’s present and his family’s past. As a religious framework, it supports the narrator’s endeavour to portray his grandparents through their Catholic faith.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/model-minorities-and-murder-tracey-lien-investigates-the-vietnamese-cabramatta-of-the-1990s-189590">Model minorities and murder: Tracey Lien investigates the Vietnamese Cabramatta of the 1990s</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Generational journeys</h2>
<p>The first chapter, “Michaelmas”, refers to the celebration of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Michael_in_the_Catholic_Church">Saint Michael</a>, the saint of protection in time of peril. It’s presented as an investigation that aims to piece together the grandfather’s perilous journey – from his commitment to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viet_Minh">Viet Minh</a> cause (the Communist national independence coalition) in the 1940s, during the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Indochina_War">first Indochinese war</a> with Vietnam’s French occupiers, to his fight for survival in the infamous <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%AD_H%C3%B2a_Prison">Chí Hòa Prison</a> in the 1980s. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523163/original/file-20230427-681-rp85uo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523163/original/file-20230427-681-rp85uo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523163/original/file-20230427-681-rp85uo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523163/original/file-20230427-681-rp85uo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523163/original/file-20230427-681-rp85uo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523163/original/file-20230427-681-rp85uo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523163/original/file-20230427-681-rp85uo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523163/original/file-20230427-681-rp85uo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The narrator’s grandfather, like Dao’s, fights for survival in the infamous Chí Hòa Prison.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This chapter is motivated by questions related to the grandfather’s choices: his desertion from the Viet Minh to join the (Western-backed) regime of South Vietnam, his forgiveness of his jailers, and his silence in the face of injustice. It convincingly demonstrates how, by blending facts and fiction, the narrator comes to an understanding of his grandfather’s decisions. </p>
<p>Anam inhabits the lives of real political figures such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/book-reveals-new-surprising-nuggets-about-nelson-mandelas-last-years-in-jail-145852">Nelson Mandela</a> and <a href="https://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tr%E1%BB%8Bnh_%C4%90%C3%ACnh_Th%E1%BA%A3o">Trịnh Đình Thảo</a>, a famous French-educated Saigonese attorney whose participation in the anti-war and peace movement in Vietnam landed him in Chí Hòa Prison numerous times. Their fight and willingness to sacrifice for their cause shed light on the narrator’s enigmatic grandfather. </p>
<p>Dao’s creation of a fictional Vietcong ghost in Chí Hòa Prison serves the same purpose. The grandfather and the ghost are on opposite sites in the Vietnam War and motivated by different ideologies, but as fellow inmates, they share the same suffering and the same fate.</p>
<p>The cover photo of the grandfather seems to suggest he’s the principal character in Anam. But the second chapter, “Lent”, focuses on the grandmother in Laon, France.</p>
<p>Her story reflects the novel’s themes of sacrifice, love and hope. A migrant mother, her life is characterised by her selfless care for her children and her faithful love for her husband, incarcerated in Vietnam. </p>
<p>Despite her willingness to talk about herself, starting with her childhood in Hanoi, her marriage and resettlement in Saigon, then her flight to France, the grandmother remains an elusive figure. The narrator feels compelled to rely on different perspectives and multiple voices to cast light on his grandmother and her life experiences. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523365/original/file-20230428-26-yfo67o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523365/original/file-20230428-26-yfo67o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523365/original/file-20230428-26-yfo67o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523365/original/file-20230428-26-yfo67o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523365/original/file-20230428-26-yfo67o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523365/original/file-20230428-26-yfo67o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523365/original/file-20230428-26-yfo67o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523365/original/file-20230428-26-yfo67o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The narrator’s grandmother is characterised by her selfless care for her children and faithful love for her husband, incarcerated in Vietnam. (Pictured: Andre Dao’s grandparents.).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Imaginative writing (in addition to family conversations and recorded interviews) is again an effective tool for the narrator, as he faces the complex task of telling his grandmother’s story. </p>
<p>And he repeats his use of <em>mise-en-abyme</em> by inserting a minor (fictional) novel, The Crowned Mountain, (or Montagne Couronnée – the name of Laon’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laon_Cathedral">Cathedrale Notre Dame de Laon</a>) within the novel, which captures the essence of the grandmother through the symbolic figure of the Madonna. </p>
<p>The last chapter coincides with the completion of the narrator’s academic term and his thesis. Here, his long journey into writing his family’s past comes to an end. Fittingly, “Easter” signals resurrection and new beginnings. </p>
<p>The grandfather symbolically returns to life, after his release from prison and his reunification with his family in France. And there’s renewal through future generations: in the form of two long, moving letters, labelled A and B, which the narrator addresses to his baby daughter. (These letters overlap the missing entries, A and B, at the start of the novel.) </p>
<p>With these <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-a-lament-for-the-lost-art-of-letter-writing-a-radical-art-form-reflecting-the-full-catastrophe-of-life-197420">letters</a>, the narrator’s daughter becomes custodian of her great-grandparents’ memories – and the full story of Anam has been told and transmitted.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/wars-physical-toll-can-last-for-generations-as-it-has-for-the-children-of-the-vietnam-war-119428">War's physical toll can last for generations, as it has for the children of the Vietnam War</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>A fine example of a global novel</h2>
<p>Uncompromising and honest, Anam is a brilliant book of immense scope. Dao has kept the legacy of his grandparents alive through his literary creation. He raises moral questions of doubt, complicity and guilt, while showing compassion and generosity towards all choices. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523364/original/file-20230428-22-tscp5h.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523364/original/file-20230428-22-tscp5h.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523364/original/file-20230428-22-tscp5h.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523364/original/file-20230428-22-tscp5h.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523364/original/file-20230428-22-tscp5h.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523364/original/file-20230428-22-tscp5h.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523364/original/file-20230428-22-tscp5h.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523364/original/file-20230428-22-tscp5h.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption"></span>
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<p>The novel’s themes are not uncommon in Vietnamese diasporic literature: separation of family into enemy camps, the trauma of war and dislocation, the difficulty of retrieving and representing memories, hope and renewal. But Dao handles these themes in an original and convincing way, appealing emotionally and intellectually to his reader. </p>
<p>Through his compelling narrative strategy, he lays bare the writing process, allowing us to take part in his experimentation with different forms and narrative styles, and transporting us across all borders: not only of geography and time, but linguistic, political and cultural boundaries. </p>
<p>Dao’s quest to include all perspectives means both Western and Eastern <a href="https://theconversation.com/where-to-start-reading-philosophy-51745">philosophy</a> and beliefs are called upon to shed light on the past. Pivotal questions of social justice and forgiveness are illuminated through the Catholic concept of God’s love and mercy, but also through the Vietnamese concept of “phúc đức”, in which the forebear’s moral conduct is passed on as a legacy of blessings from one generation to the next. </p>
<p>In terms of thematic, linguistic, and cultural scope, Anam is a fine example of what a global novel should be like. It beautifully connects East and West; Europe and Australasia; Oceania and the Middle East. It is an insightful addition to a series of acclaimed books on memory, war, and migration by Anglophone writers of Vietnamese origin – such as Nam Lê’s <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-boat-9780143009610">The Boat</a>, Viet Thanh Nguyen’s <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674979840">Nothing Ever Dies</a>, or GB Tran’s <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/vietnamerica-9780345508720">Vietnamerica</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-journey-with-the-boat-students-connect-over-a-common-story-8363">A journey with The Boat: students connect over a common story</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Dao gives us a privileged reading experience. Throughout the novel, he makes us feel the immensity of the task he has set himself – to ethically tell the story of Vietnam, of forgetting and remembering. And he makes us feel the full weight of his literary and family commitment to this project. </p>
<p>To use his judicious metaphor, a book on family memories is not a memorial to the past, lifeless and cold, like “a slab of black granite”. It’s a “house with many rooms” and “many windows”: each with a different angle, each looking out on a different memory, each perspective equally valid. </p>
<p>Anam encourages us to reflect on the ethics of forgetting and remembering. And it inspires us to think of a way to create our own houses, from which to tell the stories of our past.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201570/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tess Do does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>André Dao has kept the legacy of his grandparents alive in Anam, a brilliant novel of immense scope that became a full quest for the truth of his family history, which spans the two Vietnam Wars.Tess Do, Lecturer in French Studies, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2034662023-04-27T12:31:45Z2023-04-27T12:31:45ZWhy Kurt Vonnegut’s advice to college graduates still matters today<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522654/original/file-20230424-2206-l2hfz2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C23%2C3631%2C2469&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A generation told not to trust anyone over 30 nevertheless adored Vonnegut.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/american-author-kurt-vonnegut-poses-while-at-home-on-the-news-photo/81810832?adppopup=true">Ulf Andersen/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Kurt Vonnegut didn’t deliver the famous “Wear Sunscreen” graduation speech published in the <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/columns/chi-schmich-sunscreen-column-column.html">Chicago Tribune</a> that was often mistakenly attributed to the celebrated author. But he could have. </p>
<p>Over his lifetime, he gave dozens of quirky commencement addresses. In those speeches, he made some preposterous claims. But they made people laugh and made them think. They were speeches the graduates remembered. </p>
<p>Having studied and <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Critical_Companion_to_Kurt_Vonnegut.html?id=G9l0LaJlcZkC">written about</a> Vonnegut for years, I wish he had been my commencement speaker. I graduated from Austin College, a small school in North Texas. I don’t even remember who gave my class’s graduation speech, much less a single word the speaker said. I suspect many others have had – and will have – similar experiences.</p>
<p>Young people, college students especially, loved Vonnegut. During the early and mid-1960s, he commanded an avid and devoted following on campuses before he had produced any bestsellers. Why was a middle-aged writer born in 1922 adored by a counterculture <a href="https://www.freedomarchives.org/Documents/Finder/FreedomArchives.DontTrustAnyoneOver30.article.pdf">told not to trust anyone over 30</a>? Why did he continue to appeal to younger generations until his death? </p>
<h2>Their parents’ generation</h2>
<p>Vonnegut, who died just before commencement season in 2007, was nearly 50 years old when his groundbreaking anti-war novel, “<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/184345/slaughterhouse-five-by-kurt-vonnegut/">Slaughterhouse-Five</a>,” was published in 1969.</p>
<p>A cultural touchstone, the novel changed the way Americans think and write about war. It helped usher in <a href="https://bpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/blogs.cofc.edu/dist/8/830/files/2017/02/Vonnegut-and-Postmodernism-15f9fyz.pdf">the postmodern style of literature</a> with its playful, fragmented form, its insistence that reality is not objective and that history is not monolithic, and its self-reflection on its own status as art. Like Andy Warhol’s soup cans, “Slaughterhouse-Five,” with its jokes, drawings, risqué limericks and flying saucers, <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/kurt-vonnegut-and-the-american-novel-9781441130341/">blurs the line between high and low culture</a>.</p>
<p>Cited as one of the top novels of the 20th century, “Slaughterhouse-Five” has been transformed into film, theatrical plays, <a href="https://www.openculture.com/2020/02/the-graphic-novel-adaptation-of-kurt-vonneguts-slaughterhouse-five.html">a graphic novel</a> and visual art. It has inspired rock bands and musical interpretations. Vonnegut’s recurring refrain, “So it goes,” used 106 times in the novel, has entered the popular lexicon. The book has been <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/08/the-neverending-campaign-to-ban-slaughterhouse-five/243525/">banned, burned and censored</a>.</p>
<p>In many ways, though, Vonnegut had more in common with the parents of the college students he addressed than with the students themselves. Father to six children – three of his own and three nephews who joined the family after his sister Alice and her husband died – Vonnegut had studied biochemistry at Cornell and had worked in corporate public relations. He continued to believe all his life in the civic virtues he learned as a student at Shortridge High School in Indianapolis. </p>
<p>He had the credibility of a World War II veteran, a member of what journalist Tom Brokaw would later call the “<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/18729/the-greatest-generation-by-tom-brokaw/">Greatest Generation</a>.” Captured by the Germans during the Battle of the Bulge, <a href="https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/kurt-vonnegut-slaughterhouse-five">he was sent to Dresden as a prisoner of war</a>. There he was starved, beaten and put to work as a slave laborer. He survived the Allied firebombing of the city in February 1945 and was forced to help excavate hundreds of bodies of men, women and children who had been burned alive, suffocated and crushed to death.</p>
<h2>Fool or philosopher?</h2>
<p>If Vonnegut was, like the students’ fathers, a family man and a veteran, perhaps he also embodied the dad that students in 1969 dreamed their own fathers could be: funny, artistic, anti-establishment and anti-war.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Man in striped suit holding cigarette." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523036/original/file-20230426-402-ciipbs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523036/original/file-20230426-402-ciipbs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=769&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523036/original/file-20230426-402-ciipbs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=769&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523036/original/file-20230426-402-ciipbs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=769&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523036/original/file-20230426-402-ciipbs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=966&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523036/original/file-20230426-402-ciipbs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=966&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523036/original/file-20230426-402-ciipbs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=966&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kurt Vonnegut at Bennington College in 1970.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://crossettlibrary.dspacedirect.org/bitstream/handle/11209/16874/1970June19Kurt_Vonnegut1.jpg?sequence=1&isAllowed=y">Bennington College Archive</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Vonnegut had the look – sad, kind eyes under that mop of uncontrollable hair, the full droopy mustache. <a href="https://crossettlibrary.dspacedirect.org/bitstream/handle/11209/16874/1970June19Kurt_Vonnegut1.jpg?sequence=1&isAllowed=y">A photo taken</a> just before he delivered a commencement address at Bennington College in 1970 shows him wearing a loud striped jacket, reading glasses tucked neatly in its pocket, with a cigarette dangling at his fingertips.</p>
