Learning the Wrong Lessons from the Vietnam War

My Interview with Dick Price at the LA Progressive

BILL ASTORE

MAY 16, 2025

Yesterday, I talked to Dick Price, a Vietnam War veteran, at the LA Progressive about the U.S. military, the Vietnam War, the all-volunteer military, media coverage, and why America just can’t stop making war.

When no one is held accountable for failure, when lies are used as the basis for killing, when war produces colossal profits for a select few, when Congress refuses to take responsibility for oversight, when war budgets keep climbing to the trillion dollar mark, it isn’t all that surprising that wars prove essentially endless as democracy withers.

One thought on “Learning the Wrong Lessons from the Vietnam War”

  1. A footnote to the overall topic, perhaps under the heading of “dodging the embarrassment”…

    Retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal was on Bill Maher’s program the other day to push his new book. But there were a few topics Maher wished to discuss, e.g., Hegseth and DEI being one. The one that I got a kick out of was about the two $60 million+ F-18s lost off the carrier “Truman” in the Red Sea. Maher wanted to know how this could happen.

    McChrystal went right into a practiced response, so smoothly it wasn’t even noticed. It began with, “Of course I wasn’t there,” but then directed the focus to the plane handlers, saying essentially, “Look, these carriers are big ships, with a 5,000 person crew. Most of them are 18-year old kids whom you wouldn’t give the car keys to.” Good laugh over that one, but that pretty much sufficed as the answer, inadequate as it was.

    What McChrystal must have known, but couldn’t say on a show like Maher’s, is that while this F-18 was being maneuvered either on the flight deck or below on the hangar deck near one of the openings, the “Truman” had to engage in a sharp evasive maneuver to avoid a Houthi missile fired at it. Can’t admit to the audience that little impoverished Yemen could be so much of a threat to the mighty US Navy that one of its supercarriers had to change course abruptly. Also can’t explain the rationality of expending over $1 billion in missiles and bombs to punish the Yemenis for doing the moral thing in launching missiles against commercial vessels carrying arms to Israel to continue with the genocide.

    No mention about the second F-18 lost, said to be due to an “arresting gear” problem that prevented it from being halted on deck before running over. Both pilots ejected safely and were rescued by helicopter.

    While no further details were given, the question can reasonably be asked whether necessary maintenance was being deferred because of the increased pace of operations coupled with the extended e areatours of duty the “Truman” was on, indicating a greater involvement in area than officials care to acknowledge.

    Well anyway, what’s $1.12 billion or so out of a $1 trillion+ “defense” budget?

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