“Our West Coast Became A Potential Combat Zone”

Here’s the US propaganda video detailing the “Japanese Relocation.” Think of it what you may, it’s pretty self-explanatory.

Sometimes the truth is truly the best fiction (or so we wish…)

“My Answer is Yes, but My Judgment is No.”

“We saw Vietnam as an element of the Cold War, not as they saw it: a Civil War.”

I mentioned this briefly to Prof. Scanlon last class, & it’s something that struck me as wholly fascinating concerning the Vietnam War & nationalist tendencies in countries separated by thousands & thousands of miles. I was lucky to find the actual clip from The Fog of War - Errol Morris’ incredible (really, really incredible) documentary on former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara - I was thinking of, in which McNamara describes meeting with the former Prime Minister of N. Korea 20 years after the U.S. pulled troops from Vietnam. Basically, McNamara says that because the U.S. was not able to empathize with its enemy during the Vietnam War (which he goes into much more detail on if you watch the whole movie - & you should; I have it with me at school if you want to borrow it. Seriously.), the war escalated beyond our purpose. Our enemy - the Vietnamese (the “Communists”) - were fighting because their view of the war was that the United States were working to replace the French as a colonial power, whereas we were fighting for the “nobler cause” of stomping out Communism. It’s a pretty long clip (a little less than 10 minutes) & it’s worth watching, but if you haven’t got the time or patience, the part I’m actually talking about starts at minute 6:35 & goes to the end (I guess if you watch it on this page it goes backwards, so it would be from 2:44 to the end). Wait for it to load if you want, & then fast forward. Sometimes the actual videos don’t show up on the class blog, so here’s a direct link (or just watch it below):

Brad.

Roma in nero e bianco

Questo fotografia è del Palazzo Braschi, in Roma.

Amo il stile della fotografia perché vedo che il terreno è gli spirali, e cosi, la fotografia sembra “3D,” o con tre dimensioni!

Brad E.