Vietnam, Again

No time to say much, but Robert Parry has an excellent piece about a TRUE American hero who tried to save lives during a horrible event in Vietnam:

In one of the darkest moments of modern American history – on March 16, 1968, in the Vietnamese village of My Lai – Thompson landed his helicopter between rampaging U.S. soldiers and a group of terrified Vietnamese villagers to save their lives.

I've often wondered if Sy Hersh's big scoop on the My Lai massacre, one that pretty much made his career, wasn't really a cover-up of the much larger and more tragic story of Operation Phoenix, a CIA program to assassinate Viet Cong, suspected Viet Cong, and innocent civilians who might be aiding Viet Cong. Truly a tragedy, and something maybe someday I'll find time to blog about.

On a related note, driving home today from work I heard a most eloquent voice telling how the America that never was must be, of how the truth about Vietnam was now "incandescently clear", a man who said those who told him to stop talking about Vietnam never knew him. The voice was that of the late, great Dr. Martin Luther King, in his famous anti-Vietnam war speech, given a year to the day before he was assassinated.

Next Monday is Martin Luther King day. In his time, MLK was often on TV, as was Malcolm X, and Robert Kennedy. Today, such voices, even though they exist, have no platform in the MSM. We lost so much more than great leaders and hope in 1968. We lost our values. I hope in my lifetime this country dares find them again. We will not survive without them.