I have long believed that the American right wing has never gotten over the social changes of the 1960s and in particular, that the United States lost the Vietnam war–which they blame on the hippies, the pointy-headed professors, and the liberal media. To them, Iraq is not about WMDs, bringing democracy to the Middle East, or even keeping the oil flowing. Rather, it's an effort to re-fight Vietnam and prove, more than a generation later, that the hawks were correct then and still correct today.
Earlier this year, I read an interesting book, 1973 Nervous Breakdown: Watergate, Warhol, and the Birth of Post-Sixties America, by Andreas Hillen, a professor at City College of New York. As the title suggests, the book heavily emphasized pop culture (the author is a big fan of The New York Dolls) but his description of the famous homecoming that year for American prisoners of war speaks volumes about why John McCain is waging such a sleazy, low-ball campaign...
Read More