4

I got pretty depressed over my dinner. But then these were depressing times. The government had sold everyone a real bill of goods on the whole going to war idea. They hoped it would be a cure to the Vietnam syndrome. The Vietnam syndrome was where everyone figured out what a scam war is, and how eager governments are to get their people killed for political reasons. So, for a long time America was afflicted with the Vietnam syndrome, which was really just a variety of good sense. It was the policy planners who called it a syndrome, because it obstructed a military solution to international problems. For many years a lot of energy was invested in curing the syndrome, and getting Americans back to a place where they would support actions that put their families in harm's way for the benefit of others. This has been the function of war through history--to maintain or expand positions of privilege for the decision-makers at the expense people who aren't the decision-makers. Of course, no war has ever been sold in such explicit terms. At the Nuremberg trials, Gustave Gilbert, an intelligence officer, interviewed Nazi officer Hermann Goering on effectively selling a war:

Goering: Why, of course the people don't want war. Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship.

Gilbert: There is one difference: In a democracy the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars.

Goering: Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.