Category Archives: Draft board

Why ‘The Graduate’ Is a Vietnam Movie

Posted on December 19, 2019 by

The Graduate (1967) “And here’s to you, Mrs. Robinson, for your part in stopping the Vietnam War. True, Anne Bancroft’s seductress was hardly known for her interest in foreign affairs. But the movie in which she starred left an indelible … Continue reading →

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What a Combat Medic Still Carries

Posted on November 5, 2019 by

Rafael Matos was a combat medic in Vietnam in 1967. “The experience never leaves a combat medic: the sight, the smell, the touch of flowing blood. The mutilated limbs. The moment of watching, helpless, as life turns to death. Fifty … Continue reading →

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Training Teenagers for Guerrilla Warfare in the Wealthy Suburbs? Welcome to 1969

Posted on September 26, 2019 by

Stephen Kling using a toy gun and a water balloon “grenade” while teaching guerrilla war tactics to students from Scarsdale High School. The girl in pigtails played a “peasant,” as the original caption put it. Aug. 14, 1969. “In the … Continue reading →

Posted in Black Power, Draft board, Jerry Rubin, LSD, Marijuana, Pacifist, SDS, Vietnam War, Weather Underground | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Vietnam, Vietnam – Pete Hamill (April 1985)

Posted on September 9, 2019 by

“Sometimes, in odd places, it all comes back. You are walking a summer beach, stepping around oiled bodies, hearing only the steady growl of the sea. Suddenly, from over the horizon, you hear the phwuk-phwuk-phwuk of rotor blades and for … Continue reading →

Posted in Cambodia, CIA, Draft board, Hanoi, Henry Kissinger, John Kennedy, Laos, Lyn. Johnson, Nixon, R. McNamara, Saigon, Vietnam War | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Daniel Berrigan, My Dangerous Friend

Posted on September 6, 2019 by

“I was a twenty-two-year-old seminarian in 1965, struggling to imagine myself in what already seemed the impossible life of the Catholic priest, when I came upon the writing of Daniel Berrigan, a Jesuit poet. Berrigan, who died on Saturday at … Continue reading →

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When the Government Went After Dr. Spock

Posted on August 27, 2019 by

Benjamin Spock at a makeshift jail in Washington during a day of antiwar demonstrations in May 1971. “In the national memory of 1968 — dominated by images of student protests, police riots and assassinations — the Boston conspiracy trial of … Continue reading →

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The Vietnam War Was Already Lost, but I Had to Go Anyway

Posted on July 12, 2019 by

Incoming troops at the Bien Hoa Air Base near Saigon. June 1969 “In the summer of 1969, the first American troops were withdrawn from Vietnam. Their war was over, but mine was just beginning. The previous November, Richard M. Nixon … Continue reading →

Posted in Draft board, Henry Kissinger, Ho Chi Minh Trail, Nixon, Vietnam War | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment