> He has represented himself as having become an opponent of the war, but, on closer
> inspection, his opposition is nearer to that of Chuck Norris than Benjamin Spock. He
> purports to have been incensed at Richard Nixon's extension of the war to
> Cambodia but freely, and without open hesitation, he accepted from Nixon the
> Congressional Medal of Honor for a subsequent action in which he lost part of his
> leg--even though, he recently claimed, he felt that Nixon was using him as a pawn to
> support the Cambodian escalation. The portrait painted by the combination of Bob
> Kerrey's practice and preachment looks suspiciously like someone who has tried to
> have it every way at once. I found myself musing that he is what Bill Clinton would
> have been like if Clinton hadn't been able to avoid going to the Army.
>
Those who don't remember should know that Clinton's opposition to the War mostly involved participating in the Vietnam Moratorium of 1969. This was a project of liberal late-comers to an anti-war position, who were scrambling to catch up, but who carefully didn't take the position in favor of immediate withdrawal, though that was the standard position by that time.
The moratorium was a pretty clear-cut attempt at co-optation, by political forces that feared the mounting mass mobilization against the war under radical leadership. Most of the leaders were campus student government types on the make -- like the young Bill Clinton.
Christopher Rhoades Dÿkema
Michael Pollak wrote:
> I thought this was one of the best articles on the subject, even better
> than Caldwell. But it's only now been put up on the Progressive website:
>
> URL: http://www.progressive.org/reed0601.html
>
> Michael
>
> __________________________________________________________________________
> Michael Pollak................New York City..............mpollak at panix.com