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Going Home Again: America After Vietnam

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 September 2018

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Extract

The “After Vietnam” in the title says something about the American mood, not about the military realities of America's war in Indochina. This reminder is unfortunately necessary, for too many of us seem able to forget the brutal air war in which our country has dropped more than six and a half million tons of bombs (more than three times the bomb tonnage dropped on Europe, Africa and Asia in all of World War II) on a region about the size of Texas. There is a fearful deja vu about accepting an invitation to speak to “American conscience and consciousness after Vietnam,” for the first time I spoke to the “post-Vietnam” situation was in 1968, and one cannot help wondering if in 1976 this present statement will seem as naively sanguine as does that of 1968. Nonetheless, and if for no other reason than to maintain our sanity, it is inevitable that we reach beyond the present horror and try to anticipate the shape of American conscience and consciousness after these years of madness.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs 1972

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