The New Hampshire Gazette, Friday, January 19, 2018 — Page 1 a Non-Fiction Newspaper First Class U.S
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
The New Hampshire Gazette, Friday, January 19, 2018 — Page 1 A Non-Fiction Newspaper First Class U.S. The New Hampshire Gazette Postage Paid Grab Me! I’m Free! Portsmouth, N.H. The Nation’s Oldest Newspaper™ • Editor: Steven Fowle • Founded 1756 by Daniel Fowle Vol. CCLXII, No. 9 Permit No. 75 PO Box 756, Portsmouth, NH 03802 • [email protected] • www.nhgazette.com Address Service Requested January 19, 2018 The Fortnightly Rant How We Lost The Same War Twice t’s coming. A week from next As the sprawling capitol of a klep- Wednesday it will be here. This tocratic puppet government which Itime we know it’s coming. But, was the successor to nearly a century we’re no more ready for the 50th of French colonial rule, Saigon be- anniversary of the Tet Offensive fore Tet was, quite naturally, deca- than we were for the real thing. dent and depraved. Its main streets Oh, the TV news people might were a seething mass of humani- have something prepared for the oc- ty, spilling over with city dwellers casion. They do those things in their and refugees from the countryside, sleep: a dramatic logo ginned up by flowing like some viscous liquid. For the graphics department, a few min- Vietnam, though, it was relatively utes worth of talking heads display- peaceful. Only occasionally would ing a simulacrum of deep concern a Honda-riding cowboy take a pot- while old footage runs behind them. shot with a pistol at a U.S. officer or Don’t expect much from the toss a grenade at some GI’s foolishly White House. If President Bone bunched up at a bus stop. Spur can let a whole day pass with- That city vanished in an instant on out mentioning a false alarm about the morning of January 31, 1968. a nuclear missile attack on Hawaii, If people remember Tet today, he’s hardly likely to have prepared they may recall that a small team any remarks commemorating a real of Viet Cong sappers breached the fight he dodged in his youth. outer wall of the U.S. Embassy and At the Pentagon, generals will be traded gunshots with diplomats. standing carefully on that part of the That was just the highlight reel, rug under which their predecessors though—one of half a dozen similar ry, and ARVN [South Vietnamese] Instead, we got Ronald Reagan. swept their deeds. attacks on particularly high profile troops to clear the city. As a WW II veteran of Hollywood As for the nation as a whole … targets across the city. Altogether, Through it all, General William in the direction of “win or get out.” sound stages, he despised the notion [cue the needle scratch]. Our apologies: Viet Cong from 35 battalions ap- Westmoreland, the U.S. Command- Tet, in effect, stamped a shelf-life that America’s military might be due to advanced age, we sometimes peared like mushrooms after rain er, didn’t skip a beat—his lying went on the illusion that perhaps some subject to constraint. forget that concepts familiar to us and turned much of Saigon into a on uninterrupted. Don North, an kind of victory was possible. Two After an attempt at rebranding may be quaint to others. Can we battlefield. ABC correspondent, wrote, “I was more waves of attacks in May pretty the Vietnam War as a “noble cause” pretend, though, for the purposes of At the same time, 400 miles away personally aware of General West- well sealed the deal. fell as flat as New Coke, The Gipper this essay, that such a phrase still has at the northern extremity of the moreland’s fabrications starting with It was during this period that tried a bank shot. Suddenly Vietnam some meaning? fictitious state, ten battalions of the his announcement at a Saigon news the carnage reached its peak, with veterans were his darlings. There are a number of reasons People’s Army captured the ancient, conference on Jan. 31, that Hué had hundreds of Americans dying every After a decade of being looked at why it is so hard to imagine this na- walled Imperial City of Hué, giving been recaptured and NVA soldiers week. That the war dragged on for askance, this often obstreperous co- tion uniting behind a meaningful them a nearly-impenetrable defen- forced out.” years was not an indication of public hort were being treated with a little commemoration of Tet—the day sible position. The North Vietnamese objective support, but a condemnation of our dignity. Some of them embraced that the truth of the Vietnam War In fact, the length and breadth of for the Tet Offensive had been to in- politics and our politicians. that change without question, rais- finally