<p>Looking like a cross between Albert Einstein and a carnival huckster, Vonnegut had his contradictions on full display. </p>
<p>Was he a clown or a wise man? A fool or a philosopher?</p>
<p>The literary establishment did not quite know what to make of Vonnegut, either. A writer frequently dismissed by critics for his flying saucers and space aliens, for the simplicity of his prose, for pandering to what <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1976/10/03/archives/slapstick-slapstick.html">one reviewer called</a> the “minimally intelligent young,” <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1969/03/31/books/vonnegut-slaughterhouse.html">he was also praised</a> for his inventiveness, for his lively and playful language, for the depth of feeling behind the zaniness, and for advocating decency and kindness in a chaotic world. </p>
<h2>A forceful defense of art</h2>
<p>As the U.S. was fighting what most college students believed was an unjust and imperialist war in Vietnam, Vonnegut’s message struck home. He used his own experience in World War II to destroy any notion of a good war. </p>
<p>“For all the sublimity of the cause for which we fought, we surely created a Belsen of our own,” <a href="https://www.npr.org/2008/06/03/89276309/excerpt-armageddon-in-retrospect">he lamented</a>, referencing the Nazi concentration camp.</p>
<p>The military-industrial complex, <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/184353/wampeters-foma-and-granfalloons-by-kurt-vonnegut/">he told the graduates at Bennington</a>, treats people and their children and their cities like garbage. Instead, Americans should spend money on hospitals and housing and schools and Ferris wheels rather than on war machinery.</p>
<p>In the same speech, Vonnegut playfully urged young people to defy their professors and fancy educations by clinging to superstition and untruth, especially what he considered the most ridiculous lie of all – “that humanity is at the center of the universe, the fulfiller or the frustrater of the grandest dreams of God Almighty.” </p>
<p>Vonnegut conceded that the military was probably right about the “contemptibility of man in the vastness of the universe.” Still, he denied that contemptibility and begged students to deny it as well by creating art. Art puts human beings at the center of the universe, whether they belong there or not, allowing people to imagine and create a saner, kinder, more just world than the one we really live in.</p>
<p>The generations, <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/240511/if-this-isnt-nice-what-is-even-more-expanded-third-edition-by-kurt-vonnegut-edited-and-introduced-by-dan-wakefield/">he told students at the State University of New York at Fredonia</a>, are not that far apart and do not want that much from each other. Older people want credit for having survived so long – and often imaginatively – under difficult conditions. Younger people want to be acknowledged and respected. He urged each group not to be so “intolerably stingy” about giving the other credit.</p>
<p>A strain of sorrow and pessimism underlies all of Vonnegut’s fiction, as well as his graduation speeches. He witnessed the worst that human beings could do to one another, and he made no secret about his fears for the future of a planet suffering from environmental degradation and a widening divide between the rich and the poor. </p>
<p>If Vonnegut were alive and giving commencement speeches today, he would be speaking to college students whose parents and even grandparents he may have addressed in the past. Today’s graduates have lived through <a href="https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/stress/2021/one-year-pandemic-stress-youth">the COVID-19 pandemic</a> and are drowning in social media. They face <a href="https://www.marketplace.org/2022/08/17/money-and-millennials-the-cost-of-living-in-2022-vs-1972/">high housing costs and financial instability</a> and are more <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/student-union_gen-z-studies-show-higher-rates-depression/6174520.html">depressed</a> and <a href="https://www.ualberta.ca/folio/2020/01/millennials-and-gen-z-are-more-anxious-than-previous-generations-heres-why.html">anxious</a> than previous generations.</p>
<p>I’m sure he would give these students the advice he gave so often over the years: to focus, in the midst of chaos, on what makes life worth living, to recognize the joyful moments – maybe by listening to music or drinking a glass of lemonade in the shade – and saying out loud, <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/240511/if-this-isnt-nice-what-is-even-more-expanded-third-edition-by-kurt-vonnegut-edited-and-introduced-by-dan-wakefield/">as his Uncle Alex taught him</a>, “If this isn’t nice, what is?”</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Kurt Vonnegut delivers a lecture at Case Western University in 2004, three years before his death.</span></figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/203466/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Susan Farrell is a founding member of the Kurt Vonnegut Society, which works to promote the scholarly study of Kurt Vonnegut, his life, and works.</span></em></p>A strain of sorrow and pessimism underlies all of Vonnegut’s fiction, as well as his graduation speeches. But he also insisted that young people cherish those fleeting moments of joy.Susan Farrell, Professor of English, College of CharlestonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2004172023-04-25T12:27:16Z2023-04-25T12:27:16ZWhite power movements in US history have often relied on veterans – and not on lone wolves<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512087/original/file-20230223-4425-vmxhup.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A member of the Ku Klux Klan shouts at counterprotesters during a July 2017 rally in Charlottesville, Va., calling for the protection of Southern Confederate monuments.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/member-of-the-ku-klux-klan-shouts-at-counter-protesters-news-photo/810860866?phrase=white%20supremacists%20rally&adppopup=true">Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>For decades, the white power movement has gained steady momentum in the U.S. <a href="https://history.northwestern.edu/people/faculty/core-faculty/kathleen-belew.html">Kathleen Belew</a> is an expert on the history of the white power movement and its current impact on American society and politics. Her book “<a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674286078">Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America</a>” examines how the aftermath of the Vietnam War led to the birth of the white power movement.</em></p>
<p><em>In March 2023, Belew spoke at the <a href="https://www.imaginesolutionsconference.com/">Imagine Solutions Conference</a> in Naples, Florida, about how the narrative of the “lone wolf” actor distracts from the broader threat of the white power movement in America. The Conversation asked Belew about her work. Her edited answers are below.</em></p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Kathleen Belew speaks at the 2023 Imagine Solutions Conference.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>What is the white power movement?</h2>
<p>The white power movement is an array of activists that is, in all ways but race, remarkably diverse. Since the late 1970s, it has convened people of a wide variety of belief systems, including <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/19th-century/ku-klux-klan">Klansmen</a>, <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ideology/neo-nazi">neo-Nazis</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/77.3.1221">white separatists</a>, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/07/01/883115867/white-supremacist-ideas-have-historical-roots-in-u-s-christianity">proponents</a> of white supremacist religious theologies, and, starting in the late 1980s, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0031322X.2016.1243349">racist skinheads</a> and militia movement members. These activists represent a <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674286078">wide range</a> of class positions. The movement has long included men, women and children; felons and religious leaders; high school dropouts and holders of advanced degrees; civilians and veterans and active-duty military personnel. They have lived in all regions of the country, including suburbs, cities and rural areas.</p>
<h2>How has the legacy of US warfare fueled white power groups?</h2>
<p>After every major American war, <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674286078">the historical record</a> shows a surge in membership and activity among extremist groups like the Ku Klux Klan. In each example, <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/military-police-and-rise-terrorism-united-states">these groups also adopt</a> elements of military activity, like uniforms, weapons and the latest military tactics. But this doesn’t mean that these surges are entirely composed of veterans. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Violence-Military-Social-Weapons-ebook/dp/B00PSSF7UC?ref_=ast_author_dp">All measures of violence rise after warfare</a>, including acts carried out by women, children and older people. Groups like the Ku Klux Klan have been able to <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Bring-War-Home-Movement-Paramilitary/dp/0674237692/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1678477040&sr=8-1">use this postwar opportunity</a> for their own purposes: recruitment and radicalization.</p>
<h2>When and why did the white power movement emerge in the US?</h2>
<p>The white power movement <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/19/us/the-secret-history-of-white-power.html">came together</a> in the late 1970s around a <a href="https://www.npr.org/transcripts/605661710">shared narrative of the Vietnam War</a>. In this narrative, the war exemplifies the failure of government, the betrayal of the American people by the government and the betrayal of American men by the state. </p>
<p>Disillusioned veterans and civilians alike mobilized around a number of other <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Backlash-Undeclared-Against-American-Women/dp/0307345424">social grievances, such as dissatisfaction</a> with changes caused by feminism, the <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/eyesontheprize-responses-coming-civil-rights-movement/">Civil Rights Movement</a> and other movements at home, as well as frustrations with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1215/00021482-74.2.366">economic changes like the farms crisis</a> and the general move to financialization in the 1970s that made it harder to find and keep a working-class job.</p>
<p>This disaffection allowed for the white power movement to recruit in two different ways: narrative force – the story that was used to hold these activists together; and contextual force – the social grievances many of them had in common.</p>
<h2>What role do women play in the white supremacist movement?</h2>
<p>People often think of the white power and militia movements as men’s movements. It’s true that the <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/article/white-supremacy-returned-mainstream-politics/">majority of media reports heavily feature men</a>; that’s because those who participate in public demonstrations and those who get arrested because of underground activity tend to be men. But this is a movement that has relied in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190204204.013.37">extraordinarily heavy ways on women</a>. </p>
<p>Women have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190265144.003.0013">been tasked with normalizing</a> and legitimating violence, orchestrating recruitment and maintaining the relationships that allow this movement to operate as a social network. Take, for instance, the <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674286078">Aryan Nations World Congress</a>, a 1983 meeting in which the white power movement declared war on the United States. This meeting featured men’s speeches and ideological activities, a cross burning and a swastika burning. But it also featured matchmaking and a big spaghetti dinner, which socially bound activists together to enable the organization of violence. Women were indispensable for arranging these kinds of activities and for maintaining strong relationships between groups.</p>
<h2>Where do US veterans fit in?</h2>
<p>Veterans are specifically targeted for recruitment into white power groups because they and active-duty service members have a set of experiences and expertise that is very much in demand by these groups. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/24/us-military-white-supremacy-extremist-plot">Veterans have tactical training</a>, munitions expertise and weapons training that the white power movement wants because it is trying to wage war on the American government – in fact, this movement has <a href="https://www.congress.gov/117/meeting/house/113968/witnesses/HHRG-117-VR00-Wstate-JonesS-20211013.pdf">directed recruitment</a> specifically aimed at veterans and active-duty troops. </p>
<p>While very few veterans returning from war join white power groups, the groups still feature an <a href="https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2020/02/06/signs-of-white-supremacy-extremism-up-again-in-poll-of-active-duty-troops/">enormous percentage of people who are veterans</a> or active duty – or falsely claim to be. This is because those military roles are in high demand among these groups – and their command structure within the movement mirrors military organization. </p>
<h2>How can the US address its lack of care toward veterans?</h2>
<p>The white power movement is one example of a broader social failure to support veterans and to reckon with the cost of warfare. This movement is able to <a href="https://www.militarytimes.com/veterans/2022/06/23/military-veterans-targeted-by-extremists-preying-on-patriots/">opportunistically mobilize disaffected people</a> in the aftermath of war because <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Failing-Our-Veterans-Vietnam-Generation/dp/0814724876">our society lacks robust social structures</a> to reintegrate people after warfare and to have a real public discourse about the price of war. </p>
<p>Before <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/10/magazine/fall-of-kabul-afghanistan.html">the fall of Kabul</a> in Afghanistan, my undergraduate students at Northwestern and the University of Chicago had been at war for their entire living memory. These are kids who don’t remember 9/11. And yet that war has not featured prominently even in the list of the top five or 10 crises facing our nation. In the recent past, war has not been at the center of our political conversation. We <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167629612001178">don’t reckon with the massive impact</a> the people who serve in our armed forces shoulder for the nation. </p>
<p>In all of these ways, the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/21st-century/war-on-terror-timeline">global war on terror</a> has <a href="https://www.congress.gov/117/meeting/house/113968/witnesses/HHRG-117-VR00-Wstate-Miller-IdrissC-20211013-U1.pdf">continued the cycle</a> of generating a recruitment opportunity for extremist groups. We are now in the middle of a <a href="https://acleddata.com/2022/12/06/from-the-capitol-riot-to-the-midterms-shifts-in-american-far-right-mobilization-between-2021-and-2022/">massive groundswell of white power</a> and militant right activity, both underground and in public-facing actions.</p>
<h2>What are you working on now that people might not be aware of?</h2>
<p>My next project departs from the white power movement to examine gun violence in America, specifically the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/1990s/columbine-high-school-shootings">Columbine shooting</a> – which happened when I was in high school, not far from where I was in high school – as a fulcrum point between the 20th century and the 21st. There were mass shootings at schools and elsewhere before Columbine. But Columbine really marks the moment when mass shootings became normalized. I think the event signals major fissures in the social fabric and reflects other massive changes in how society thinks about place, politics and violence – not only in Colorado but in the nation as a whole.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/200417/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>An expert in American history explains the white power movement, its impact on veterans and women and how the Vietnam War was the impetus for extremist groups to gain new members.Kathleen Belew, Associate Professor of History, Northwestern UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2035212023-04-24T16:49:42Z2023-04-24T16:49:42ZAs Biden announces his re-election bid, the ghosts of Vietnam still haunt him on Ukraine<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521657/original/file-20230418-22-jxnmvv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4896%2C3254&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">U.S. President Joe Biden walks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy near a Kyiv cathedral during Biden's surprise visit in February 2023. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source"> (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/as-biden-announces-his-re-election-bid--the-ghosts-of-vietnam-still-haunt-him-on-ukraine" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>In 2009, shortly after his inauguration, Barack Obama undertook an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/psq.12798">intensive policy review to assess the desirability of a military “surge” in Afghanistan.</a> </p>
<p>Vice-President Joe Biden, who has just announced his intent to <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/04/25/1145679856/biden-president-announcement-2024-running-reelection#:%7E:text=After%20months%20of%20hinting%20at,And%20we%20still%20are.">run again for president in 2024,</a> was one of a handful of older advisers repeatedly reminding their new boss to remember the terrible consequences of an earlier generation’s escalation in Indochina. </p>
