[humanrights]

Dave,

I was in ROTC training to be a 2nd Lieutenant in the years 1964-1968. I was in 'boot camp' at Fort Devens. I saw things that opened my eyes sufficiently to opt out.

Have you ever stood ten feet from camouflaged soldiers for several minutes and not been able to see them? My eyes were 25-20 at the time (I could see at 25 feet what the average good eye could see at 20 feet. I also had more acute hearing than most.) I could not see these ten soldiers even though they were only ten to twenty feet away. Neither could the majority of the company (200 young men).

On another occasion, I led a patrol down a simulated Vietnam trail. We were told there would be a trip wire attached to a simulated Claymore mine (which can blow you in half). We were told there would be an ambush. Our patrol tripped the wire and never saw the ambush even after they had fired at us with automatic weapons for a minute.

If the Vietcong wanted to kill you, they could – short of carpet bombing square miles to kill ten or twenty of them.

I’m not sure we could fight a jungle war today.

[Political Interest]

I am no expert on this era, as I did not live through it, however I am sure the 1950s were a time of naivety for many people, especially priveleged white middle class Americans. It was during that era that there was not as much technology for communication or an internationalisation of trade that we have now days. You could quite happily live in your suburb or in the mountains without any contact with any other cultures, races or ways of life. It is imaginable that this is what provided many Americans the confidence that they had up until the 1960s when they began to question what their country was doing, both domestically and abroad. The latter we can attribute largely in part to a greater discovery of other societies and cultures, perhaps? On an interpersonal level this no doubt defused racism between certain cultures, especially if they knew little about each other and therefore had no reason for confrontation. I am sure that a Korean meeting an American in a neutral context would no doubt get on well with him. Today with greater knowledge of people and places, we perhaps have more pre-conceived notions of others? This is not to say that there was no racism back in the 1950s. Of course there was, probably much worse than today, especially given the same ignorance and naivety discussed.