President Nixon and the Vietnam War Essay -- Vietnam War Essays

The politics of the ultratight resonated deeply with Richard Nixon. Nixon had cut his political teeth as a young Red-hunting member of the House Un-American Activities Committee in the 1950s. His home district in Orange Country, California, was widely known as a Birch Society stronghold. The Los Angeles-area Birch Society claimed the membership of several political and economic elites, including members of the Chandler family, which owned and published the Los Angeles Times. According to the writer David Halberstam (1979, 118) the Times, which was once described as â€Å"the most rabid Labor-bating, Red-hating paper in the United States,† virtually created Richard Nixon. Nixon’s approach to the war was Birchesque. He campaigned for president in 1968 as a peace candidate by pointing out that he had been raised as a Quaker and promising to bring the troops home. His path to peace, however, entailed an escalated war. After his election as president, he unleashed a ferocious air assault on the Vietnamese and extended the ground war into Laos and Cambodia. When the anti-war movement criticized these measures, Nixon did what any Bircher would do: he decried the anti-war movement as a communist conspiracy that was prolonging the war and that deserved to be treated as an internal security threat. The Nixon-Agnew Strategy: Smash the Left, Capture the Center The origin of the myth of spat-upon Vietnam veterans lies in the propaganda campaign of the Nixon-Agnew administration to counter the credibility of the anti-war movement and prolong the war in Southeast Asia. Nixon had won election as peace candidate, but he was also committed to not being the first American president to lose a war. It was a contradictory agenda. When the Vietnaame... ...of the struggle over how the war would be remembered. Blanketed by the discourse of disability, the struggle over the memory of veterans and the country alike would be waged with such obliquity as to surpass even the most veiled operations of Nixon’s minions. While Nixon’s plumbers were wrenching together the Gainesville case against VVAW in the spring of 1972, mental health and news-media professionals were cobbling together the figure of the mentally incapacitated Vietnam veteran. More than any other, this image is the one that would stick in the minds of the American people. The psychologically damaged veteran raised a question that demanded an answer: what happened to our boys that was so traumatic that they were never the same again? As it came to be told, the story of what happened to them had less to do with the war itself than with the war against the war.

The Silver Linings Playbook Chapter 33

Letter #4-November 29, 2006 Dear Pat, Tiffany informs me you are sincere, and from what she has told me about your new personality, it seems as though you are a completely transformed man. Whether this is the result of the accident, therapy, medication, or simply sheer willpower, you are to be congratulated, because this is no small feat. First allow me to say I recommended Huck Finn for your reading enjoyment only. I was not trying to send you a hidden message. Based on everything you have written and what Tiffany has told me – maybe you should read The Catcher in the Rye. It's about a young boy named Holden who has a hard time coping with reality. Holden wants to live in a childhood world for the rest of his life, which makes him a very beautiful and interesting character, but one who has trouble finding his place in the real world. At present, it seems as though you are having a hard time dealing with reality. Part of me thrills at the changes you have made, because your letters really do present a better man. But I also worry that this worldview you have developed is fragile, and may be what kept you in the neural health facility for so many years and is keeping you in your parents' basement for so many months. At some point you are going to have to leave the basement, Pat. You are going to have to get a jo b and earn money again, and then you might not be able to be the person you have been for the last few months. Of course I remember Massachusetts. We were so young, and the memory is beautiful. I'll carry it with me forever. But we WERE CHILDREN, Pat. That was more than a decade ago. I'm not the type of woman who would sleep in an economy motel anymore. Maybe you have again become the type of man who would whisk a woman away to Martha's Vineyard. Maybe you are experiencing some sort of second childhood. I don't know. But I do know you will NOT be experiencing a second childhood with me. I am not a child, Pat. I'm a woman who loves her current husband very much. My aim when I agreed to write you was never to allow you a second chance. My goal was not to allow you to reenter my life. I only wanted to give you a chance to say goodbye – to resolve any unresolved issues. I want to be clear about this. Nikki

A Brave New World By Aldous Huxley And Legend By Jean Lu

Dystopian Reality According to Karl Marx, a famous German philosopher, came up with the theory that the higher class, known as the bourgeoisie, enslaved and exploit the working class, known as proletariat. This theory relates to the two novels A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and Legend by Marie Lu. There are many similarities that take place between these dystopian novels and it is evident that everything is predetermined and controlled by the state, causing conflict and chaos. This is demonstrated by the caste system, abuse of drugs and power within the government. In Legend, there is a specific caste system, which is addressed to the general public. When you turn ten years old, you must take a trial for the government. The answers to this test will determine where you can go in the future. The Republic then has full custody to do what they please with you after this test is complete. â€Å"Your parents have to nod and agree. A few even celebrate, because the Republic gives them one thousand notes as a condolence gift. Money and one less mouth to feed? What a thoughtful government. Except this is all a lie† (Lu 7). The government determines your life and has full custody to control you based on test results. And the parents are forced to agree with whatever the decisions are made by the government due to the fear the state has caused, allowing parents to freely let their children leave if they fail their trial without a fight. â€Å"I nod, because that what she wants me to do.