<p>Think very carefully, Biden said at one point, according to <a href="https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/how-a-misguided-vietnam-analogy-sealed-the-afghanistan-disaster/">Bob Woodward’s recounting</a>, or you’ll be “locked into Vietnam.” </p>
<p>Obama was not dissuaded and committed <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/06/world/asia/06reconstruct.html">30,000 new forces to Afghanistan</a>. Vietnam was “not like this ghost in his head,” recalled Ben Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security adviser — reflective of the generational divide between the two men noted by <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/305743/the-obamians-by-james-mann/">James Mann in his book <em>The Obamians</em>.</a></p>
<p>As president, Biden continues to respect the Vietnam “ghost” — and it hovers over his deliberations and decisions concerning Ukraine.</p>
<p>On one hand, Biden is emphatic about support for Ukraine and his passion for stymieing Vladimir Putin’s brutal aggression. In Kyiv in February 2023, the president assured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of America’s <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/02/20/statement-from-president-joe-biden-on-travel-to-kyiv-ukraine/">“unwavering and unflagging commitment to Ukraine’s democracy, sovereignty and territorial integrity.”</a></p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3CjBGmudwY0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Biden reiterates the U.S. commitment to Ukraine during a surprise visit to Kyiv. (CNN)</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These were anything but empty words, given the billions of dollars of aid and military equipment that has flowed to Ukraine — <a href="https://www.state.gov/significant-new-u-s-military-assistance-to-ukraine/">US$27.5 billion to date</a> — the sanctions imposed on Russia and the coalition of <a href="https://www.cfr.org/article/how-much-aid-has-us-sent-ukraine-here-are-six-charts">powerful allies that Washington has helped to organize who provided another $21 billion in aid.</a> </p>
<p>On the other hand, Biden has kept sturdy guardrails around such words and actions. </p>
<h2>Aid with restraint</h2>
<p>Massive aid to Ukraine, yes — but restraint that keeps Americans themselves out of harm’s way on land, sea and in the air.</p>
<p>Massive aid, yes — but arm’s length enough to steer clear of a tripwire in the tense relationship with Moscow, especially as a frustrated Putin <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2023/mar/26/vladimir-putin-russia-tactical-nuclear-weapons-belarus-video">warns about tactical nuclear weapons</a>.</p>
<p>Recent examples of U.S. restraint include:</p>
<ul>
<li> Agreeing to a Dutch plan <a href="https://www.rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/commentary/good-bad-and-ugly-assessing-year-military-aid-ukraine">to provide Ukraine with F-16s but holding back on the pilot training that would have to take place in the United States.</a> </li>
<li> <a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-german-tanks-435da2221bf452a8aae9d2e58d23acae">Agreeing to provide sophisticated Abrams tanks in tandem with Germany’s delivery of Leopard 2s</a>, but avoiding workarounds that could eliminate delays in the actual production of the tanks.</li>
<li> Avoiding any public discussion of <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/24/politics/us-troops-ukraine-russia-nato/index.html">sending American forces directly into the fray.</a><br></li>
</ul>
<p>Lessons learned in Iraq and Afghanistan have obviously shaped the American balancing act in Ukraine, creating greater sensitivity to the problematic gap between desirable goals and prudent methods to achieve them. </p>
<p>Those 21st century experiences highlighted for many the profound costs that can come with overconfident military commitments in <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/03/20/1164821663/us-still-has-lessons-to-learn-from-its-misguided-war-in-iraq">distant and difficult terrains.</a> </p>
<p>For someone Biden’s age, however, Vietnam offered a key initial lesson — one that caused him to try mentoring younger leaders in the Obama years, and one that provided weight and momentum to his controversial decision <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2021/08/31/remarks-by-president-biden-on-the-end-of-the-war-in-afghanistan/">to end the U.S. combat mission in Afghanistan in 2021.</a> </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man and woman touch the etchings of names on a war memorial, their reflections visible in the polished stone." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521651/original/file-20230418-14-cb13ic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521651/original/file-20230418-14-cb13ic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521651/original/file-20230418-14-cb13ic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521651/original/file-20230418-14-cb13ic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521651/original/file-20230418-14-cb13ic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521651/original/file-20230418-14-cb13ic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521651/original/file-20230418-14-cb13ic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden visit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial to commemorate Vietnam War Veterans Day in March 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The benefit of Biden’s age</h2>
<p>Being an 80-year-old in 2023 means that the lived experience of the Vietnam War adds substantial heft to what others might see as mere ghosts. </p>
<p><a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/06/joe-biden-1972-race-senate.html">Biden was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1972,</a> surrounded by the storms of protest rising out of war in Southeast Asia. He knew full well how earlier arm’s-length engagement in Vietnam by former presidents evolved into direct embroilment: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>Harry Truman’s <a href="https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/remembering-vietnam-online-exhibit-episodes-1-4">US$4 billion of support for France’s efforts to defeat Ho Chi Minh</a> (an “outright Commie,” according to Secretary of State Dean Acheson).</p></li>
<li><p>Dwight D. Eisenhower’s <a href="https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/educational-resources/age-of-eisenhower/americas-vietnam">decision to initiate U.S. involvement</a> using “nation-building” programs, a <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Southeast-Asia-Treaty-Organization">regional security organization called SEATO</a> and covert operations to repair what he called a “leaky dike” — since it was “sometimes better to put a finger in than to let the whole structure wash away.”</p></li>
<li><p>John F. Kennedy’s <a href="https://www.jfklibrary.org/learn/about-jfk/jfk-in-history/vietnam">steps toward deeper engagement to stop the “red tide” — sending 16,000 military “advisers”</a> and allowing <em>Game of Thrones</em>-style machinations that would sanction <a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/ngo-dinh-diem-assassinated-in-south-vietnam">the assassination of South Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Diem</a>.</p></li>
</ul>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mQX4cBV5Kfw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">John F. Kennedy discusses Vietnam in 1963. Courtesy of the JFK Library.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<ul>
<li> Lyndon Johnson’s seduction by what he called “that bitch of a war,” <a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?327149-1/president-lyndon-b-johnson-vietnam-war">resulting in committing half a million U.S. forces and 58,000 American lives.</a> </li>
</ul>
<p>The shadows of such Vietnam ghosts are evident in Biden’s carefully calibrated approach toward Ukraine — especially in his studied resistance to committing U.S. forces to combat.</p>
<h2>Avoiding Vietnam’s mistakes?</h2>
<p>But the current war is not yet over. </p>
<p>Will the president be able to maintain the balance that has so far allowed him to avoid serious Vietnam-like errors? Will the mature judgment emerging from the 80-year-old’s lived experiences have further staying power? </p>
<p>Problematic past decisions should figure in speculation about what may come next in U.S. support of Ukraine. All the presidents involved in Vietnam had intelligence at least equal to Biden’s. </p>
<p>Each was also capable of both shrewdness and restraint — witness Truman’s <a href="https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/education/presidential-inquiries/firing-macarthur">firing of wild-eyed
Gen. Douglas MacArthur during the Korean War</a> and Kennedy’s <a href="https://www.jfklibrary.org/visit-museum/exhibits/past-exhibits/to-the-brink-jfk-and-the-cuban-missile-crisis">handling of the Cuban missile crisis.</a> </p>
<p>At the same time, determination and feistiness — hardly absent in Biden given his intention to remain in office until he’s 85 — led these presidents down the road to tragic failure in Vietnam. Just look at Eisenhower’s notion of a viable South Vietnamese nation led by the autocratic Diem, or Johnson’s conviction that awe-inspiring U.S. military power could squash <a href="https://www.statesman.com/story/news/2016/09/03/vietnam-a-wound-that-never-heals/10020189007/">a “damn little pissant country” like Vietnam.</a></p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A black and white photo shows an older man in a shirt and tie surrounded by soldiers in uniform." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521654/original/file-20230418-16-d4etsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521654/original/file-20230418-16-d4etsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521654/original/file-20230418-16-d4etsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521654/original/file-20230418-16-d4etsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521654/original/file-20230418-16-d4etsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521654/original/file-20230418-16-d4etsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521654/original/file-20230418-16-d4etsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A crowd of American soldiers swarm around U.S. President Lyndon Johnson in October 1966 shortly after his arrival at Cam Rahn Bay in South Vietnam while visiting troops during the Vietnam War.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Kennedy was insightful enough to fear the implications of committing even a small number of forces to Vietnam: “<a href="https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/00/11/26/specials/schlesinger-newman.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin">It’s like taking a drink. The effect wears off and you have to take another</a>.” He took the first drink anyway. </p>
<p>Johnson then guzzled — even though he wondered if he was acting like a catfish gobbling <a href="https://blogs.lt.vt.edu/aaronsr1/2014/03/07/johnsons-big-juicy-worm/">“a big juicy worm with a right sharp hook in the middle of it.</a>”</p>
<p>Protracted wars create profoundly complex challenges for all leaders. The absence of victory and/or the unpredictable behaviour of enemies lead to military, political, economic and psychological stresses that can undercut pragmatism. </p>
<p>Biden is likely facing a difficult internal struggle that will continue if he’s elected for a second term in 2024. Will the ghosts of Vietnam be vanquished by a new generation of Ukraine-focused anxieties and phantoms?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/203521/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ronald W. Pruessen has received funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada in earlier years (ended in 2008) — to support archival research relevant to U.S. foreign policy in the Cold War era.</span></em></p>Will Joe Biden be able to maintain the balance that has so far allowed him to avoid serious Vietnam-like errors in Ukraine?Ronald W. Pruessen, Emeritus Professor of History, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2004932023-03-09T23:10:56Z2023-03-09T23:10:56ZBacklash against K-pop star Hanni shows Vietnam still struggles with the legacy of the war<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514059/original/file-20230307-28-hgcjz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C799%2C6000%2C3188&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hanni (far left) and the other four members of K-Pop group NewJeans pose for photos on the red carpet at the Fact Music Awards in Seoul, South Korea, Oct. 8, 2022. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Vietnamese-Australian singer <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture/music-stage/2023/02/24/who-are-k-pop-girl-group-newjeans/">Hanni of the K-pop group NewJeans</a> recently came under fire and faced online harassment for her family’s supposed links to the former <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Vietnam/The-two-Vietnams-1954-65">Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam)</a>. </p>
<p>In February 2023, a K-pop Facebook group called <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/KCrushmakesyoulush">K Crush Động</a> published pictures that allegedly showed members of Hanni’s family in Australia. K Crush Động is one of the biggest K-pop forums in Vietnam, with more than half a million members. </p>
<p>The forum pointed out old emblems of the South Vietnamese regime inside the family’s house and businesses. After several online “investigations,” Hanni’s family was accused by forum members of still being loyal to South Vietnam.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/CpUseGArVsU/?hl=en","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>The campaigns against Hanni quickly gained national attention. Major Vietnamese outlets, such as <a href="https://tuoitre.vn/ca-si-goc-viet-hanni-newjeans-duoc-tim-kiem-nhieu-nhat-viet-nam-20230207145034537.htm"><em>Tuổi Trẻ</em></a> and <a href="https://nld.com.vn/giai-tri/ca-si-goc-viet-hanni-bi-cu-dan-mang-phong-sat-20230208090149499.htm"><em>Người Lao Động</em></a>, covered the news. The online uproar over Hanni is emblematic of the unfinished reconciliation process after the Vietnam War.</p>
<h2>The legacy of the Vietnam War</h2>
<p>South Vietnam was the U.S.-backed state that existed from 1955 until <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Vietnam-War/The-fall-of-South-Vietnam">the end of the Vietnam War in 1975</a> when it was reunited with the north. There have been <a href="https://tuoitre.vn/thua-nhan-viet-nam-cong-hoa-la-buoc-tien-quan-trong-1372210.htm">several attempts</a> to recognize South Vietnam as a political entity in the long history of Vietnam. </p>
<p>However, in Vietnam today, it is almost a political duty to view the former regime in the south negatively. Terms like “puppet regime” and “puppet army” are used in textbooks and <a href="https://sknc.qdnd.vn/theo-dong-su-kien/khong-the-danh-bun-sang-ao-phu-nhan-lich-su-502293">state communication</a> to describe South Vietnam.</p>
<p>Hanni has never publicly professed any political opinions. Nevertheless, members of the K Crush group questioned her loyalty to the Vietnamese Communist Party that governs the country. </p>
<p>There was also discussion about whether supporting Hanni or NewJeans could be deemed anti-revolutionary or reactionary. This is common <a href="https://tuyengiao.vn/bao-ve-nen-tang-tu-tuong-cua-dang/khong-the-phu-nhan-thanh-qua-va-y-nghia-cua-cach-mang-thang-tam-1945-140352">in the vocabulary</a> of contemporary Vietnamese <a href="https://dangcongsan.vn/bao-ve-nen-tang-tu-tuong-cua-dang/bai-3-dau-tranh-phan-bac-quan-diem-sai-trai-thu-dich-phu-nhan-vai-tro-lanh-dao-cua-dang-632016.html">political discourse</a>.</p>
<p>Vietnamese ideologists and nationalists quickly capitalized on the situation.</p>
<p>For instance, pro-government social media page <a href="https://www.facebook.com/tifosi.hpo/photos/a.106962967366372/1108897777172881/">Tifosi said</a> “there are many idols but only one fatherland,” implying that supporting Hanni would be unpatriotic. </p>
<p>Such sentiments against those associated with the South Vietnam regime, their offspring and their families sound familiar. In fact, they resemble rhetoric that permeated in the aftermath of the fall of Saigon.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514056/original/file-20230307-2837-ca121s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Women take part in a parade waving flags." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514056/original/file-20230307-2837-ca121s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514056/original/file-20230307-2837-ca121s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514056/original/file-20230307-2837-ca121s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514056/original/file-20230307-2837-ca121s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514056/original/file-20230307-2837-ca121s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514056/original/file-20230307-2837-ca121s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514056/original/file-20230307-2837-ca121s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Vietnamese women wave the National Liberation Front and Vietnamese national flags during a parade celebrating the 40th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam in April 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The background-check mentality</h2>
<p>A regime of checking backgrounds existed in Vietnam after the war ended. It was part of a series of attempts by the government to wipe out remnants of the defeated regime in Southern Vietnam. <a href="https://asiapacificcurriculum.ca/learning-module/vietnam-after-war">The assumption</a> was that life in the south before 1975 was a crime that needed to be punished, or a sin for which people needed to atone.</p>
<p>From 1975 to the 1980s, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00447471.2022.2038042">an estimated one million to 2.5 million people</a> from South Vietnam were detained in re-education camps. This was roughly 10 per cent of the region’s total population. It formed a massive exercise in the criminalization without trial of anyone who was even remotely associated with the former South Vietnamese regime. </p>
