A Vietnam Letter

Eddie Adams on the big picture

Vietnam veteran Randall Omlie makes a number of points on the Vietnam War, in the 7/30/09 Eden Prairie Sun Current. Omlie says the US government showed honorable appreciation to returning Vietnam veterans, but the vets had to endure blistering public scorn and ill-intentioned media misreporting which have challenged Omlie's powers of forgiveness. Omlie claims--without citation--that Dan Rather reported 'the TET offensive [sic] as evidence that we had lost the war'--though in fact 'the U.S. military was achieving one of its greatest victories ever' [with the Tet Offensive]. Because Dan Rather convinced Americans we'd lost, the public turned against the war--ergo: the loss. Had only the American media informed the US public of the marvelous military rout visited upon the Vietcong as 'we' responded to the Tet Offensive, Americans would have allowed President Lyndon Johnson to encourage an even greater commitment to winning the war. Victory would have been ours:

"For example, while CBS news and Dan Rather were reporting the TET offensive as evidence that we had lost the war, the U.S. military was achieving one of its greatest victories ever. Most people never knew that the entire Viet Cong and all of its infrastructure was completely destroyed after TET, the joint U.S. and South Vietnam military had complete control of the country, and the long-sought after stability was finally achieved.

Unfortunately, this precipitated a new war as the North Vietnamese army then poured many huge divisions into South Vietnam, (with many containing women and children), and the exhausted military also faced lagging support at home.

The media reporting and political manipulating should be studied in detail to avoid future recurrence. The term, "Welcome Home" has become a somber greeting among my fellow veterans who know that we actually won the war, but were politically forced into retreat."

As an argument in support of an open-ended, blank-check US commitment to buying victory in Vietnam, Omlie is quite unconvincing. As matters stand, 2,000,000 or so Vietnamese civilians died in the war--to say nothing of Vietnamese military deaths--with massive civilian death inflicted by US aerial bombardment upon Vietnamese non-combatants. Proportionally, the human rights abuses were almost entirely upon Vietnamese people. Mightn't we find a way to show appreciation for the sacrifices of Vietnam veterans without endorsing every cockamamie historical fantasy some dream up? The Vietnam War was a disaster for the US national interest--and for millions of Vietnamese people. LBJ's life and legacy were wrecked by his/our idiotic overcommitment to the Republic of Vietnam. Citation-free attacks on Dan Rather allow some to overlook our country's role in a reprehensible historical catastrophe. That lacks honor.

See also: http://tinyurl.com/gn0mic

Another Leftist Supports Gates

I just reread the police report on the Henry Louis Gates, Jr. incident; something struck me: From the very beginning of their encounter, Off. Crowley acknowledges his awareness--even prior to viewing Gates' Harvard University ID--that Gates 'was lawfully in the residence':

'While I was led to believe that Gates was lawfully in the residence, I was quite surprised and confused with the behavior he exhibited toward me. I asked Gates to provide me with photo identification so that I could verify that he resided at 17 Ware Street and so that I could radio my findings to ECC. Gates initially refused, demanding that I show him identification but then did supply me with a Harvard University identification card. Upon learning that Gates was affiliated with Harvard, I radioed and requested the presence of the Harvard University Police.'

Imagine you're the cop. You've approached the residence seeking a reported intruder, but looking though the front door you immediately surmise the unathletic-looking late middle-aged man in the foyer is there legally. Still, you demand to see his ID--and you see that he's associated with Harvard University. Rather obvious, then--you'd apologize and make a hasty exit, no?

Regardless the legal propriety of your standing there, speaking to a person you've already judged to be lawfully within the residence, and whose ID you've already confirmed--wouldn't the man's anger at your presence be somewhat understandable? Whatever your view concerning your presence there, wouldn't the homeowner's ill feeling toward uninvited company have an evident plausibility?

Our local right-wing bloggers still adamantly reject the limited government perspective on this matter. How bizarre.

