The Washington Spectator
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The WA S H I N G T O N washingtonspectator.org MARCH/APRIL 2021 vol. 47, no. 2 issn 0887-428x SPECTATOR © 2021 The Public Concern Foundation washingtonspectator.org in the weeks and months leading up to the Capitol insurrection. All Enemies, Foreign and Any talk of conspiracy theories these days tends to conjure the lurid delusions of QAnon, of Satanic child sex traffickers huddled Domestic: The Road From in the basement of a Washington pizza parlor. But a major-league conspiracy theory has to rest on a much more coherent intellec- Vietnam to the Capitol Steps tual framework, one that grows out of plausible if debatable com- By George Black plaints and critiques and then thrives and mutates in the fertile soil of unacknowledged grievances. Behind the tabloid headlines atching the mob surge toward the steps about Hillary’s emails or Hunter Biden’s laptop are the machina- of the Capitol on January 6, it was hard not to wonder tions of a malignant global elite, bent on the destruction of the W whether the United States was any longer a nation or United States and the creation of a New World Order. These had degenerated into what a Turkish diplomat, speaking about ideas have their roots in the misdirected patriotism and deep the Middle East, once famously described as a warring collec- veins of paranoia in American politics, in the anti-communism tion of “tribes with flags.” The crowd seethed with flags and ban- of the John Birch Society, the radio broadcasts of Father Charles ners: Stars and Stripes Coughlin, and the as big as panel trucks, Cold War witch hunts some with the superim- of Senator Joseph posed head of Donald McCarthy. But they Trump; the battle flag crystallized into a of the Confederacy; the coherent worldview yellow Gadsden flag, with only with the trauma its coiled rattlesnake and of Vietnam. its “Don’t Tread on Me,” The United States first raised in 1775 by the had never before lost Continental Marines and a foreign war, and it then appropriated by the shredded the shared Tea Party and the Repub- American story of lican base. virtue and might. But there were other Something so unprec- flags, too: the red and edented demanded yellow stripes of the an explanation. Mili- former South Vietnam; tary commanders and Trump as Rambo with their civilian allies his rocket-propelled gre- Riot at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Photo by Blink O’fanaye. insisted that the fin- nade launcher. And then, est fighting machine in one of the few moments of relative decorum, the mob paused the world had ever seen had never lost a single encounter on the to pose for selfies in front of the somber black flag that hangs in battlefield. So responsibility had to lie elsewhere, with “a feckless the Capitol Rotunda, honoring the nation’s prisoners of war and government and faithless citizenry,” in the words of the historian missing in action left behind in Southeast Asia. Michael J. Allen. Echoes of the war in Vietnam were everywhere that day. But The grievances and conspiracy theories that took shape why? What did that after the war in Vietnam had a lot in common with the Lost ALSO INSIDE: say about the con- Cause mythology of the Confederacy, and even more with the 4 Claudia Rankine “what if” spiracy theories that Dolchstoss, the “stab in the back” theory that sought to explain animated the rage of Germany’s defeat in World War I and contributed mightily to 14 Remembering Ramsey Clark Trump’s most pas- the rise of the Nazis. The task the most extreme conservatives sionate followers? It set themselves after Vietnam was to identify the enemies within turns out that there is a clear throughline connecting the griev- and root them out by any means necessary. In this scenario, ances of right-wing military officers in the wake of the defeat in military veterans, with their patriotism, their discipline, their Vietnam to the conspiracy theories that erupted into full view mastery of arms, and the backing of the Second Amendment, 1 march/april 2021 The were uniquely placed to take up the challenge. ominous question. Was this a structural problem, WASHINGTON Every soldier had sworn an oath on enlistment: reflecting the imperatives of the media, television’s SPECTATOR “to defend the Constitution against all enemies, demand for arresting images? Or was something foreign and domestic.” The troops had fought the more sinister afoot? Did reporters actually want Legal Affairs Correspondent Andrew Cohen foreign enemy in the way they were trained to do; America to lose the war, and were they deliberately Digital Editor from now on, the key word was domestic. steering public opinion in that direction? Was the Sophia Fish Copy Editor real