General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHm. 2.7 million Americans were deployed to Vietnam
9 million Americans (and change) were on active duty during that period.
Less than a third of American servicemembers during that time served in Vietnam. How did that conflict (which wasn't even the only war we were fighting at the time) become the one story of that period?
juxtaposed
(2,778 posts)mahatmakanejeeves
(57,290 posts)I seem to recall another:
I'll bet I don't even have to say where that is.
Journeyman
(15,024 posts)I remember thousands of stories from that period, many of far greater import than the conflicts in Southeast Asia.
Something I posted three years ago at just about this time:
My schooling was bracketed by a death in Dallas and wanton killings in Kent. The dream -- the national fantasy inculcated into so many after the War -- died with JFK. But the hope . . . the hope spawned by Jefferson, reaffirmed by Lincoln, restored by Franklin Roosevelt . . . the hope remained, and beats as strong today as it did when I received my first diploma. From that hope we can generate anew the dreams that will carry us into the future, a future that grows increasingly bright if we but know how to focus on the light . . .
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022679908#post3
alcibiades_mystery
(36,437 posts)That gets noticed in small towns and big cities.
pnwmom
(108,955 posts)Nye Bevan
(25,406 posts)yardwork
(61,538 posts)But one reason that the war got the attention it did was the draft.
Getting rid of the draft was a clever move on the part of the warmongers.
catnhatnh
(8,976 posts)to see if your brother was filmed or reported about it tended to loom large...