On Tue, 29 Jul 1997, Bill Bartlett wrote:

>
> Everyone likes to poke shit at TV, but there is strong argument that it
> was, indeed, the couch potatoes transfixed in front of a TV screen that
> lost the war for the U.S. and her allies in Vietnam. They saw what was
> going on, they didn't like it and they stopped it. It didn't have to happen
> that way, but without that immediate, almost universal, visual media, it
> could NOT have happened that way.
>
> Bill Bartlett
> Bracknell Tasmania

This is a popular conception among people who were anti-war in the 60s, that
they somehow stopped the war with their demonstrations. Since I was one of
them, I can say that we would never have succeeded in stopping that war with
our inspiring and heartfelt (in most cases) marching and protesting, had
that little asian brother Malcolm X spoke of not been fighting a more
fervent battle than the technological monster from the USA.

Don't misunderstand- I firmly believe that the technology of TV made it
possible to inform more people, and that opposition to the war played a role
in ending it. But the major role was body bags coming home, and Vietnamese
warriors regularly filling those bags. And their technology was nowhere near
that of the USA.

fs >