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READING McNAMARA: VIETNAM AND KENT STATE
Author(s) -
Gitlin Todd
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
peace and change
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1468-0130
pISSN - 0149-0508
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0130.1996.tb00264.x
Subject(s) - spanish civil war , vietnam war , democracy , reading (process) , limiting , state (computer science) , innocence , law , political science , movement (music) , history , sociology , art , politics , aesthetics , mechanical engineering , algorithm , computer science , engineering
The Vietnam War followed from systematic misconceptions about American innocence. The movement against the war has been misconstrued as strictly self‐interested when, in fact, it was largely patriotic. The killings at Kent State in May 1970 prompted the most widespread demonstrations against the war of that era—as well as severe polarization in American society. The antiwar movement succeeded in limiting U.S. military operations and breathed new life into democracy. Robert S. McNamara's account of the war fails to strike deeply enough at the assumptions on which the war was reared.