Inequality and Social Justice

The brilliant Will Wilkinson has a newish paper out--Thinking Clearly about Economic Inequality, arguing that consumption statistics mean more than income statistics, in measuring economic inequality. (Consumption inequality proves less marked than income inequality.) Wilkinson interestingly calls into question conventional normative analyses relating to economic inequality, arguing against evaluating a country's social justice by looking at its Gini coefficient [while noting that the USA and Ghana currently rank similarly, in income inequality]. Will and Ezra Klein discuss the paper here, Klein responds in print here, Megan McArdle here.

Responding to Kevin Ecker & Twice Blessed

A number of conservatives have noted that Henry Louis Gates, Jr. was outside his house, 'shouting at the police' when he was arrested, and therefore the arrest was warranted, as he was 'creating a public disturbance'.

And I've asked commenters to read the police report and this analysis. Lowry Heussler casts considerable doubt on the police report:

'Read Crowley's report and stop on page two when he admits seeing Gates's Harvard photo ID. I don't care what Gates had said to him up until then, Crowley was obligated to leave. He had identified Gates. Any further investigation of Gates' right to be present in the house could have been done elsewhere. His decision to call HUPD seems disproportionate, but we could give him points for thoroughness if he had made that call from his car while keeping an eye on the house. Had a citizen refused to leave Gates' home after being told to, the cops could have made an arrest for trespass.'

Conservatives believe the police report ought to be accepted as a 100% trustworthy, factual document describing the event--that it should be accepted without any critical analysis. Local blogger Kevin Ecker--responding to me--writes:

Contrary to your willful ignoring of the facts, you can very easily create a public disturbance. In this case he wasn’t in his house any longer, he was out of his front steps yelling at the neighborhood.

It's weird that people generally inclined to intense skepticism toward government happily assume 'statements written by a police officer' = 'the facts'. I think you ought to read them first, do a bit of thinking--and hear out the key eyewitnesses.

Police do sometimes insert self-serving narratives into their reports. In attempting to understand what transpired between Gates and Crowley, I would like to read Gates' report on the event. It's odd conservatives are only interested in getting the perspective of one participant. And the police report--in my reading--has the flavor of 'an interested perspective'.

As noted, in 2003 a false charge of domestic assault came my way--and an Edina police officer filed a report. He took at face value my accuser's complete account; he simply wrote down her statement as if he had witnessed the event himself, 'from her perspective'. The police viewed this stance as a great advance in progressive law enforcement--to run roughshod over the rights of the accused; the police officer never spoke to me. (He assumed me to be guilty and therefore not worthy of a brief interview.) The cop didn't want to be bothered with any eyewitness who might dispute his preferred narrative. Anyone assuming the police report to be an omniscient, value-neutral perspective would have been surprised by the eventual acquittal. But a critically-minded adult reading the report couldn't have found the result much of a shock.

Sheila Kihne and Gatesgate

Sheila Kihne is Eden Prairie's biggest blogger--a fire breathing, all-knowing Bircher lacking the most minimal rhetorical gift. She's not interested in discussing issues with those unenmeshed in her certitudes, and she's utterly obsessed with race--and her own racial innocence.

Kihne sees an America in which racism has largely faded into insignificance among the Caucasian majority. President Obama is possibly the single most racist individual ever to occupy the Oval Office, and racism massively infests America's black population--eliciting a dainty, poignant pity in the altruistic scribbler. Only a small minority of Minnesotans can claim Kihne's mastery of America's complex racial dynamic. And (since only one person accepts her sociocultural narcissism) she's unbelievably bitter--bearing an unfathomable racial grudge.

In Kihne's experience, 'honesty gets you nowhere. Politeness gets you nowhere. When it comes to conversations about race it seems no matter what you say that whites are always going to be asked to apologize for something.'

Clearly, Kihne's views on many topics are idiotic--but her views on race border on some psychiatric disorder. (And she writes about race frequently--heroically calling for the day when African Americans learn to care as little about race as she does.)

