What strikes me after reading Zinn was the 1968 My Lai massacre. It seems that these actions by the United States were like a “just because” action; no real meaning to methodically kill women, children, and elders. The part that really makes me question the United States and truth-telling is that the United States tried to cover up killing innocent women, children, and elders. Considering that only one officer was convicted of this crime just shows the idea that the United States tries to cover up and hid a lot. There were other incidents of killing that made it seem that the Americans generals really did approve of and support the bombing of the civilians.
Seeing that Nixon campaigned to and promised that he’d end Vietnam was semi-promising. We see that yes, he did remove troops out of Vietnam over his time in office, but he continued the military’s policies; bombing civilians… He didn’t end the war in Vietnam he just made Americans believe that’s what he did. What concerns me, in the end, is how many military unknowns are there? What is still being covered up? Will we ever understand what the United States is telling us, versus what they aren’t telling.
It also stuck out to me how much the United States government tried to cover up during this war and in general. Obviously it was a very controversial war to begin with, but after many people heard about the things they were trying to cover up, the backlash was incredibly significant.
I agree with you that it is shocking, the amount of cover up’s that the government utilized in protecting themselves from the poor reputation of killing civilians, women, and children. However, as you addressed at the bottom of your piece, the United States is not the only country that does things like this and lies to its people. War is a necessary evil, and unfortunately with war comes the loss of life for many, not just soldiers. While quite unfortunate, the United States will not, and should not openly admit to committing war crimes because that will generate a further loss of life and spark hatred and more war.
This was interesting to me as well because I was quite surprised by the amount of background information that was kept from the rest of America while the Vietnam War was going on. It also concerns me the amount of unknown information that is kept from the American people.