What modern liberals need to learn from the failed Vietnam War protestors

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September 28, 2017- by Steven E. Greer, MD

I have been watching with jaw dropped the mesmerizing PBS documentary on The Vietnam War by the Ken Burns. Even people who fought in Vietnam are saying that they have learned a lot from this series of films.

What impressed me right away was the uncanny similarities between contemporary StopTrump “resistance” and the Vietnam War protestors of 1970 onward. Both efforts failed miserably for the same reasons, but the lessons of the 1970’s seem to have been lost on the current resistance.

The original Vietnam War protestors were mostly honorable people who truly cared about the cause. The first wave of kids simply believed the war was wrong and did not like seeing their peers killed by the thousands after being drafted. Then, the movement became more of a personal survival cause as the draft expanded to include white college students and began to disproportionately draft blacks and Hispanics.

However, sometime around 1970, the anti-war movement jumped the shark. The massive crowds of protestors started to become infested with thrill-seeking, drug-using, hippies. The older “silent majority” saw these hippies as nothing but punks. Blue-collar New York City construction workers beat up protesters carrying Viet Cong flags and burning the American flag.

The Vietnam protests of the 1970’s actually backfired and generated stronger support for Nixon and the war. Despite the unpopularity of the war, the repugnant hippies generated sympathy for Nixon and he was elected to a second term.

Do you see the similarities?

Today, President Trump is viewed as the sympathetic victim because the far-left StopTrumpers are doing all of the wrong things, repeating the mistakes of Vietnam. No one believes for a second that the media elite in Manhattan give a damn about Russian meddling in the election, or Jared Kushner, or Trump’s sons. In fact, just a few years ago, Trump was the star of the same Manhattan events mingling with the TV personalities who claim to be disgusted by him now.

Americans may be very uninformed about the details, but they can spot hypocrisy a mile away. They knew back in the 1970’s that most of the hippies were just enjoying the thrill. Today, no one believes that Stephen Colbert or anyone on CBS News are sincere.

Today, we have this growing movement to kneel as the National Anthem plays and the flag waves during football games. President Trump, being the expert at timing and manipulation, entered the debate at the right moment and has now baited the resistance into looking like treasonists who spit on the active military.

The people protesting the American Flag today repulse most people the same way that Jane Fonda did when she traveled to Hanoi and called for the execution of American POW’s. Today, we have has-been comedians desperate for attention holding up realistic looking severed heads of the President of the United Sates. Back then, there was Hanoi Jane. All of them are narcistic failed entertainers.

Today, we have the masked and helmeted anarchists thrill-seekers called Antifa creating chaos with violence. They have once again taken over universities and stifled free speech, just as their predecessors did in 1969. In 1970, the violent factions of the antiwar movement burned down the Kent State University ROTC building, causing the National Guard to shoot into the crowds the next day, killing innocent bystanders. Despite what is now seen to have been a dumb move by Governor Rhoades of Ohio, polls at the time showed that most Americans blamed the anarchists and students.

Bill Zimmerman, a prominent anti-war activist, stated in the documentary that he realized the militancy of the movement was turning off people. He said, “So, we were doing exactly the wrong thing”

The political strategists of today are also making the same mistakes of the Vietnam era, but it is by design. President Trump and his opponents, such as the Clintons, the Obamas, George Soros, etc., are all people who were of fighting age during Vietnam. However, instead of being drafted, the got out of it using their privilege and watched from the Ivory Towers of Yale and Harvard.

Clinton et al saw back then how Richard Nixon encroached upon treason by interfering with the Vietnam peace talks while he was just a candidate. So, the geniuses today do what? The same people who miscalculated badly in their own campaign of 2016 are now trying to reincarnate those ghosts of Nixon and use them against Trump. The plan to have their puppet media harp daily about how Trump somehow sought assistance from Russia to win the election is no coincidence with the Nixon era. I guarantee you that the entire lame plan was hatched by Bill Clinton sitting in his home sometime after the 2016 election, scheming and brooding with Hillary, drinking chardonnay.

Clinton et al saw back then how Richard Nixon was crippled by scandal, and had to resign before being impeached. So, the geniuses today are trying to impeach Trump. The only problem is that they started this effort before President Trump was even inaugurated. The tight scrutiny actually made the undisciplined Trump wake up to reality, realize his limitations, and become a better president. There is zero chance, in my opinion, that Special Prosecutor Mueller will dare indict Trump. If he did, the Supreme Court would not allow it to proceed, and congress, with approval ratings near 10%, lacks the power to impeach.

It has all backfired. Trump is stronger because of the “resistance”, just as Nixon was very popular going into the 1972 election. The only reason that Nixon had to resign was due to his own paranoia and unforced errors in Watergate. He was leading opponent George McGovern by a landslide and had no need to break into the Democratic National Committee offices in Watergate (Those same poor decisions are why his Vietnam War went so badly).

Ironically, the actual Vietnam War failed because the generals were using tactics from past wars that did not work in the jungle against non-uniformed Viet Cong. Today, the Clinton/Obama resistance is using tactics from the Nixon administration against Trump, flailing and failing miserably.

Icon of the far-left Bill Maher recognizes how his base is often counterproductive to the cause. But the leaders of the liberals are crooked and doing just fine in the status quo. Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer are going nowhere. Mistakes of the Vietnam era will be repeated.