How America Fractured in 1968 • Hacker News Board

Re: How America Fractured in 1968

#91

Post by qbaqbaqba » Tue, Jan 16, 2018, 10:03 PM UTC

dsnuh wrote: post #75

jancsika wrote: post #48

I'm seeing a body of growing evidence that the long-term fracture was due to the War in Vietnam: * it created anti-government groups like the Weathermen * it spurred activist groups on campuses around the country to stage admin building take-overs, sit-ins, and attempts to disruption to the war draft * it created a group of Veterans-- like John Kerry-- who came back and described for the general public horrific war c…

I watched Vietnam In HD (great series) and I came away with many of the same observations that you did. Do you feel like this was also a generation that missed their chance to be "men"? What I mean by that is that in all past memory, men had gone off to battle and were welcomed home as heroes. This was different, and I feel like in some ways led to the emasculation of the American male. They missed their chance to be…

I think it's more about army being detached from the society. I have red some memories of Vietnam veterans and it seems to be a common point. French have experienced the same in Vietnam, according to Jean Larteguy and even during WWI according to Louis Barthas. It's also a common problem of alienated Arab armies, getting hit bad every time they fight with a solders' nation of Israel, I believe Kapuscinski has written something about it as well.

Re: How America Fractured in 1968

#92

Post by dsnuh » Wed, Jan 17, 2018, 1:33 AM UTC

qbaqbaqba wrote: post #91

dsnuh wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I watched Vietnam In HD (great series) and I came away with many of the same observations that you did. Do you feel like this was also a generation that missed their chance to be "men"? What I mean by that is that in all past memory, men had gone off to battle and were welcomed home as heroes. This was different, and I feel like in some ways led to the emasculation of the American male. They missed their chance to be…

I think it's more about army being detached from the society. I have red some memories of Vietnam veterans and it seems to be a common point. French have experienced the same in Vietnam, according to Jean Larteguy and even during WWI according to Louis Barthas. It's also a common problem of alienated Arab armies, getting hit bad every time they fight with a solders' nation of Israel, I believe Kapuscinski has written…

Can you please clarify what you mean by "detached", I want to be sure I am reading you correctly.

Re: How America Fractured in 1968

#93

Post by Synaesthesia » Thu, Jan 18, 2018, 9:42 AM UTC

dsnuh wrote: post #88

dsnuh wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh definitely, I wasn't advocating for war, but I think it is it clearly something that attitudes changed about inexorably after Vietnam.

An interesting take on war from a semi-modern perspective is _War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning_ by Chris Hedges.

I still want to read that, having read most of his books. He’s a fantastic author.

Re: How America Fractured in 1968

#94

Post by coldtea » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 6:12 PM UTC

Feniks wrote: post #74

coldtea wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The US? Because if Europe gets overrun by Soviets, like they got overrun by Germany, guess who's next? Again, that's not their business. Besides half of Europe wanted to be socialist -- and I'm speaking of the support for such parties in Western Europe. > Could you imagine Soviet Europe for the last 60 years? Many wished exactly that at the time. Again, not the business of a foreign power to meddle.

The US didn't meddle, NATO was co founded by European governments. My own country literally begged the US to house nuclear weapons in order to keep the Soviets out.

Depending on which country you speak of, it was usually just the pro-establishment, pro-rich part of the political elites, as opposed to the whole country "begging the US".