<p>It created an <a href="https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/ajicl11&div=10&id=&page=">arbitrary and discriminatory system</a> of continuous criminal detention and suspension of citizenship.</p>
<p>Doctors drafted into the South Vietnamese army were accused of “strengthening the puppet forces” by treating sick and wounded South Vietnamese soldiers. </p>
<p>University graduates, who had to attend mandatory officer’s training school to become military reserve officers, were considered guilty of collaborating with the “puppet army.”</p>
<p>However, re-education camps are just one layer of the background check mentality in post-war Vietnam. There was also a campaign to purify the education system. This campaign seemingly originates from two 1975 communist party policies: <a href="https://tulieuvankien.dangcongsan.vn/Uploads/2019/3/5/11/VK%20Dang%20TT%20-%20Tap%2036.pdf">Directive 221 and Directive 222</a>. </p>
<p>Directive 221 dealt with secondary education. It dismantled private and public institutions in South Vietnam and excluded teachers viewed as anti-revolutionary.</p>
<p>Directive 222 dealt with higher education and focused on the nationalization and bureaucratization of institutions. More importantly, it effectively established an official discrimination policy in higher education.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514033/original/file-20230307-26-xsqpxt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black and white photo of a tank driving through a destroyed gate." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514033/original/file-20230307-26-xsqpxt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514033/original/file-20230307-26-xsqpxt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514033/original/file-20230307-26-xsqpxt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514033/original/file-20230307-26-xsqpxt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514033/original/file-20230307-26-xsqpxt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514033/original/file-20230307-26-xsqpxt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514033/original/file-20230307-26-xsqpxt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A North Vietnamese tank rolls through the gate of the Presidential Palace in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) on April 30, 1975.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>People classified by the state as reactionary or anti-revolutionary could not attend universities or vocational schools. However, there was no clear definition of who or what classified as reactionary. This opened the door for abuse. Anyone vaguely associated with the former southern regime could be labeled a reactionary.</p>
<p>These policies severely hindered the prospects of a post-war reconciliation <a href="https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/hilj20&div=28&id=&page=">and violated</a> basic principles of human rights and international law. They effectively precluded many from southern Vietnam from meaningful political participation while also limiting their social and economic prospects.</p>
<p>Records on how the government carried out the policies are not accessible to the public. However, stories about the background classification system and its sociopolitical repercussions <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvcwnqkc">survive</a> through <a href="https://www.rfa.org/vietnamese/SpecialTopic/40years-april30/the-cv-obsession-kh-04292015154216.html">oral history</a>.</p>
<p>The practice of political background discrimination practically ended after the reform policies launched in 1986 known as <a href="https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/doi-moi-vietnam-some-suggestions/docview/2420699225/se-2">Đổi Mới</a> (Reformation). But the damaging legacy of the post-war period and the unfinished reconciliation still impact people’s lives today. </p>
<p>The fact that a K-pop singer can be lambasted for her family’s seeming connection to the South Vietnamese regime almost 50 years after the war ended highlights how its social and cultural legacy lingers. </p>
<p>To borrow from cultural theorist <a href="https://doi.org/10.1525/fq.2012.66.1.16">Mark Fisher</a>, the war is over, but it still holds sway through a traumatic “compulsion to repeat” its mistakes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/200493/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Quoc Tan Trung Nguyen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The recent online treatment of a K-pop singer reveals how the legacy of the Vietnam War still holds sway over the country to this day.Quoc Tan Trung Nguyen, PhD Candidate in Public International Law, University of VictoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2004122023-02-27T13:24:45Z2023-02-27T13:24:45ZHow Jimmy Carter integrated his evangelical Christian faith into his political work, despite mockery and misunderstanding<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512065/original/file-20230223-28-k80qo3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=32%2C24%2C5406%2C3612&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Former President Jimmy Carter has decided to spend his remaining time at home with his family and receive hospice care.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/JimmyCarterHospiceExplainer/3f1f640bf1fd4ec38d84c98340fdb6f1/photo?Query=jimmy%20carter%202023&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=29&currentItemNo=18">AP Photo/John Bazemore, File</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>“I am a farmer, an engineer, a businessman, a planner, a scientist, a governor, and a Christian,” Jimmy Carter said while introducing himself to national political reporters when <a href="http://www.4president.org/speeches/carter1976announcement.htm">he announced his campaign to be the 39th president</a> of the United States in December 1974.</p>
<p>As journalists and historians consider Carter’s legacy, this prelude to Carter’s campaign offers insight into how he wanted to be known and how he might like to be remembered.</p>
<p>After studying Carter’s presidential campaign, presidency and post-presidency for years, which included examining more than 25,000 archival documents, media sources, oral histories and interviews, I wrote “<a href="https://lsupress.org/books/detail/jimmy-carter-marathon-media/">Jimmy Carter and the Birth of the Marathon Media Campaign</a>.” Along the way, I had the opportunity to interview former President Carter in October 2014, when we discussed his life, his presidency and his legacy. </p>
<p>Based upon this experience, one observation is certain – Carter was a man of faith committed to a vision of the nation that aligned with his views of Jesus’ teachings. </p>
<h2>A campaign cloaked in a message of love and justice</h2>
<p>In the fall of 1975, after his initial announcement failed to elicit much national attention for his candidacy, the still relatively unknown Georgia governor published the campaign biography, “<a href="https://www.uapress.com/product/why-not-the-best/">Why Not the Best?</a>”</p>
<p>Within the book, he told the story of his wholesome childhood on his family’s peanut farm in Archery, Georgia, and of achieving his childhood dream through his appointment to the Naval Academy in 1943. </p>
<p>He wrote of his dedication to his family as a loyal son, husband and father and his duty-bound career transition to manage his family-owned peanut farm, warehouse and store after his father <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2023/02/20/jimmy-carter-nuclear-reactor-navy/">Earl Carter’s premature death</a> from pancreatic cancer in 1953. He also shared his lifelong commitment to community and public service. </p>
<p>Moreover, he offered himself as a public servant who could bridge the chasm between the American people and the government that had emerged after the revelations of presidential corruption amid Vietnam and Watergate. </p>
<p>“Our government can and must represent the best and the highest ideals of those of us who voluntarily submit to its authority. In our third century, we must meet these simple, but crucial standards,” he wrote in the <a href="https://www.uapress.com/product/why-not-the-best/">campaign biography</a>. </p>
<p>Though Carter cloaked his campaign in Jesus’ teachings about love and justice, most national reporters did not give Carter’s faith much attention until he became the Democratic Party’s front-runner in advance of the North Carolina primary in 1976.</p>
<h2>‘Lust in my heart’</h2>
<p>When national reporters finally turned their attention to his faith, what campaign director Hamilton Jordan referred to as Carter’s “<a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Jimmy_Carter_in_Search_of_the_Great_Whit.html?id=YEGPAAAAIAAJ">weirdo factor</a>,” the <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=gHNAAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA967&lpg=PA967&dq=jimmy+carter">evangelical politician acknowledged</a> that he had “spent more time on my knees in the four years I was governor … than I did in all the rest of my life.” </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512070/original/file-20230223-28-g60o0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A number of people gather around a table, taking notes, as the person at the head of the table speaks." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512070/original/file-20230223-28-g60o0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512070/original/file-20230223-28-g60o0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512070/original/file-20230223-28-g60o0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512070/original/file-20230223-28-g60o0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512070/original/file-20230223-28-g60o0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512070/original/file-20230223-28-g60o0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512070/original/file-20230223-28-g60o0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jimmy Carter meets with news editors at the White House on April 15, 1977.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/PresidentJimmyCarter/088bda28886f4ec894452646737ff8d7/photo?Query=jimmy%20carter%20press&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=2316&currentItemNo=37">AP Photo/Charles Bennett</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Carter continued to share his understanding of the gospel with journalists and their audiences in a plain-spoken manner, even though it was not always advantageous to his political fortunes. For instance, after continued probes about his faith that summer from Playboy Magazine correspondent Robert Scheer, <a href="https://lsupress.org/books/detail/jimmy-carter-marathon-media/">Carter launched into a sermon on pride, lust and lying</a> that would haunt him later. </p>
<p>“I try not to commit a deliberate sin. I recognize that I’m going to do it anyhow, because I’m human and I’m tempted … I’ve looked on a lot of women with lust,” Carter, believing he was off the record, said in attempting to clarify his religious views. “<a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Playboy_Interview.html?id=EXNmAAAAMAAJ%22%22">I’ve committed adultery in my heart many times</a>.” </p>
<p>Carter referred to <a href="https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Matthew-5-28/">Matthew 5:28</a>, the biblical passage in which Jesus shares this interpretation of the Seventh Commandment, with the words: “But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.”</p>
<p>Uninterrupted, Carter continued his salty explanation of the verse: “Christ says don’t consider yourself better than someone else because one guy screws a whole bunch of women while the other guy is loyal to his wife.”</p>
<p>“We have heard Jesus’ words all our lives ever since we were 3, 4 years old, and we knew what it meant,” Carter later explained to me. “But, obviously, the general public, when I said, ‘lust in my heart,’ that was a top headline, it looked like I was – like I spent my time trying to seduce other women. Rosa(lynn) knew that wasn’t true.” </p>
<p>Though Carter’s comments were “<a href="https://lsupress.org/books/detail/jimmy-carter-marathon-media/">on solid theological ground</a>,” according to many people of faith, up-and-coming leaders of the religious right, such as televangelist Jerry Falwell, castigated Carter. And, in the end, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=UXuKo8zOdD0C&printsec=copyright#v=onepage&q&f=false">many folks agreed</a> with well-regarded columnist Mary McGrory – the interview “should have been an off-the-record conversation with God, not one taped by Playboy.”</p>
<h2>Crisis of confidence</h2>
<p>Despite the erosion of support among the emerging religious right after the Playboy gaffe, Carter remained steadfast in his commitment to his Christian values and a faith-inspired vision for the nation that advanced human rights at home and abroad. He called it a “<a href="https://www.jimmycarterlibrary.gov/assets/documents/speeches/inaugadd.phtml">new beginning</a>.” </p>
<p>Carter beseeched his American brethren to chart a new course during his inaugural address in January 1977: “Our commitment to human rights must be absolute, our laws fair, our natural beauty preserved; the powerful must not persecute the weak, and human dignity must be enhanced.” </p>
<p>Carter had achieved what Time magazine hailed as one of the most astonishing “<a href="http://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19770103,00.html">political miracles</a>” in the nation’s history because of his rapid ascension from a virtual unknown politician to the presidency. But many citizens, suffering from an emerging <a href="https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/jimmycartercrisisofconfidence.htm">crisis of confidence</a> in the American dream and faith in its institutions and leaders, had already begun to tune out Carter’s political sermons about the looming energy crisis, stagflation and international conflicts.</p>
<p>Moreover, in the coming years, they would become indignant toward the man who had condemned the corruption of his predecessors and promised to never tell a lie on the campaign trail, yet remained loyal to one of his oldest advisers, the Office of Management and Budget Director Bert Lance, who was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1977/08/11/archives/lancegate.html">accused of unethical banking practices</a>. </p>
<h2>Long-lasting commitment to public service</h2>
<p>In the end, Carter stood accused of failing to live up to his campaign promises from the vantage point of many American citizens amid domestic crises and foreign conflicts.</p>
<p>Amid news coverage of these events and his dwindling public support, Carter lost his reelection campaign, and his administration was hailed by many journalists, political insiders and average Americans alike as a “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1983/10/17/white-house-cooling-to-the-idea-of-running-against-mondale/4e7bdbe7-ef4c-4eae-8e6d-e5186507c0ff/">failed presidency</a>.” </p>
<p>Nevertheless, Carter remained committed to his religious convictions. “I have spoken many times of love, but love must be aggressively translated into simple justice,” he invoked his audience when he <a href="https://www.jimmycarterlibrary.gov/assets/documents/speeches/acceptance_speech.pdf">accepted the Democratic nomination</a> in July 1976. </p>
<p>For the remainder of his life, he attempted to model the translation of Jesus’ love into action through his life of public service. His post-presidential commitments involved <a href="https://www.cartercenter.org/">The Carter Center’s</a> initiatives of fighting disease and seeking international peace and his private efforts of building homes for <a href="https://www.habitat.org/volunteer/build-events/carter-work-project">Habitat for Humanity</a> and teaching <a href="https://jimmycarter.info/plan-your-visit/president-carters-teaching-schedule-marantha-baptist-church/">Sunday school</a>. </p>
<p>In the end, Carter will leave this world with <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2015/08/20/politics/jimmy-carter-iran-hostages/index.html">only one acknowledged regret</a>: “I wish I’d sent one more helicopter to get the hostages and we would have rescued them and I would have been re-elected,” he said referring to the April 1980 military rescue attempt of the 53 U.S. hostages <a href="https://prologue.blogs.archives.gov/2021/11/29/the-iran-hostage-crisis/">held by Iranian revolutionaries</a>. </p>
<p>In Carter’s final days, his words from his presidential <a href="https://www.jimmycarterlibrary.gov/assets/documents/speeches/farewell.phtml">farewell address</a>, which remain true today, are worth remembering:</p>
<p>“The battle for human rights – at home and abroad – is far from over. … If we are to serve as a beacon for human rights, we must continue to perfect here at home the rights and values which we espouse around the world: A decent education for our children, adequate medical care for all Americans, an end to discrimination against minorities and women, a job for all those able to work, and freedom from injustice and religious intolerance.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/200412/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lori Amber Roessner does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A media scholar who studied Carter and interviewed him explains how he attempted to translate Jesus’ teachings into action through his life of public service.Lori Amber Roessner, Professor in the School of Journalism and Electronic Media, University of TennesseeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1994962023-02-17T21:09:40Z2023-02-17T21:09:40ZChinese balloon saga is part of a long history of U.S.-China tensions<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510449/original/file-20230216-22-dmqbbi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2576%2C2055&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In this photo provided by Chad Fish, a large balloon drifts above the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of South Carolina, with a fighter jet and its contrail seen below it, on Feb. 4, 2023. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Chad Fish via AP)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s not surprising the recent <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/06/china/china-response-suspected-spy-balloon-intl-hnk/index.html">Chinese “weather balloon” incident</a> has set off alarm bells.</p>
