Column: It's time to wake up America! Our history is sordid, our future is dark

On June 9, 2022, The Herald-Times printed my column: There's nothing honorable about U.S. military involvement in the world since WWII. (Note: On June 22, I correctly amended the title from “since WWII” to “since 1953.”)

A key paragraph is: Not often recognized is how “the domino theory” of the spread of Communism was false propaganda that fostered the wealth of the military/industrial complex.

How? When the U.S. lost the Vietnam War, was there any clue communism was spread to other dominos? No, and the CIA, State Department and the Pentagon made sure not to mention it.

In addition to the scare tactics of Sen. Joe McCarthy in the ‘50s, John and Allen Dulles did their best to undermine the world for the benefit of themselves and America’s wealthy elite.

In January 2024, I discovered a CBS interview with General Westmoreland recorded on Dec 9, 2011. See for yourself: Mike Wallace interview of William Westmoreland on YouTube. Specifically at issue is the fact Westmoreland consistently underestimated the enemy’s numbers in south Vietnam by half or more! Of course, this meant U.S. forces were never able to overcome their disadvantage.

Painfully, we are aware of the consequences of his horrible and inexcusable leadership from 1964 to 1968: losses of American lives that made any sense of victory in the field impossible. When President Johnson learned of the general’s perfidy, deceitfulness, untrustworthiness and treachery in his violation of allegiance or faith and confidence, effectively understood as treason, he went on TV on March 31, 1968, and announced at the end of a speech that he would not run for reelection nor accept the nomination of the Democratic Party if offered. In U.S. history, Westmoreland indirectly had more Americans killed than any other person.

In the June 9, 2022, column I wrote: “I went to Vietnam in 1969 and served as a combat platoon sergeant. In a VC ambush, Joe Wysong of Richmond, Indiana, died in my arms with an AK-47 round in his heart. All for nothing. In Vietnam, 58,000 Americans died. Millions of South Vietnamese died — murdered for the benefit of Sullivan & Cromwell, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, Halliburton, not to forget folks in Congress who benefitted from the deep pockets of this ilk."

On the disastrous history of the United States of America’s interference in other counties since the Korean War, 1953, there has been nothing honorable about what we have done to people. Even today! Charles Fredericks writes, “It is clear that Ukraine is undergoing war crimes committed by Russia against a civilian population that made no threatening move towards them, but our analysis should not end there. … The common enemy of every nation, and life itself, are twin evils that avail themselves of any political system regardless its configuration, and they consistently reinforce each other: the global arms industry and the fossil fuel industry.”

As bad and un-American this history has been, our immediate future prospects do not look any better: Christian Nationalism, Fascism, the American acceptance of lying as truth, deceit of politicians and corporate leaders, a Supreme Court aiming to restore 1950 to American life, the common outright rejection of human rights and the common welfare of ALL Americans.

Oh, I almost forgot.

Conditions in the world are increasingly becoming favorable for nuclear war. With so many in our country losing their minds, anticipating immolation, inferno, devastation and disaster do not seem to be out of the question. Wake up, America!

The Rev. David Garshaw of Bloomington is a clergy member with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).