became undeniable. the country—which, according to spire a General Uprising throughout Once all the troops were home ing the possibility that their opinion Mainly, it’s because so much time a mountain of statistical data, had the South. By those terms it was a who were coming home, there was of the war improved a bit, too. and effort was put into making that been successfully “pacified” by half complete failure. It was probably the finally a broad consensus about the Civilians were taught to separate truth disappear. a million U.S. troops—was in utter most successful complete failure in war: let’s sure as hell not do that the war from the warrior. In prac- But, you may say, what about “the chaos. Altogether, 80,000 North military history, though. again. Polls taken in the late 70s and tice, the reconciliation was to some truth will out?” Vietnamese regulars and Viet Cong Several years of slowly escalating early 80s revealed that two-thirds degree a package deal. It’s not easy to Yes, yes, it will. had attacked 100 towns and cities. drip, drip, drip, had failed to impress to three-quarters of Americans be- “support the troops” while opposing When the day comes, a few hun- Intense fighting in Saigon last- upon Americans at home that, left lieved that the war had been a mis- the war to which they’re heading. dred old men will gather—they ed more than a week, and mop-up to its own devices, this war was go- take, wrong, immoral, or all of the For those who remember it, it’s know where—and they’ll tell the operations went on for a month. In ing to go on forever. As it turned out, above. It would have been a great sobering to think that a mistake— truth to each other. And even some Hué, it took a full month of all-out a sudden, dramatic bloodbath was time for a Truth and Reconciliation hell, a crime—so terrible could be of them will have it wrong. effort by the Marines, the 1st Caval- all it took to nudge public opinion Commission. papered over with lies and smiles. The Alleged News® Battle of the Titans: the Stock Exchange vs. the Arc of Justice he New York Stock Exchange Trump supporters might argue acteristically silent during the 38 waii, the person currently holding value of the U.S. economy. After took Monday off, ostensibly that this is evidence of the Presi- minute period when the State of the office which formerly represent- all, the sky’s the limit, right? Who soT that Wall Street traders might dent’s Midas touch. If he has that Hawaii was under an official warn- ed the de facto leadership of the Free knows how much prosperity they take time out to honor the life and magical ability, it operates in a mys- ing which said, “BALLISTIC MIS- World ignored the alarm. can create? Granted, 57 percent of works of Dr. Martin Luther King, terious way: it seems to work when SILE THREAT INBOUND TO Instead, he issued a tweet about Americans couldn’t currently cov- Jr. Perhaps we are unduly jaded, he does not. On average, every HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE Fire and Fury, a new book by Mi- er an unexpected bill of $500. But, but we suspect that their wor- fourth day he has been in office, our SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A chael Wolff, which purports to re- eventually, if the stock market keeps ship of Mammon just continued Chief Executive has found the time DRILL.” (Innumerable critics have veal that West Wing insiders hold going up and up, sooner or later in other venues. Their religion no to play golf at one or another of his faulted Hawaiian officials for caus- approximately the same view of the something is bound to trickle down. longer requires any particular edi- various Versailles. ing unnecessary alarm; few seem to President’s abilities as do his most Capitalism is all about growth, fice, since capitalism, through glo- On Monday, for example—again, have noticed their sober restraint in outspoken critics. and there’s plenty of room to grow. balism, has made the whole world Martin Luther King Jr. Day—he eschewing the use of exclamation With our economy now based Companies we think of today as gi- into Mammon’s Temple. golfed at Mar-a-Lago while the points.) on consumption, and consumption ants are puny in historical perspec- The Dow-Jones Industrial Aver- Vice President and the Secretary At press time, we can report that based on consumer confidence, it tive. Combine the valuation of 20 of age has risen about 6,000 points over of the Interior laid a wreath at the Hawaii has not, to date, been at- seems pretty clear, one-quarter of our mightiest modern companies— the past year—1,000 points in the King memorial.