<p>Concerns inevitably mounted as the massive sphere slowly and very visibly sailed from Montana to <a href="https://www.airrecognition.com/index.php/news/defense-aviation-news/2023-news-aviation-aerospace/february/8887-f-22-raptor-shoots-down-chinese-spy-balloon-off-south-carolina-coast-with-sidewinder-missile.html">its destruction by a Sidewinder missile off the South Carolina coast</a>. </p>
<p>It didn’t help that a jittery media quickly reported on three additional sightings (and downings) <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64644845">over Alaska, Yukon and Lake Huron</a> — with both the Canadian and American governments choosing science-fiction-tinged language to label these flying objects <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/what-we-know-about-pentagon-efforts-to-study-ufos-and-unidentified-aerial-phenomena-1.6273784">“unidentified aerial phenomena.”</a></p>
<p>But the Chinese origin of the first flying object — defended as a <a href="https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/xwfw_665399/s2510_665401/2535_665405/202302/t20230203_11019484.html">meteorological balloon by China</a>, an explanation that was met with skepticism by U.S. officials — was especially concerning due to the long history of serious tensions between the United States and China. </p>
<h2>U.S. points to Chinese aggression</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.state.gov/the-administrations-approach-to-the-peoples-republic-of-china/">The U.S. has routinely</a> <a href="https://www.cfr.org/timeline/us-china-relations">and historically</a> described Chinese behaviour as aggressive. </p>
<p>In more recent years, Americans have pointed to China’s threatening gestures toward Taiwan, expansionist moves in the South China Sea and efforts to dominate important economic sectors (such as advanced semi-conductors). </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/nancy-pelosis-visit-to-taiwan-causes-an-ongoing-chinese-tantrum-in-the-taiwan-strait-188205">Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan causes an ongoing Chinese tantrum in the Taiwan Strait</a>
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<p>Last year, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken pledged to “remain focused on the most serious long-term challenge to the international order — and <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/26/blinken-biden-china-policy-speech-00035385">that’s posed by the People’s Republic of China.”</a> </p>
<p>But even understandable concerns warrant careful analysis. Cooler heads can help determine whether every alarm is fully justified or whether dealing with perceived aggressions might benefit from looking at the bigger picture.</p>
<p>President Joe Biden ultimately said the three flying objects shot down over North America — after the initial Chinese surveillance balloon was downed — <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/16/politics/president-biden-downed-objects/index.html">don’t appear to be part of China’s spy balloon operation</a> and were instead linked to private companies.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An older man with grey hair stands behind a podium with the U.S. presidential ensign and speaks." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510748/original/file-20230216-18-7c241k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510748/original/file-20230216-18-7c241k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510748/original/file-20230216-18-7c241k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510748/original/file-20230216-18-7c241k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510748/original/file-20230216-18-7c241k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510748/original/file-20230216-18-7c241k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510748/original/file-20230216-18-7c241k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">U.S. President Joe Biden takes questions from reporters in Washington, D.C., after speaking about the Chinese surveillance balloon and other unidentified objects shot down by the American military.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Determining the appropriate level of anxiety about China’s supposed weather balloon itself will have to wait until an autopsy on whatever remains of the recently decimated flying object can be gathered — but consideration of the broader context is possible now.</p>
<h2>The real ‘awareness gap’</h2>
<p>Amid the balloon brouhaha, Gen. Glen VanHerck, the head of NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command), was asked why earlier balloon sightings had not prompted such concern. </p>
<p>He replied the most recent incidents had brought about a recognition of a <a href="https://breakingdefense.com/2023/02/other-chinese-balloons-slipped-through-domain-awareness-gap-in-us-defenses-general/">“domain awareness gap”</a> — which means NORAD needs to improve its monitoring capabilities for objects like balloons — and said NORAD didn’t have the right mix of sensor capabilities. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/norads-value-is-on-full-display-as-flying-objects-shot-down-over-north-america-199829">NORAD's value is on full display as flying objects shot down over North America</a>
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<p>As a historian, I suggest the “domain” with a real “awareness gap” is greater than the one VanHerck acknowledges — because the balloon saga must be assessed within the context of decades of stormy U.S.-China relations.</p>
<p>On the espionage and surveillance front alone, there has always been mutual suspicions and activity. For many years, Americans had the advantage of economic, military and technological superiority by way of the well-funded Central Intelligence Agency and tools like U-2 spy planes.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A black and white photo shows a bald, aged man raising his fist while making a speech." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510773/original/file-20230217-2950-lnvjn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510773/original/file-20230217-2950-lnvjn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510773/original/file-20230217-2950-lnvjn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510773/original/file-20230217-2950-lnvjn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510773/original/file-20230217-2950-lnvjn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510773/original/file-20230217-2950-lnvjn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510773/original/file-20230217-2950-lnvjn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev gestures with his fist during an address to the United Nations General Assembly in New York City in September 1960.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In a 1960 incident, in fact, <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/u2-spy-incident">when an American U-2 was downed by the Soviet Union over Soviet air space</a>, Nikita Khrushchev stormed out of a Paris summit — comparable to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/politics-antony-blinken-china-314302278a5f05bdc2df146ed5b35ec6">Blinken cancelling his trip to Beijing when the Chinese balloon was discovered.</a></p>
<p>Over the course of the 20th century, China gradually developed its own capacities, and continuous Beijing/Washington <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/08/inside-us-china-espionage-war/595747/">espionage efforts read like John le Carré novels.</a> </p>
<p>Perennial competition and conflict between the U.S. and China have also always involved a repertoire of methods and tools that have gone far beyond “spying.” From the 1940s into the 1970s alone, <a href="https://doi.org/10.38154/cjas">the U.S. refused to recognize the People’s Republic of China</a> and made numerous efforts to severely contain the Chinese regime.</p>
<p>It did so by building and then generously <a href="https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/unfinished-chinese-civil-war">sustaining military alliances with Taiwan, South Korea and a string of leaders in South Vietnam.</a> </p>
<p>For its part, China pushed back against American efforts by developing its own team of countervailing allies, <a href="https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/why-china-north-korea-decided-renew-60-year-old-treaty">including North Korea.</a></p>
<p>Chinese balloons therefore must be assessed within the context of decades of mutual espionage and an awareness of the many storms in the overall U.S.-China relationship. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two men shake hands on a public TV screen as people walk by." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510762/original/file-20230217-18-qxc33m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510762/original/file-20230217-18-qxc33m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510762/original/file-20230217-18-qxc33m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510762/original/file-20230217-18-qxc33m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510762/original/file-20230217-18-qxc33m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510762/original/file-20230217-18-qxc33m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510762/original/file-20230217-18-qxc33m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People in South Korea watch a TV news program reporting on Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to North Korea in June 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The history of competing empires</h2>
<p>The tense history between the two countries belongs in an even broader domain: not just decades, but centuries of extreme conflict between competing empires. </p>
<p>The United States and China each have affinities with many preceding great powers, including Egyptian, Persian, Mongol, Gupta, Mayan, Zulu, British, French, Russian, German, Japanese and other empires. In their varied ways, <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1g248v9">all had appetites for expansion and power while also worrying about the appetites and power of others.</a> </p>
<p>Historians of international relations who date back to <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Herodotus-Greek-historian">Greece’s Herodotus</a> have studied the complex interplay of perceptions and impulses driving the behaviour of powerful states. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510771/original/file-20230217-3249-hchnp9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A portrait of a man with dark hair in a military uniform." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510771/original/file-20230217-3249-hchnp9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510771/original/file-20230217-3249-hchnp9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=762&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510771/original/file-20230217-3249-hchnp9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=762&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510771/original/file-20230217-3249-hchnp9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=762&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510771/original/file-20230217-3249-hchnp9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=958&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510771/original/file-20230217-3249-hchnp9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=958&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510771/original/file-20230217-3249-hchnp9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=958&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Carl von Clausewitz is seen in this 1780 portrait.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Creative Commons)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Their observations routinely highlight tragic results. Centuries apart, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004285576_003">Greece’s Thucydides</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01495933.2020.1826844">Prussian general Carl von Clausewitz</a>, for example, each considered the risks and errors of judgments that emerged when shrewd calculations became infused with emotions — for example, when concerns about national security and economic opportunity intertwined with fear and greed, respectively.</p>
<p>The history of former great powers is therefore relevant to analyzing U.S. and Chinese behaviour.</p>
<p>Do earlier American actions in Vietnam and elsewhere have present-day counterparts in the intensity with which Beijing’s “aggression” is being met by the United States? </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1623537171595661313"}"></div></p>
<p>The Biden administration’s early national security proposals promised to <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/NSC-1v2.pdf">“prevail in strategic competition with China or any other nation.”</a> Blinken’s remarks on China have hinted at that intention to “prevail.”</p>
<p>In one major speech on China, Blinken said: “<a href="https://www.state.gov/the-administrations-approach-to-the-peoples-republic-of-china/">We will shape the strategic environment around Beijing to advance our vision for an open, inclusive international system</a>.” Obvious follow-ups to such a statement of intent include the provision of nuclear submarines to Australia and an intensified defence relationship with the Philippines.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-us-and-the-philippines-military-agreement-sends-a-warning-to-china-4-key-things-to-know-199159">The US and the Philippines' military agreement sends a warning to China – 4 key things to know</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Is China flexing imperial muscles too?</h2>
<p>Do previous Chinese actions, like its <a href="https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/the-chinese-communist-partys-relationship-the-khmer-rouge-the-1970s-ideological-victory#:%7E:text=From%201970%20to%201974%2C%20Chinese,Vietnam%20was%205%2C041%20million%20yuan.">1970s support for the Khmer Rouge</a> and its 1979 <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2017/02/the-bitter-legacy-of-the-1979-china-vietnam-war/">war with Vietnam</a>, have ongoing resonance in its hard-nosed approaches to Taiwan and the South China Sea? </p>
<p>Xi Jinping may be echoing the American pledge to “prevail” when he vows to “<a href="https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2013npc/2013-03/17/content_16314303.htm">press ahead with indomitable will, continue to push forward the great cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics and strive to achieve the Chinese dream of great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.”</a></p>
<p>More information will clearly be required to understand the motivations and implications behind the recent balloon and “aerial phenomena” incidents, but that information should be processed with both telescopic and wide-angle lenses. </p>
<p>Historians offer the longer lens when they contribute to the analysis, meaning the patterns of great power behaviour can be discerned over time — as if by high-level surveillance.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199496/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ronald W. Pruessen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Chinese balloons must be assessed within the context of decades of mutual espionage and an awareness of the many storms in the U.S.-China relationship — and the history of empires.Ronald W. Pruessen, Professor of History, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1970512023-01-24T19:19:19Z2023-01-24T19:19:19ZWar leaves a toxic legacy that lasts long after the guns go quiet. Can we stop it?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506012/original/file-20230124-19-m7290m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=41%2C158%2C1655%2C961&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A child receives treatment after an alleged chemical attack in Syria in 2017.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">IDLIB MEDIA CENTER/EPA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The number of armed conflicts currently raging around the world is <a href="https://press.un.org/en/2022/sgsm21216.doc.htm">the greatest</a> since the end of the Second World War. These wars can leave toxic environmental legacies and cause untold damage to human health.</p>
<p>One-quarter of the world’s population, or <a href="https://press.un.org/en/2022/sgsm21216.doc.htm">two billion people</a>, live in countries experiencing war. They include Ukraine, Yemen, Syria, Myanmar, Sudan, Haiti and the Sahel region in Northern Africa.</p>
<p>Violent conflict causes substantial environmental damage – polluting air, water and soil, and damaging human health over the long-term. </p>
<p>Chemical weapons and toxins are still being used in current wars. The United Nations last month formally adopted <a href="https://www.un.org/en/ga/77/resolutions.shtml">principles to protect the environment</a> in armed conflict. Concrete action is now needed to implement them. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Man walks past burning pile of refuse" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506008/original/file-20230124-17-b1gbk3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506008/original/file-20230124-17-b1gbk3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506008/original/file-20230124-17-b1gbk3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506008/original/file-20230124-17-b1gbk3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506008/original/file-20230124-17-b1gbk3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506008/original/file-20230124-17-b1gbk3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506008/original/file-20230124-17-b1gbk3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Ukrainian firefighter at a chemical storage facility hit by a Russian missile in march 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Roman Pilipey/EPA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What are toxic remnants of war?</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.weaponslaw.org/glossary/toxic-remnants-of-war">Toxic remnants of war</a> are poisonous or hazardous substances resulting from military activities. They include:</p>