agenda of the media to propagate what today Kirsten Denker *** we would call Fake News? Contributing Writers If the conspiracy theory had a single point of Cyrus Cassells, Guest Poetry Editor Alison Fairbrother origin, it was arguably a report by Morley Safer *** Autumn Hayes of CBS News in August 1965, showing Marines Much though they distrusted the press, conser- Dorothy Samuels burning straw huts in the village of Cam Ne, near vative officers placed equal blame for the disaster Circulation Management Circulation Specialists LLC Danang. The practice was not new, but this was the on the civilians in government. The most outspoken Design Point Five, NY first time Americans had seen it on TV. Incensed, of them invariably came from the branches of ser- Illustration Edel Rodriguez Lyndon Johnson called the network president and vice that saw themselves as the military elites: the Editor and Publisher Hamilton Fish accused CBS of having “shat on the American flag.” Green Berets; the Airborne divisions; the Marines; As the war ground on, and public support waned, the fighter and bomber pilots. They claimed a Subscription inquiries Visit washingtonspectator.org/ senior ranks of the military increasingly complained unique understanding of why the war had been lost, customerservice, or call toll-free that the press was “not on based on their personal (866) 949-5290 M–F 9-5:30 EST, or write to the team.” There was a good Every soldier had sworn an oath on experiences up along the P.O. Box 241, Oregon, IL 61061. deal of truth to this. By and enlistment: “to defend the Constitution Demilitarized Zone, the Letters to the editor Email to large, reporters didn’t see against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” mountainous border with [email protected]. being on the team as part The troops had fought the foreign enemy in Laos and Cambodia, and Please include your full name and the way they were trained to do; from now on, postal address and whether the letter of their job description, and the Ho Chi Minh Trail. is intended for publication. Letters, if the key word was domestic. published, may be edited for clarity they took to mocking the The Washington establish- and space. Hard-copy letters may military’s daily briefings in ment had been cowed by be sent to: Washington Spectator— Letters, 105 Hudson Street, Suite Saigon as the “Five O’Clock Follies.” too many legalistic red lines: the neutrality of these 407, New York, NY 10013. It's generally agreed that the turning point of the neighboring countries; the bar on ground troops The Washington Spectator (ISSN war was the 1968 Tet Offensive, which brought one entering North Vietnam; and the ultimate taboo, 0887-428X) is published monthly by the Public Concern Foundation Inc, shocking image after another into American living the use of tactical nuclear weapons. 105 Hudson Street, Suite 407, New rooms: the Viet Cong breaching the walls of the If these officers had a godfather, it was Maj. York, NY 10013. © 2021 in the U.S. by the Public Concern Foundation Inc. U.S. Embassy in Saigon; the brutal street fighting Gen. Jack Singlaub, who had commanded the in the historic city of Hue; Eddie Adams’s Pulitzer secret war in Southeast Asia as head of the innocu- Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY. Please allow 4–6 weeks Prize–winning photograph of Saigon Police Chief ously named Studies and Observation Group, an for receipt of your first issue and Gen. Nguyen Ngoc Loan shooting a prisoner in assembly of Green Berets, Marine recon units, for all subscription transactions. POSTMASTER: Send address the head. Conservatives complained that all these Navy SEALs, South Vietnamese Special Forces, changes to The Washington Spectator, images had been stripped of their essential context. and tribal irregulars and mercenaries. Singlaub had P.O. Box 241, Oregon, IL 61061. The Washington Spectator is printed with The embassy attackers were not an elite commando a soldier’s contempt for Defense Secretary Robert union labor on recycled paper. unit but a ragtag group of amateurs. The real story McNamara and his cohort of “clipboard professors” of Hue was not the potency of the Viet Cong but and “cost-effectiveness whiz-kids,” unable to tell the heroism of the Marines. And Gen. Loan’s pris- the difference between a war game and a real war. FROM THE oner had just murdered an entire family, including “It was very clear to me,” wrote Lt. Col. Oliver EDITOR’S women and children. North, who had served as a Marine lieutenant on But if the course of the war pivoted on one the edge of the DMZ and would later join forces DESK single thing, it was what came to be known as the with Singlaub to secretly fund the Nicaraguan Sign up for our free email Walter Cronkite moment.