Context Is Everything

I recently heard an American political writer state that it is now accepted that American was on its way to winning the Vietnam War. What happened next? The propaganda fed to the American people by the Left stole the power away from Nixon that would have made the victory possible. This interview was not on some conservative radio talk show -- it was on NPR. The subject of the interview was not even Vietnam but the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And what's more, no one was challenging this man's assertion.

What came to me first when I heard this man speak was one of the most vivid images of my childhood: the famous black and white picture of the children running down a road having just suffered the effects of an American napalm attack. I was a little girl when I first saw it and so was the central figure in the photograph, only she was nude and screaming. I will never forget it.

Next I was reminded of my family history; the fact that three of my five brothers were of draft age during the duration of that war. One was a priest and so exempt, one had a number so high he was never called, and one went through the process of declaring himself a conscientious objector in 1966. My parents stayed up late many nights talking to him and trying to understand why he would not serve his country in this way. My father had medical reasons for not being accepted to serve in World War II, but he would have gone in a heartbeat and he had no context with which to understand his son's decision. It was those late night conversations and dinner table debates that changed my parents' minds -- the same conversations that happened in many households all over America. The type of dicussion that can open up such other radical topics as the impact of race on experience, the rights of women, and the kind of country Americans wanted to call home.

By the time this man finished speaking I thought, if we as the American people can actually move forward believing we could have won the Vietnam War if we had simply armed more troops and flooded the country with even more destruction then we have provided the context with which to rationalize anything. That is not a context in which I could find a comfortable home.