Shad Thielman, California State University San Marcos
Unlike those who died during the Vietnam War, those who perish during the current pandemic are unlikely to receive a national memorial. Perhaps they should.
More than 500 Australians died in the Vietnam war and 3,000 were wounded, but the damage from Agent Orange was much more far-reaching, as Tim Fischer’s death last week reminded us.
Prisoners of war experience trauma, torture, humiliation and profound loneliness. A trauma psychologist explains how the effects can be lasting – and that Americans’ gratitude should also be.
A scholar raised by leftist San Francisco parents in the 1970s ends up teaching in the heartland, where her students represent a very different kind of politics. What she learns from them is profound.