Vietnam War

Open Thread 10/22/21 - The Draft

Submitted by JtC on Fri, 10/22/2021 - 7:00am

I woke up in 1968 when I was 14. I smoked my first weed. I grew my hair long. I became aware. I paid attention to politics for the first time. I saw older guys going off to war. Some didn't come back. I realized what was at stake. I knew what may be in store for me in just a few years. I became an activist.

Here's my original draft card from 1973 (redacted of course) back when my hair was still brown. I was also 3 inches shorter than I am now:

SS.jpg

Patriotism - something I can't grasp

Submitted by mimi on Sat, 02/09/2019 - 6:35pm

I just listened to the Sheer Intelligence interview on Truthdig about "The Great Con of American Patriotism" and it struck me that probably no German of my age, born 1948, could have ever felt the same way as both, Ron Kovic or Danny Sjursen, did. Because we were the kids of the bad guys and we actually thought to join the German military service (Bundeswehr) is something that would be neither honorable nor even reasonable.