<ul>
<li>radioactive material </li>
<li>white phosphorus</li>
<li>mustard agents</li>
<li>halogens</li>
<li>heavy metals</li>
<li>dioxins and other human carcinogens.</li>
</ul>
<p><a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/in-pictures-53648572">Atomic bombs</a> dropped on the Japanese cites of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 are thought to have killed more than 200,000 people immediately; more died from nuclear radiation in subsequent years. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Photos showing healthy and defoliated forest" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506016/original/file-20230124-25-ok5cmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506016/original/file-20230124-25-ok5cmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=910&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506016/original/file-20230124-25-ok5cmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=910&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506016/original/file-20230124-25-ok5cmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=910&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506016/original/file-20230124-25-ok5cmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1143&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506016/original/file-20230124-25-ok5cmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1143&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506016/original/file-20230124-25-ok5cmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1143&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Top photo shows a mangrove forest near Saigon before US forces sprayed it with the chemical defoliant Agent Orange in 1965. Bottom photo shows a nearby area after the attack.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some toxic remnants are a direct result of armed conflict. Agent Orange used in the Vietnam War contained dangerous dioxins that continue to damage people and the environment today. </p>
<p>The use of poisonous gases and other hazardous substances in warfare has a long history. Chlorine and mustard gas, for example, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2376985/">were used</a> in the First World War. </p>
<p>However, unlike many past wars, today’s armed conflicts increasingly take place in urban and industrialised areas, posing a significant risk to civilians and their environment.</p>
<p>And the use of chemical weapons continues. For example, a UN official <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/01/1132182">this month said</a> the Syrian government’s “absence of accountability” for using chemical weapons in the nation’s long-running civil war was “a threat to international peace and security and a danger to us all”. </p>
<h2>A threat to human health</h2>
<p>Toxic remnants of war can result in many adverse health effects in humans.</p>
<p>In Vietnam, <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16543362/">research</a> suggests a greatly increased risk of birth defects among children of parents exposed to Agent Orange. In some locations, extremely high levels of dioxins have been found in soil, sediment and foods, as well as <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/mp201418">human breast milk</a> and blood. </p>
<p>Research has also linked Agent Orange to <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26495825/">human genome instability</a> (or genome mutations) in adults and children.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/agent-orange-exposed-how-u-s-chemical-warfare-in-vietnam-unleashed-a-slow-moving-disaster-84572">Agent Orange, exposed: How U.S. chemical warfare in Vietnam unleashed a slow-moving disaster</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="woman comforts son on bed" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506015/original/file-20230124-16-oepyfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506015/original/file-20230124-16-oepyfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506015/original/file-20230124-16-oepyfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506015/original/file-20230124-16-oepyfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506015/original/file-20230124-16-oepyfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506015/original/file-20230124-16-oepyfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506015/original/file-20230124-16-oepyfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The effects of Agent Orange are still felt by Vietnam’s people today.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Richard Vogel/AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In Gaza, elevated heavy metal loads have been identified in <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28768639/">mothers and newborns</a> exposed to military attacks. Also in Gaza, <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22754469/">birth defects</a> have been associated with exposure to white phosphorus and other bombs containing toxic and carcinogenic metals. </p>
<p>In Croatia, <a href="https://europepmc.org/article/MED/20960595">higher metal blood concentrations</a> were found in those exposed to heavy fighting.</p>
<p>In Iraq, open burn pits used to dispose of war waste <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10661-014-4127-5">have exposed</a> civilians to poisonous smoke and fumes. And smoke from <a href="https://www.unep.org/resources/perspective-series/issue-no-24-conflict-pollution-and-toxic-remnants-war-global-problem">oil well fires</a> in the 1991 Gulf War, and more recently <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/syria-blames-rebels-for-setting-oil-wells-on-fire/">in Syria</a>, pose a toxic risk.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/atomic-disruption-how-russias-war-on-ukraine-has-rattled-the-nuclear-world-order-179939">Atomic disruption: how Russia's war on Ukraine has rattled the nuclear world order</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Flame and smoke spew from oil well" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506007/original/file-20230124-13-3wi6pr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506007/original/file-20230124-13-3wi6pr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506007/original/file-20230124-13-3wi6pr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506007/original/file-20230124-13-3wi6pr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506007/original/file-20230124-13-3wi6pr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506007/original/file-20230124-13-3wi6pr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506007/original/file-20230124-13-3wi6pr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kuwaiti oil wells set alight by fleeing Iraqi troops in 1991 – smoke from which is toxic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Greg Gibson/AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A scourge on the environment</h2>
<p>In addition to human health effects, armed conflicts can cause widespread <a href="https://ceobs.org/how-does-war-damage-the-environment/">environmental damage</a>. </p>
<p>Sensitive landscapes can be destroyed by the movement of troops and vehicles. And explosives can release particles, debris and other matter that pollutes the air and soil. </p>
<p>War can also cause toxic pollution indirectly, such as when services and infrastructure are destroyed or break down. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna14138687">For example</a>, Israel’s bombardment of a power plant in Lebanon in 2006 sent 110,000 barrels of oil into the Mediterranean sea, killing fish and turtles and causing an environmental crisis.</p>
<p>And <a href="https://www.oecd.org/ukraine-hub/policy-responses/environmental-impacts-of-the-war-in-ukraine-and-prospects-for-a-green-reconstruction-9e86d691/">according to the OECD</a>, Russian military strikes on Ukraine refineries, chemical plants, energy facilities and industrial plants have sent toxic substances into air, water and soil. It says ammunition remains and damaged military vehicles also contain materials toxic to people and the environment.</p>
<p>The war in Ukraine is also raising fears of a radioactive incident at Chernobyl and other Ukrainian nuclear power plants. </p>
<p>Toxic remnants of war also interact with the effects of climate change. As ice in Greenland melts, for instance, pollutants from abandoned Cold War-era <a href="https://direct.mit.edu/glep/article/18/1/33/14902/Climate-Change-and-the-Politics-of-Military-Bases">military infrastructure</a> may enter waterways. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="dead fish on beach" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506019/original/file-20230124-12-pax3i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506019/original/file-20230124-12-pax3i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506019/original/file-20230124-12-pax3i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506019/original/file-20230124-12-pax3i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506019/original/file-20230124-12-pax3i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506019/original/file-20230124-12-pax3i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506019/original/file-20230124-12-pax3i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dead fish lie on a beach in Beirut in 2006. Israel’s bombing of a power plant in southern Lebanon sent oil gushing into the sea.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Assaad Ahmad/EPA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>So what now?</h2>
<p>Despite the known health and environmental effects, toxic weapons continue to be used in armed conflicts.</p>
<p>In December last year, the United Nations’ General Assembly <a href="https://www.un.org/en/ga/77/resolutions.shtml">adopted</a> <a href="https://legal.un.org/ilc/texts/instruments/english/draft_articles/8_7_2022.pdf">principles</a> to protect the environment in relation to armed conflict. They outline how the environment should be protected before, during and after armed conflict. </p>
<p>The principles include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>designating and protecting important environmental areas during an armed conflict</p></li>
<li><p>obligations to remove or render harmless toxic remnants of war.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>But this protection isn’t binding in the same manner that a treaty or convention would be. Action is needed to ensure the principles are put into practice. </p>
<p>Governments, international organisations, armed groups, business enterprises and civil society all have a role to play.</p>
<p><a href="https://ceobs.org/states-adopt-new-legal-framework-on-the-environmental-impact-of-war/">According to</a> the Conflict and Environment Observatory, such action should include a formal <a href="https://ceobs.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/CEOBS_Briefing-Note_Friends-of-PERAC.pdf">implementation vehicle</a>, such as an engaged group of governments, to ensure the principles are adopted on the ground. </p>
<p>And increased public awareness of conflict pollution will also help create the momentum needed.</p>
<p>Without firm action, toxic remnants of war will continue to pose long term threats to communities and ecosystems.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197051/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stacey Pizzino is affiliated with the Global Protection Cluster - Mine Action Area of Responsibility. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jo Durham is affiliated with is the Global Protection Cluster - Mine Action Area of Responsibility</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Waller is affiliated with the Global Protection Cluster - Mine Action Area of Responsibility.</span></em></p>Chemical weapons and toxins are still being used in current wars. Without action, ecosystems and people are at risk.Stacey Pizzino, PhD Candidate, The University of QueenslandJo Durham, Senior Lecturer in Disaster Risk Management and Health, Queensland University of TechnologyMichael Waller, Senior Lecturer Biostatistics, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1949512023-01-09T11:12:08Z2023-01-09T11:12:08ZVietnam war: how US involvement has influenced foreign policy decisions over 50 years<p>2023 marks the 50th anniversary of the <a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/u-s-withdraws-from-vietnam">US withdrawal</a> from Vietnam and the war still casts long shadows over American life. </p>
<p>The cost in lives was enormous. Over almost 20 years, more than <a href="https://www.va.gov/oaa/pocketcard/m-vietnam.asp">2.7 million</a> Americans served in uniform in the conflict, and around <a href="https://www.nps.gov/vive/index.htm">58,318</a> lost their lives. Estimates of Vietnamese deaths are more than <a href="https://www.britannica.com/question/How-many-people-died-in-the-Vietnam-War">3 million</a> civilians and soldiers from both sides. Thousands of US veterans suffered <a href="https://www.va.gov/oaa/pocketcard/m-vietnam.asp">from post-traumatic stress disorder</a> and tried to readjust on their return home. </p>
<p>Americans struggled to make sense of events in Vietnam. They had to come to terms with the reality that for the first time in the country’s history, they had lost a war. Disturbing <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Vietnam-War-and-the-media-2051426">televised images</a> of conditions on the ground and war atrocities made them question the wisdom and the morality of US foreign policy. </p>
<p>Vietnam had been a very different experience from the second world war. The “<a href="https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2007/03/a-new-look-at-the-good-war/">good war</a>” against the fascist powers in Germany, Italy and Japan had united the country in a fight to save democracy and freedom and made it the leader of the free world. Vietnam had divided the nation and turned it into the world’s bully. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.history.com/news/vietnam-war-veterans-treatment">Soldiers returning from south-east Asia</a> were received with mixed feelings: anger and hostility in some cases, but mostly indifference and a desire to forget and move on. In the decades that followed the end of the conflict, the national trauma shaped many aspects of American politics, society and culture. </p>
<h2>Vietnam syndrome</h2>
<p>Since the end of the Vietnam war, most Americans have looked with fear at any US intervention or use of force abroad that might end up in another long and bloody stalemate. In 1973, Congress passed <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/93rd-congress/house-joint-resolution/542">the War Powers Resolution</a> designed to limit the president’s ability to commit forces to conflicts without congressional support. This so-called <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/26436983">Vietnam syndrome</a>, a phrase apparently coined by President Richard Nixon, has been haunting US foreign and military policy ever since.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jCu4nrNbspc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">President Reagan speaks on the ghost of the Vietnam War.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>President Ronald Reagan criticised former presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter for being constrained by the ghost of Vietnam and showing weakness and overcaution <a href="https://millercenter.org/president/reagan/foreign-affairs">in international affairs</a>. Trying to reinvigorate US foreign policy and put Vietnam in the past, he used bold rhetoric to tell Americans to stop feeling guilty about the devastation brought about by the war and stop questioning the morality of the war because America had fought for “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCu4nrNbspc">a noble cause</a>”. Yet, in practice, his foreign policy was deeply influenced by persistent anxiety about getting into a new quagmire.</p>
<p>Reagan’s military intervention in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/U-S-invasion-of-Grenada">Grenada in 1983</a> was wrapped in secrecy to head off any pre-emptive action by the communist dictatorship in control of the island but also to prevent an anti-interventionist Congress from leaking to the press with the prediction that Grenada was going to become another Vietnam. A year later, following the death of <a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1981-1988/lebanon">241 US servicemen in Beirut</a> barracks, Reagan withdrew US forces from Lebanon because he didn’t want to repeat the Vietnam experience in the Middle East.</p>
<p>Similarly, President George H.W. Bush was careful to prevent <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Persian-Gulf-War">the Gulf War of 1990-91</a> from turning into another Vietnam. To ensure that US intervention had the moral legitimacy Vietnam had lacked, he secured UN backing and led a coalition of 35 countries to swiftly eject Iraqi forces out of Kuwait. The quick victory led Bush to declare: “By God, we have kicked the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1991/03/02/world/after-the-war-white-house-memo-war-introduces-a-tougher-bush-to-nation.html">Vietnam Syndrome once and for all</a>.” For President Bill Clinton putting US boots on the ground was an option to avoid at all costs as he declared during the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLzPVYTf2oc">1998-99 Kosovo war</a>.</p>
<h2>Response to 9/11</h2>
<p>Though very different in nature, the parallels between the recent wars in Iraq and in Afghanistan and the Vietnam war have helped ensure Vietnam’s continued relevance to foreign policy decisions. George W. Bush failed to draw lessons from Vietnam and fell into some of the same traps that the US government had encountered in Vietnam. Initial carefully targeted strikes against al-Qaida and the Taliban in Afghanistan in response <a href="https://2001-2009.state.gov/s/ct/rls/wh/6947.htm">to the 9/11 attacks</a> turned into a 20-year-long war that has taken the lives of more than <a href="https://apnews.com/article/middle-east-business-afghanistan-43d8f53b35e80ec18c130cd683e1a38f">2,300 </a> US military personnel and an estimated <a href="https://apnews.com/article/middle-east-business-afghanistan-43d8f53b35e80ec18c130cd683e1a38f">43,074</a> Afghan civilians. </p>
