Paul Begala Rewrites History, But Nobody Is Reading.

I have major, major problems with the whole Iraq = Vietnam schtick that gets tossed around as if it is somehow profound. By the way, Vietnam was a basically stupid war, as far as I am concerned. Not necessarily wrong, just stupid.

But get a load of what Paul Begala writes today:

It seems to me the American people never really forgave the Democrats for being right about Vietnam.

[...]

One of the grave sins of the anti-Vietnam War movement was, I think, a conflation of the conflict with the combatants.  Instead of focusing their fire and their ire on the commander in chief, too many liberals wound up blaming the conscripts who so bravely fought Mr. Nixon's war.

Yep. That's right. Begala seems to forget which party Kennedy and Johnson belonged to. What a maroon.

Comments

[Elrod]

I think Begala is referring to the latter part of the war, especially as the 1972 election season came around. While Democratic Presidents launched the Vietnam War (actually Eisenhower was the first to back Ngo Dinh Diem with advisors in 1955, but only a handful) the Democratic rank and file no longer supported the war by 1967. When Eugene McCarthy launched his anti-war Presidential bid in 1968 it was clear that the Democratic base disagreed vehemently with Johnson and Humphrey. Nixon was vague about the war, promising only "peace with honor". Only Wallace supported further escalation. By 1972 the Democratic Party had become entirely anti-war, with Humphrey and Wallace defeated in the 1972 primaries by McGovern. The anti-war movement grew stronger during the Nixon Administration, especially when it was revealed in 1970 that he secretly bombed Cambodia. By that point, it was "Nixon's War" in the anti-war mindset, and among Democrats generally.

When Begala says the Democrats opposed the war (and was right to do so), he means after 1968. And though many Republicans also opposed the war (Mark Hatfield, for example) Democrats carried the anti-war flag.

[Daniel]

Elrod,

I've heard all this before, and many times. As you said, the whole "Mr. Nixon's War" meme was from the anti-war movement, but even then was fundamentally wrong. The problem with people like Begala is they throw around phrases like this, knwing that not many people will either care or remember. So in the mind of the stupid or lazy or young (not all the same thing--our young don't actually get taught history any more) they see someone of some stature pretending that only Richard Nixon was involved in that war and they say "Oh yea, those evil Republicans again."

Also, as McGovern was trounced in the general election, just how many mainstream Democrats supported him? I just find this sloppy and intellectually dishonest.

[Michael Heinz]

Elrod,

A minority of the democratic rank and file may not have supported the war, but it was Nixon who was elected in 1968 by promising "peace with honor."

Remember that it wasn't the Republican convention that protesters attacked in 1968.