VIETNAM VETERANS FOR ACADEMIC REFORM
The University of Kansas Student Auxiliary
V.V.A.R.: Leading the student revolt on campus against speech codes, political correctness, multiculturalism, gender feminism, dormitory re-education, lying about Vietnam, and other instruments of academic oppression.
John Hughes - Honorary Chairman
C Co., 3rd Marine Reg., 3rd Marine Div.
Recipient - Purple Heart
Two tours of duty - Vietnam
Leonard Magruder - Founder/President
Former professor of psychology - Suffolk College, N.Y.
Member: National Association of Scholars
CONTACT: Magruder44@aol.com - Phone: 785-312-9303
DELUDED IN THE 60’S- AND AGAIN TODAY
by Leonard Magruder
March 5, 2003
A phenomenon I personally observed (but which was never mentioned by the media) at both the Chicago and Houston Vietnam vet parades of the 80’s was people weeping in the streets as they realized how deluded they had been as an anti-war protestor in the 60’s. Vets, some without arms or legs, would stop to comfort them. As one who often engaged in one-man protests against the anti-war protests I can tell you that the following is an accurate description of just how deluded the protestors of that era were. And today’s protestors are even more deluded, and much more dangerous. Here are excerpts from an an article by Gerald Posner, a 60’s antiwar protestor, writing in FrontPage Magazine.
“As a political science major I thought I had all the answers. The North Vietnamese were merely freedom fighters trying to liberate their country from the shackles of imperialism. The U.S. war was unjust and being waged against innocents.
“Three decades later I have no pride in the memory of those protests. Rather I wonder how it was possible to be so mistaken about real politics and world events. The so-called peace movement had completely deluded itself, conveniently ignoring any evidence that countered its agenda. How was it not possible to have seen that the North was a convenient tool for the Soviet to bleed the US and that it represented one of the most repressive old-line communist dictatorships since Stalin?
“Will today’s peace protestors eventually feel as foolish as I do? I think even more so. Thirty years ago there was never a question of North Vietnam attacking America or its civilians around the globe. But today’s peaceniks, who seem to be more interested in protecting Saddam than in trying to prevent the massive loss of life on American soil if terrorists get their hands on weapons of mass destruction, are playing with much more dangerous consequences. They are deluding themselves to the post 9/11 realities, and in so doing , their success would put the country at considerable risk.”
David Horowitzs, a 60’s anti-war leader who later changed his mind, wrote recently, “If my comrades in the 60’s were to ever pause to consider the consquences of their actions they would instantly drown in an ocean of blood.” Wait til you see the ocean these new deluded are going to cause.
If, like myself, you have followed the literature on the Vietnam War from the beginnning, as in biased and inaccurate antiwar polemics such as Fire in the Lake by Frances Fitzgerald, to the far more accurate, and objective histories coming out today, such as Unheralded Victory by Mark Woodfruff, A Better War by Lewis Sorley, and above all, Vietnam:The Necessary War, by Michael Lind, you have seen that what is taught about the Vietnam War at our universities, except perhaps in R.O.T.C. departments, is nothing but antiquated self-serving mythology for those who would not serve or supported the antiwar movement. If the newer works were used, and they are not, and the new documentaries shown such as the four-part Long Way Home and my own How the Campus Lied About Vietnam, students would immediately see just how deluded the 60’s protestors were, and how the current crop is making the same mistakes all over again.
You can find the history of my decades long activism in the 10-part series, Vietnam and the Media.
Also at this site, recent articles I wrote as President of Vietnam Veterans for Academic Reform attacking the current anti-war movement. It really is appalling to see the campus falling into delusion again.
This article may be reproduced in any form.
Founder/President, V.V.A.R.
Phone: 785-312-9303
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