<p>Like the <a href="https://www.archives.gov/research/pentagon-papers">Pentagon Papers</a> in 1971 which revealed the blunders and intelligence failures in Vietnam, the publication of the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/afghanistan-papers/documents-database/">Afghanistan Papers</a> by the Washington Post in December 2019 showed that the US lacked realistic objectives and a clear exit strategy in Afghanistan. They also revealed another sad parallel between the two conflicts. Military and government officials in both the Bush and Obama administrations deliberately misrepresented conditions in Afghanistan to appease an American public opinion suffering from war fatigue.</p>
<p>Current president Joe Biden rejected any comparison between his withdrawal from Afghanistan and the US retreat from Vietnam. His response was <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIIPhRASMMM">unequivocal</a>: “None whatsoever. Zero.” Yet, it is impossible to look at images of desperate Afghans running alongside a plane at what was then Hamid Karzai international airport <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/09/03/world/afghanistan-photos">on August 31 2021</a>, and not compare them to the image of the US helicopter perched on an apartment building, loaded with evacuees, in <a href="https://diplomacy.state.gov/stories/fall-of-saigon-1975-american-diplomats-refugees/">Saigon in 1975</a>. Meanwhile, 50 years on, Biden is making strengthening relations <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2022/12/20/a-window-of-opportunity-to-upgrade-us-vietnam-relations/">with Vietnam</a> a key part of his foreign policy agenda for Asia, building on the decades-long project of reconciliation. However, the lessons from the Vietnam war remain the prism through which US policymakers, media and public opinion often view armed conflicts.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194951/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mara Oliva does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Fifty years after the US pulled out of Vietnam, the legacy of that war is still influencing its decisions.Mara Oliva, Associate Professor of History, University of ReadingLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1937142022-12-25T20:41:57Z2022-12-25T20:41:57ZIs there a ‘right to disobey’? From the Vietnam War to today’s climate protests<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499733/original/file-20221208-20-hhz31u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A rally to free John Zarb, December 1968.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Search Foundation and the State Library of New South Wales</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>One of the first moves of the newly elected Whitlam Labour government in December 1972 was to free seven men <a href="https://www.whitlam.org/whitlam-legacy-human-rights#:%7E:text=The%20first%20act%20of%20the,to%20Australia%20within%20three%20weeks.">imprisoned for their beliefs</a>. Their crime had been refusal to comply with the National Service Act, a so-called “lottery of death” that sent some 15,300 young Australians to fight in Vietnam. Two hundred of them <a href="https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/encyclopedia/vietnam/statistics">never came home</a>. </p>
<p>The issue of national service – often dubbed “the draft” following American vernacular – was perhaps the most powerful in the anti-war movement’s arsenal. “Draft resisters” mobilised public sentiment with their heroic stands, respectable mothers campaigned to “<a href="https://publishing.monash.edu/product/save-our-sons/">Save our Sons</a>” and, as I explore in a newly published <a href="https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526159557/">book chapter</a>, the Australian wing of Amnesty International classed these men as “prisoners of conscience”.</p>
<p>Today, Australia grapples again with the question of criminalising conscience. Laws in <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/06/22/australia-climate-protesters-rights-violated">several Australian states</a> impose harsh penalties on the use of “direct action” by climate change activists. Fifty years ago, similar questions of a right to disobey sparked fierce debates: where should the legal limits of conscience lie?</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499705/original/file-20221208-17-h93l7r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499705/original/file-20221208-17-h93l7r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499705/original/file-20221208-17-h93l7r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499705/original/file-20221208-17-h93l7r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499705/original/file-20221208-17-h93l7r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499705/original/file-20221208-17-h93l7r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499705/original/file-20221208-17-h93l7r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">University students protest the National Service Act outside the Anzac Memorial in Hyde Park, Sydney.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of the Search Foundation and State Library of New South Wales</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>In Australia, it is a crime not to kill</h2>
<p>National service was re-introduced in Australia in 1964, with a previous scheme having quietly ended in 1959. The first “nashos” were committed to Vietnam in 1966. The scheme was <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ajph.12720">highly selective</a> – by its end some 800,000 20-year-olds had registered and less than 10% had been “called up”. </p>
<p>Opposition to national service emerged almost immediately, through such groups as the Youth Campaign Against Conscription. In November 1966, Sydney schoolteacher <a href="https://commonslibrary.org/brave-enough-to-say-no-william-white/">Bill White</a> became the first person imprisoned for failure to comply with the act. He had applied for conscientious objector status almost a year earlier, but been denied because he did not fit the strict criteria.</p>
<p>Public outrage played a part in White’s early release in December 1966, but over time penalties became more harsh. <a href="https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/ARTV03070">John Zarb</a>, a part-time postman, received a two-year sentence in October 1968 for refusing to comply with his call-up notice. His opposition to the Vietnam war only, rather than war in general, made him ineligible for objector status.</p>
<p>These moral-political stances encouraged further opposition. As well as releasing jailed objectors, Whitlam’s incoming government threw out cases against 350 individuals. For the anti-war movement, these cases demonstrated the conflict’s contradictions. As one <a href="https://digital.collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/nodes/view/4004">activist leaflet</a> put it: “In Australia, it is a crime not to kill.” </p>
<h2>The politics of conscience</h2>
<p>To a nascent human rights movement, however, the issue was not as clear-cut. Amnesty International, founded by the British lawyer <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/who-we-are/">Peter Benenson</a> in 1961, established an early foothold in Australia. A Victorian section was founded in March 1962, and groups in other states soon followed. </p>
<p>One of the group’s appeals was its rejection of “Cold War” politics. By adopting “prisoners of consciences” from the first, second and third worlds, they could claim impartiality, while the use of letter writing as a tactic invoked the power of global opinion. </p>
<p>Yet the definition of a prisoner of conscience in the group’s early years proved controversial. To meet Amnesty’s definition, a prisoner needed to have been jailed for crimes of opinion and have not advocated violence. Infamously, this definition excluded <a href="https://academic.oup.com/minnesota-scholarship-online/book/16223/chapter-abstract/171292057?redirectedFrom=fulltext">Nelson Mandela</a>. For Amnesty, the question of whether objectors like White or Zarb should be considered prisoners of conscience divided the Victorian and New South Wales sections. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499717/original/file-20221208-23-k8glwk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499717/original/file-20221208-23-k8glwk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499717/original/file-20221208-23-k8glwk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499717/original/file-20221208-23-k8glwk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499717/original/file-20221208-23-k8glwk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499717/original/file-20221208-23-k8glwk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499717/original/file-20221208-23-k8glwk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Draft Resisters Union meeting, 1972.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of the Search Foundation and State Library of New South Wales</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Victorians believed those who “register for national service and apply for exemption”, but whose “applications fail either through some apparent miscarriage of justice or because the law does not presently encompass their objections […] are prima facie eligible for adoption”. However, those who “basically refuse to co-operate with the National Service Act” merely “maintain a right to disobey a law which they believe to be immoral” – and adopting them would “seriously damage […] our high repute”. </p>
<p>The New South Wales section condemned this “legalistic interpretation”. Instead, it insisted “the Non-Complier in gaol for conscientiously held […] views suffers no less than one who has tried in vain to act ‘according to the law’ ”. The Victorians’ belief that Amnesty should accept some degree of compulsion in democratic societies was also challenged: conscription was in fact a universal problem that occurred on both sides of the “Iron Curtain”. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1599881226789486592"}"></div></p>
<h2>Is it right to resist?</h2>
<p>In the end, the views of the New South Wales section won out. Amnesty sections around the world adopted Australian non-compliers. </p>
<p>This clash of principles reminds us that human rights have never been straightforward. Rather, these ideas have long been open to contest and reinterpretation. From today’s vantage point, it also seems the Victorian section’s belief that the right to disobey could be limited was wildly optimistic. </p>
<p>Indeed, the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/dec/13/climate-activist-deanna-violet-coco-freed-from-prison-while-she-appeals-15-month-jail-sentence">sentencing of climate protester</a> Deanna “Violet” Coco to 15 months in jail for the crime of disrupting traffic in New South Wales shows that the questions posed by Amnesty in the 1960s are very much still with us. The climate emergency is in many ways the Vietnam of today’s young people. The 50th anniversary of the release of resisters to that conflict should give today’s decision-makers pause for thought.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193714/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jon Piccini does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The climate emergency is in many ways the Vietnam of today’s young people. The 50th anniversary of the release of resisters to that conflict should give today’s decision-makers pause for thought.Jon Piccini, Lecturer in History, Australian Catholic UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1929772022-12-14T13:14:29Z2022-12-14T13:14:29ZA tortured and deadly legacy: Kissinger and realpolitik in US foreign policy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499844/original/file-20221208-16432-ws570q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3300%2C2218&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">President Richard Nixon, left, speaks with national security adviser Henry Kissinger at the White House in September 1972.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/NixonKissinger/b9e3bd1e6db94514bffa443c9bf8c876/photo">AP Photo</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Henry Kissinger, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/29/us/henry-kissinger-dead.html">who died on Nov. 29, 2023, at age 100</a>, exercised more than 50 years of influence on American foreign policy. </p>
<p>I am <a href="https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=7b6xo3QAAAAJ&hl=en">a scholar of American foreign policy</a> who has <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020818311000324">written</a> on Kissinger’s service from 1969 to 1977 as national security adviser and secretary of state under the Nixon and Ford administrations. I have seen how his foreign policy views and actions played out for good and, mostly, for ill.</p>
<p>When Kissinger entered government as Richard Nixon’s national security adviser, he espoused a narrow perspective of the national interest, <a href="https://theconversation.com/lessons-in-realpolitik-from-nixon-and-kissinger-ideals-go-only-so-far-in-ending-conflict-in-places-like-ukraine-179979">known as “realpolitik,”</a> primarily centered on maximizing the economic and military power of the United States. </p>
<p>This power- and transactionalist-oriented approach to foreign policy produced a series of destructive outcomes. They ranged from fomenting coups that put in place murderous dictatorships, <a href="https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/chile/2020-11-06/allende-inauguration-50th-anniversary">as in Chile</a>, to killing unarmed civilians, <a href="https://gsp.yale.edu/sites/default/files/walrus_cambodiabombing_oct06.pdf">as in Cambodia</a>, and alienating potential allies, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/03/opinion/nixon-racism-india.html">as in India</a>. </p>
<h2>Damaging approach</h2>
<p>In his <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/world-restored-metternich-castlereagh-and-the-problems-of-peace-1812-1822/oclc/964314724">dissertation turned first book</a>, Kissinger argued foreign policymakers are measured by their ability to recognize shifts in political, military and economic power in the international system – and then to make those changes work in their country’s favor.</p>
<p>In this model of foreign policy, the political values – democracy, human rights – that make the United States a distinctive player in the international system have no role. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499855/original/file-20221208-17002-k8glwk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A large crater in the ground with burned trees and ruined buildings behind it." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499855/original/file-20221208-17002-k8glwk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499855/original/file-20221208-17002-k8glwk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499855/original/file-20221208-17002-k8glwk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499855/original/file-20221208-17002-k8glwk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499855/original/file-20221208-17002-k8glwk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499855/original/file-20221208-17002-k8glwk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499855/original/file-20221208-17002-k8glwk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bomb craters and ruins are almost all that remains of the Cambodian town of Kampong Tram on Aug. 1, 1973, destroyed by U.S. bombing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/CambodiaDestruction/d23e29b81e414e9399431e38ca9fa33c/photo">AP Photo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This perspective, with its self-declared realistic agenda, along with Kissinger’s place at the top of the foreign policy establishment as national security adviser and secretary of state for the better part of a decade, made Kissinger into something of a <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/07/09/henry-kissinger-every-president-but-biden-invites-me-to-white-house/">foreign policy oracle</a> for American policymakers of all stripes. </p>
<p>Yet Kissinger’s record reveals the problems with the narrow conception of national interest devoid of values. His time in government was characterized by major policy decisions that were generally detrimental to the United States’ standing in the world. </p>
<h2>Cambodian carnage</h2>
<p>When Nixon took office in 1968, he had <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HBON-ZIyUE">promised an honorable end</a> to the war in Vietnam. </p>
<p>Nixon faced a problem, however, in trying to gain control of the conflict: the porousness of Vietnam’s borders with Cambodia, through which supplies and soldiers from North Vietnam flowed into the South. </p>
<p>To address this problem, <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780815412243/Sideshow-Kissinger-Nixon-and-the-Destruction-of-Cambodia-Revised-Edition">Nixon dramatically escalated a bombing campaign</a> in Cambodia started under his predecessor, President Lyndon Johnson. Nixon later initiated a ground invasion of Cambodia to cut off North Vietnamese supply routes. </p>
<p>As William Shawcross details in <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780815412243/Sideshow-Kissinger-Nixon-and-the-Destruction-of-Cambodia-Revised-Edition">his defining book</a> on the subject, Kissinger supported Nixon’s Cambodia policy. </p>
<p>Despite the fact that Cambodia was not party to the conflict fought in Vietnam, U.S. bombing of Cambodia is <a href="https://gsp.yale.edu/sites/default/files/walrus_cambodiabombing_oct06.pdf">estimated</a> to have exceeded the total tonnage of all the bombs dropped by the U.S. during World War II, including the nuclear bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. </p>
<p>The campaign killed tens of thousands of Cambodians and displaced millions. The destruction caused by the bombing as well as partial American occupation in 1970 were <a href="https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1979/06/28/the-crime-of-cambodia/">crucial to creating</a> the political and social instability that facilitated the rise of the <a href="https://gsp.yale.edu/case-studies/cambodian-genocide-program">genocidal Khmer Rouge regime</a>. That regime is <a href="https://www.economist.com/books-and-arts/2013/09/25/blood-meridian">estimated to have killed 2 million Cambodians</a>. </p>
