As one of the veterans of the Viet Nam war/street-protestor division, I note that April 30th was the fortieth anniversary of the fall of Saigon. For me, the most memorable part of hearing the news was how despondent it made me. Deeper currents were stirring within me and I was on the turn towards who I am today. There is an interesting article today in The Australian on Five Myths about the Vietnam War. It had been a turning point, all right, and the residual remaining of newspaper anti-Western crusades and student ignorance matched against an arrogance rising to preposterous levels. In the spirit of what will get you is what you know that ain’t so, it is an article I recommend. It finishes with a genuinely important message:

It is regrettable that the Vietnam War has spawned so many myths that still adhere 40 years after the war’s end. Until we get the history of the Vietnam War correct, politicians and the educated public are likely to make bad decisions about the wisdom of intervention, and ­possible methods of involvement, in future military conflicts.

I might also mention that I have come across this quite interesting and valuable list of 10 books to celebrate the socialist holiday of May Day. I was speaking to someone of a different generation the other day about how influential Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn had been on my thinking and he said, Russian background notwithstanding, that he had never heard of him. With things being as they are, I can well believe it.

Of the ten-plus-one books listed, I have read nine. The Gulag Archipelago made the difference for me, and the others came after. History being of no interest in a post-modern world, these things are seemingly less important. Know thine enemy is, however, a useful notion. These books help, and the descendants of those these books were written to warn us against are everywhere.