Both Kihne and I have posted recently on Gatesgate--and both of us recounted unpleasant experiences we've each had, in dealing with untoward police. Her anecdote was in support of her view that real Americans accept police misconduct as a minor cost of living in the greatest nation on god's green earth; mine was intended to show that unprofessional police conduct is intolerable. Kihne's piece was formally in praise of a Wall Street Journal op-ed which Sheila apparently didn't find time to read: The piece's two central points were:

"Crowley had no business remaining on the scene once he had ascertained that Gates belonged in the house;" and

"On the merits, we’d say Obama got it right."

So even the WSJ faults the officer for his unprofessional conduct--and considers President Obama’s statement praiseworthy. Fine; but Kihne makes clear she rejects these points--and has zero interest in ascertaining the facts.

(Barack Obama's initial statement on Gatesgate was politically unwise--as the president has himself since acknowledged. That's a separate discussion.)

Skip Gates and Me

Emily Bazelon and Farai Chideya spoke today on Bloggingheads about the arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Returning from abroad, Gates found himself locked out of his Ware St. residence--so his driver and he--both African American--'broke in'. Some observer called the police--who came and arrested Gates. Bazelon and Chideya agree: Gates' arrest illustrates the persistence of racism even in Barack Obama's America--and indeed, the President himself has spoken out on Gate's arrest. Gates vows to redirect his scholarly work in response to the unjust arrest, and is demanding (and receiving) an apology from the Cambridge Police. [See Mark Kleiman, for additional convincing as to why the cop acted improperly.]

Gates has come to see the incident as a modern lesson in racism and the criminal justice system. The police department views it as an "regrettable and unfortunate" incident that "should not be viewed as one that demeans the character and reputation of Prof. Gates or the character of the Cambridge Police Department." [WaPo]

Gates, who in 1997 was declared to be one of the 25 most influential people of the United States by Time Magazine, told the officers at the scene that "this is what happens to black men in America," the police report said. [AFP]

In 2003, something somewhat similar occurred to me, when I was falsely accused of assault. The police deemed my accuser's account unassailable, due to her gender--and arrested me without any discussion at all, as I bore the brute's genetic marker XY. A prominent social service agency immediately came to my accuser's defense. I spent hours in jail, I couldn't see my son for weeks; it was a difficult several months. (The trial eventually went to a jury; I was acquitted.)

For brevity's sake, assume that Skip Gates and I were both unjustly arrested, based on 'genetic markers' of guilt. Observers immediately jump to Gates' defense, the system hiccups, the police issue an apology--Gates is never charged with anything. A quite different result in my case: Edina's Finest never express embarrassment; society generally assumes female innocence--and male turpitude--in such disputes, sometimes going so far as to question the possibility of female wiliness.

Edina Celebrates July 4

It drizzled a bit as Edina's Fourth of July parade got started. Leading the procession were dozens of military vehicles, some bearing soldiers from WW2 and Korea. The sheer number of obsolete green vehicles felt excessive--it's part of the ongoing national penance for '70s America's ostensible saliva- and phlegm-based welcome-home to Vietnam veterans. We stand and applaud as the old warriors roll by; I don't see any Vietnam veterans marching in the parade, nor any Gulf War vets. These public, symbolic efforts conflate how we feel about America's role in the world, 'our attitude' toward specific wars and our gratitude to those we assume served honorably--at a time when the Edina public feels quite removed from military culture. A Korean War vet holds a sign saying America's Forgotten War; perhaps the gratitude is unmeaningful and insufficient even to those being thanked.

So amid all the vague jingoism, it was nice to see Grandmothers for Peace marching by.

Ron Erhardt used to represent 41A in the MN House of Representatives. When he opposed his party leadership on the transportation bill, he became an internal enemy in Ron Carey's GOP. Regardless, he continued to run in 2008 as 41A's Moderate Independent Party man [a known entity, perchance, in your state or province?], finishing second in the close three-way race. Had the DFL endorsed Erhardt, he might well have won.

As he entered our field of vision, the 79-year-old hustled up to a jeep, told the driver he was a vet, was welcomed aboard and waved from the chauffeured jeep for the remainder of the parade.

US Rep. Erik Paulsen

Edina's state senator Geoff Michel