<h2>Supporting a genocidal leader</h2>
<p>In 1970 and 1971, Nixon, with Kissinger’s advice and encouragement, supported Pakistan’s dictatorial president Yahya Khan in his <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/212279/the-blood-telegram-by-gary-j-bass/">genocidal repression of Bengali nationalists</a> and war against India. </p>
<p>That conflict is estimated to have killed at <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/genocide-us-cant-remember-bangladesh-cant-forget-180961490/">least 300,000 and possibly more than a million Bengalis</a>. Khan targeted for complete elimination the Hindus in what would become Bangladesh.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502559/original/file-20221222-10182-ra4l8i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A tent crowded with people and their belongings." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502559/original/file-20221222-10182-ra4l8i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502559/original/file-20221222-10182-ra4l8i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502559/original/file-20221222-10182-ra4l8i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502559/original/file-20221222-10182-ra4l8i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502559/original/file-20221222-10182-ra4l8i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502559/original/file-20221222-10182-ra4l8i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502559/original/file-20221222-10182-ra4l8i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Refugees in a makeshift camp at Bongaon, fleeing fighting on the border between India and Pakistan, 26th June 1971.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/refugees-in-a-makeshift-camp-at-bongaon-fleeing-fighting-on-news-photo/831668538?phrase=refugee%20india%20fleeing%20camp%201971&adppopup=true">Mark Edwards/Keystone Features/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>In frustration at pressure from India over the subsequent refugee crisis, Kissinger agreed with Nixon that India – a fellow democracy bearing the burden of millions of refugees from East Pakistan — needed a “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139628969">mass famine</a>” to put the country in its place. </p>
<p>The duo went so far as to send an aircraft carrier battle group to threaten India after it suffered a series of cross-border attacks by Pakistan. </p>
<p>Nixon and Kissinger’s policy in support of Pakistan during a period of unvarnished brutality and aggression played a significant role in <a href="https://indianembassy-moscow.gov.in/pdf/Indo%20Soviet%20Treaty_2021.pdf">pushing India toward an alignment with the Soviet Union</a>. Nixon and Kissinger injected distrust of the United States into the foundations of Indian foreign policy, dividing the world’s oldest and largest democracies for decades. </p>
<h2>Exploiting Kurds, empowering Saddam</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/1996/1018/101896.opin.column.1.html">In 1972</a>, Kissinger agreed to a request from the Shah of Iran to provide military aid to Kurds in Iraq who were seeking an independent homeland. Iran’s goal was to put pressure on the Iraqi regime controlled by Saddam Hussein, while <a href="https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1969-76v27/d24">Kissinger sought to keep the Soviets out of the region</a>. The scheme was predicated on the Kurds’ belief that the United States supported Kurdish independence, a <a href="https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1969-76v27/d25">point the Shah noted</a>. But the U.S. abandoned the Kurds on the eve of an Iraqi offensive in 1975, <a href="https://archive.org/details/PikeCommitteeReportFull">and Kissinger coldly noted that</a> “covert action should not be confused with missionary work.” </p>
<p>Ultimately, the Iraqi defeat of the Kurds would <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saddam-Hussein">empower Hussein</a>, who would go on to destabilize the region, kill hundreds of thousands of people and fight unprovoked wars with Iran and the United States. </p>
<h2>‘Amoral vision’</h2>
<p>After Kissinger left government service in 1977, he founded <a href="https://www.henryakissinger.com/">Kissinger Associates</a>, a geopolitical consulting firm. Publicly, <a href="https://www.henryakissinger.com/speeches/opening-statement-by-dr-henry-a-kissinger-before-the-senate-armed-services-committee/">Kissinger consistently advised U.S. policymakers</a> to bend U.S. policy to accommodate the interests and actions of important foreign powers like Russia and China. </p>
<p>These positions were consistent with Kissinger’s demonstrated willingness to trade away rights of others to gain advantage for the U.S. His positions also presumably enabled Kissinger Associates to maintain access with the foreign policy elites of those countries.</p>
<p>In May 2022, Kissinger <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/25/world/europe/henry-kissinger-ukraine-russia-davos.html">publicly argued</a> that Ukraine, a victim of unprovoked aggression by Russia, should cede portions of its internationally recognized territory seized by Russia – as in Crimea – or by Russian proxies such as the Donetsk People’s Republic.</p>
<p>Kissinger also maintained that the United States should accommodate China, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-16/kissinger-warns-biden-of-u-s-china-catastrophe-on-scale-of-wwi?leadSource=uverify%20wall">arguing</a> against a concerted effort by democracies to counter the rising power and influence of China. </p>
<p>Foreign policy is a difficult field, fraught with complexity and unanticipated consequences. Kissinger’s vision, however, does not offer a panacea to the challenge of American foreign policy. </p>
<p>Over decades, Kissinger’s amoral vision of national self-interest has produced its own set of disasters, a reality the American public and foreign policy leaders are well-advised to bear in mind.</p>
<p><em>This story has been updated to reflect Kissinger’s death on Nov. 29, 2023.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192977/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jarrod Hayes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Henry Kissinger’s influence on US foreign policy was profound. His transactional approach – avowedly values free – included support of murderous and genocidal foreign leaders.Jarrod Hayes, Associate Professor of Political Science, UMass LowellLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1936942022-11-07T13:35:05Z2022-11-07T13:35:05ZWhat is affirmative action, anyway? 4 essential reads<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493356/original/file-20221103-13-ektkq4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=26%2C0%2C5964%2C3997&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Supreme Court is deciding a case on whether, and how, universities may consider an applicant's race when making admissions decisions.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/SupremeCourtAffirmativeAction/fbd3e6c1fd874e8abdfda436c87b422a/photo">AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Race-conscious affirmative action in college admissions could soon be a thing of the past. At least that’s the <a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/10/30/affirmative-action-supreme-court-harvard-unc">impression many observers got</a> after listening to <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/supreme-court-affirmative-action-cases-college-admissions-north-carolina-harvard/">oral arguments about the practice</a> before the U.S Supreme Court.</p>
<p>Scholars writing for The Conversation U.S. have taken a closer look at affirmative action and how it has been seen and used in the realm of higher education.</p>
<h2>1. Even some supporters don’t know how it works</h2>
<p>When <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=DMreKvQAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">OiYan Poon</a>, a race and education scholar at Colorado State University, traveled across the nation to ask Asian Americans what they knew about affirmative action, they found that even people who were part of organizations that publicly supported or opposed it didn’t quite understand how affirmative action works.</p>
<p>For instance, “<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-do-colleges-use-affirmative-action-even-some-activists-dont-understand-105453">30 out of 36 presented outdated myths</a>” about affirmative action, she wrote. “These 30 included 13 affirmative action supporters and 17 opponents,” who talked about ideas such as “‘racial quotas,’ which were declared unconstitutional in [1978]. They also thought it involved ‘racial bonus points’ for Black and Latino applicants,” Poon found.</p>
<p>In fact, Poon wrote, “race-conscious admissions is now practiced through holistic review of individual applicants. Such individualized review is meant to recognize, in a limited way, how race and racism might have shaped each applicant’s perspectives and educational opportunities.”</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-do-colleges-use-affirmative-action-even-some-activists-dont-understand-105453">How do colleges use affirmative action? Even some activists don't understand</a>
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<h2>2. Banning affirmative action has clear effects</h2>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487587/original/file-20221001-25-5op2nd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C17%2C5923%2C3928&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A Black woman wearing a black graduation cap and gown is seated in between two white male college graduates." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487587/original/file-20221001-25-5op2nd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C17%2C5923%2C3928&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487587/original/file-20221001-25-5op2nd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487587/original/file-20221001-25-5op2nd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487587/original/file-20221001-25-5op2nd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487587/original/file-20221001-25-5op2nd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487587/original/file-20221001-25-5op2nd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487587/original/file-20221001-25-5op2nd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Some researchers say graduation is less likely for Black, Hispanic and Native American students when affirmative action is outlawed.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/students-at-commencement-ceremony-royalty-free-image/88170494?adppopup=true">Andy Sacks via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>It’s possible to predict what could happen if the Supreme Court rules against affirmative action. As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=SE2WERAAAAAJ&hl=en">Natasha Warikoo</a>, a Tufts University professor who studies racial equity in education, pointed out: “<a href="https://theconversation.com/affirmative-action-bans-make-selective-colleges-less-diverse-a-national-ban-will-do-the-same-189214">Since nine states already have bans on affirmative action</a>, it’s easy to know what will happen if affirmative action is outlawed. Studies of college enrollment in those states show that enrollment of Black, Hispanic and Native American undergraduate students will decline in the long term.”</p>
<p>“Undergraduate enrollment is not the only area of higher education that will be affected. A ban on affirmative action will ultimately lead to fewer graduate degrees earned by Black, Hispanic and Native American students,” she wrote.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/affirmative-action-bans-make-selective-colleges-less-diverse-a-national-ban-will-do-the-same-189214">Affirmative action bans make selective colleges less diverse – a national ban will do the same</a>
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<h2>3. The difference is big</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368016/original/file-20201106-15-117hmso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=13%2C0%2C4538%2C3263&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two female students walk on the campus of UCLA." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368016/original/file-20201106-15-117hmso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=13%2C0%2C4538%2C3263&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368016/original/file-20201106-15-117hmso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368016/original/file-20201106-15-117hmso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368016/original/file-20201106-15-117hmso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368016/original/file-20201106-15-117hmso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368016/original/file-20201106-15-117hmso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368016/original/file-20201106-15-117hmso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Public universities in California cannot consider race in admissions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-walk-through-the-campus-of-the-ucla-college-in-news-photo/1205520367?adppopup=true">Mark Ralston/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=lK3kzlYAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Vinay Harpalani</a>, a scholar of discrimination at the University of New Mexico, delivered some numbers: After California banned affirmative action at its state universities, “[t]he enrollment of Black, Latino and Native American students dropped dramatically in the University of California system. For example, at UCLA, the percentage of underrepresented minorities dropped from 28% to 14% between 1995 and 1998. There was a similar drop at UC Berkeley.”</p>
<p>In more recent years, he reported, “The enrollment numbers have recovered, largely due to increased Latino enrollment. Currently at UCLA, 22% of the undergraduate student body is Latino and 3% is Black. But it is also important to note that the number of Latino high school graduates has more than tripled since 1997.”</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-the-california-vote-to-keep-the-ban-on-affirmative-action-means-for-higher-education-149508">What the California vote to keep the ban on affirmative action means for higher education</a>
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<h2>4. A military case for affirmative action</h2>
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<img alt="A wounded white soldier is carried by a Black soldier during the Vietnam War." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492564/original/file-20221031-7911-wj31l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492564/original/file-20221031-7911-wj31l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492564/original/file-20221031-7911-wj31l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492564/original/file-20221031-7911-wj31l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492564/original/file-20221031-7911-wj31l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492564/original/file-20221031-7911-wj31l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492564/original/file-20221031-7911-wj31l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A wounded soldier is carried by members of the 1st Cavalry Division near the Cambodian border during the Vietnam War.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/wounded-soldier-is-carried-by-members-of-the-1st-calvary-news-photo/514870008?phrase=vietnam%20war%20black%20soldiers&adppopup=true">Bettmann/GettyImages</a></span>
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<p>In an article explaining the point of view of 35 military officers who have asked the Supreme Court to continue to allow affirmative action, <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/travis-knoll-1377873">Travis Knoll</a>, a historian at the University of North Carolina - Charlotte, looked to the nation’s – and the military’s – racial experience during the Vietnam War.</p>
<p>“[I]n 1962, when U.S. involvement was starting to grow in Vietnam, <a href="https://theconversation.com/conservative-us-supreme-court-reconsidering-affirmative-action-leaving-the-use-of-race-in-college-admissions-on-the-brink-of-extinction-190313">Black commissioned officers</a> represented only 1.6% of the officers corps,” he wrote. “Military academies remained virtually segregated, with Black people making up less than 1% of enrollees. As a result, the number of Black officers didn’t grow much.”</p>
<p>That led to unrest in the ranks: “Over the next five years, the number of Black soldiers fighting and dying on the front lines grew to about 25%. Racial tensions between white and Black soldiers led to at least 300 fights in a two-year-period that resulted in 71 deaths,” Knoll wrote. “Fueling those fights was the belief among Black soldiers that the largely white officers didn’t care about their lives.”</p>
<p>That experience, Knoll explained, drove home to the military the idea that diversity in leadership was extremely important. “It also began the military’s use of affirmative action, including race-conscious admissions policies at service academies and in ROTC programs.”</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/conservative-us-supreme-court-reconsidering-affirmative-action-leaving-the-use-of-race-in-college-admissions-on-the-brink-of-extinction-190313">Conservative US Supreme Court reconsidering affirmative action, leaving the use of race in college admissions on the brink of extinction</a>
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<p><em>Editor’s note: This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation’s archives.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193694/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Scholars explain what affirmative action is – and isn’t – as well as what its effects are, and why, among others, the military has supported it for decades.Jeff Inglis, Politics + Society Editor, The Conversation USJamaal Abdul-Alim, Education Editor, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.