 The Fault Lines of Viet Nam
by Byron King
March 3, 2004 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "…Does Mars, the God of War, have a sense of humor? Viewed from the very large perspective, Viet Nam created fault lines in every aspect of American culture and politics. And those fault lines still cause earthquakes. But the legacy of Viet Nam is a mismanaged fiat currency. My concern is that, when things start to unwind, the nation will be led by one or the other of two men and two political parties for whom Viet Nam was formative. The Viet Nam War will have come full circle, and Mars will be standing at the door, demanding payment in full, and probably in gold…" ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Editor's Note: The following is an excerpt from a letter to your editor, Bill Bonner, written by his faithful (and unpaid) Pennsylvanian correspondent, Byron King.] I must confess that I usually do not read the postings on the [Daily Reckoning] Discussion Board. But I heard through the grapevine that the "Lucky Jack Kerry" item of last week hit a nerve. Wow. Drew some blood, it would appear. Example 1: "Just read your account of John Kerry in Vietnam. You have achieved the confidence level accorded to Matt Drudge. All gossip, no fact. I will therefore give the same credence to your investment suggestions and economic comments. Under no circumstances will I continue to subscribe to any Agora newsletter as they are known by the company they keep, YOU." - Ernie Winters, Discussion Board, re: "Retired Rear Admiral," 2/29/04 Example 2: "Go ahead and cancel your subscriptions to Agora publications. You will just retire poor and die broke. And you will retire poorer, and die more broke, if the U.S. elects John 'two-faced' Kerry as president. I'm sorry that Bush and Kerry both cannot lose the next election. Neither deserves the office, and I think that out of 290 million people, the U.S. can do better. But if Bush is the problem, Kerry is not the answer. And I will still keep reading the Daily Reckoning because I cannot afford not to." - Schrapnel Man, Discussion Board, re: "Retired Rear Admiral," 2/29/04 Bill, you do not shy away from controversy. How many other web sites host authors who call Alan Greenspan "a moron?" Or refer to politicians a "imbeciles?" Or tell the worshipers of the Western dollar-standard that their days are numbered because their entire monetary premise is false? You and yours do such a good job of editorializing about the demise of the dollar, the virtues of gold ownership, plus philosophizing about life, love, your family, and even about dancing the Tango, it pains me to think I may have unintentionally led you into the Mekong fever swamps of politics, 2004. It's that damn Viet Nam War, still with us after all these years. When will it end? Then again, when does any government program ever end? Like you in Maryland, I grew up in Pennsylvania with the Viet Nam War as background. It seems to have lasted so long that I don't remember there not being a "War in Viet Nam." There it was, every night on the evening news and every morning in the daily newspaper. Uncles and cousins were drafted and shipped out. Every now and then, my school would host a memorial service for some unfortunate soul who met a sad fate in a distant land. Even after the Viet Nam War ended, sort-of, if you can say that the Paris Accords of 1973 brought it to an "end," the War was not over. There were the obvious consequences, like North Viet Nam invading and conquering the South in 1975, dominoes subsequently falling and boat people washing up, literally or figuratively, on shores from Thailand to California. There were related consequences. The Street Without Joy divided a nation, and screwed up the collective heads of the bow wave of the Baby Boom. We still live with the pathologies - latent and patent, as often as not rooted in 1960s Marxism - evident to a significant degree in American academe, news media, and even religion among others. And the Viet Nam War is utterly manifest in today's American politics. We still have the distinctions of wartime class and service, trotted out onto the parade ground when convenient to one side or another. Some people went over there. Some people didn't go, for a good many different reasons. But what a miserable event to be a defining element of U.S. society. Young John Kerry went over to Viet Nam, got shot at, and collected a chest full of medals. And then he came home and bad-mouthed his military colleagues, accusing them in public comments and in testimony before the U.S. Senate of having committed massive levels of war crimes. (Public record, every word in official text, there is film in the archives…) This was raw defamation, and ignorant, irresponsible, mean-spirited, false and despicable on the part of an Ivy League, Yale Skull & Bones dandy. A former Army Chaplain once described to me his disgust with Kerry by saying, "When I heard Kerry accuse U.S. soldiers of committing war crimes, I cried at the magnitude of the lie. I cried for those American soldiers to whom I gave last rites, and the tragedy that they could not confront this punk to deny his blood-libels of their struggle and sacrifice." Young George Bush, also an Ivy League, Yale Skull & Bones dandy, stayed home, flying the F-102 jet aircraft. Instead of two years before the draft, he spent two years in flight training and four more under a service obligation flying a dangerous machine. The F-102 was an aerodynamic hog - single engine, no in-flight refueling, hot on the landing strip. It is not unfair to say that flying the F-102 was probably as good a way to die a fast and violent death as any other. This aircraft, the one that W flew, made many a widow and Gold Star Mother, yet never fired a shot in the skies of Southeast Asia. To G.W. Bush's credit, and apparently to the chagrin of his political opponents, he managed not to kill himself, or anyone else, while flying that beast. But somehow, such a level of domestic service to homeland air defense during time of foreign war is not good enough to the aging counter-culture, 34 years later. After all, W missed a flight physical towards the end of his National Guard obligation. Now there's a disqualifying trait if ever I heard of one. Does Mars, the God of War, have a sense of humor? Or is he just mean? Viet Nam screwed up the destinies of the two men who would one day compete for the presidency of the nation. Viewed from the very large perspective, Viet Nam created fault lines in every other aspect of American culture and politics. And those fault lines still cause earthquakes. LBJ paid for the War by masking its cost, that is with deficit spending, and by the accounting trick of moving the Social Security "Trust Fund" into the general revenues of the federal government. "Pay for a war? Whaddayamean, pay for a war? What war? There ain't nobody here but us Great Society politicians." Nixon inherited the political, military and financial mess of Viet Nam, and after three years he declared that "we are all Keynesians now" and went off the gold standard. In other words, intentionally or not, Nixon condemned holders of capital - tangible capital like mines, mills and factories, and soft capital like U.S. bonds and savings accounts - to pay for America's war by devaluing their currency over time. Thus did the nation pay for its war, as well as the rest of its national spending binge, with decades of inflation and by robbing generations of savers of the value they intended to store. Thirty-some years after Nixon's fateful act, the nation is beginning to awaken to the realization that capital has fled these shores. Oh yes, there is an appearance of progress and advancement to the U.S. economy. Housing developments and strip malls spread like kudzu vine across the landscape, connected by ribbons of fresh concrete. Ships dock at U.S. ports and disgorge millions of containers full of good stuff. Dollars are plentiful, if you know where to look. The population grows larger by the day, and the biggest medical problems of society are associated with overeating. But the legacy of Viet Nam is a mismanaged fiat currency. The three biggest industries in the U.S. today are government, housing and automobiles, which are all forms of internal consumption, financed by cheap dollars. Not to rain on the picnic, but there is no significant export market for government, housing and U.S.-built automobiles. What with a merchandise trade deficit of about $500 billion per year, the nation's biggest export is U.S. dollars, and these are units of currency now worth but a fraction of their former value. At some point, sooner or later - and I think sooner - the false economy will come to an end. My concern is that, when things start to unwind, the nation will be led by one or the other of two men and two political parties for whom Viet Nam was formative. The Viet Nam War will have come full circle, and Mars will be standing at the door, demanding payment in full, and probably in gold. |
