Tag: culture

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Education Reading Vietnam War

Triumph Forsaken

Academic debates regarding revisionist history continues to rage across university lecture halls. Yet traditional (orthodox in those academic circles) views on Vietnam were challenged by revisionists including Mark Moyar’s Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954-1965.

triumph forsaken

America’s historical views of Vietnam are actually unique since the war’s bible The Pentagon Papers remained classified for just over forty years.

Moyar published Triumph Forsaken in 2006 and created academic controversy for over five years before the National Archives released the full 7,200 plus pages from the Department of Defense which also focus on Moyar’s timeframe.

Have just found my way last night into chapter three of Moyar’s book. Memories of actually reading the entire Pentagon Papers and the frustrations revealed has caused my eyebrows to be raised….just a bit. Moyar has been portrayed as attacking American journalists who were on the ground in Vietnam.

Moyar’s focus on Ho and Diem in this timeframe are core to his view on America’s early fatal flaws in the war. Time will tell as I continue to read, research and compare notes in the Pentagon Papers.  Moyar may be correct in his assumptions and points of view regarding these two leaders in Vietnam’s civil war.

Also on my bookshelf sits another revisionist view of Vietnam A Better War written by Lewis Sorley.  I will attempt to fully measure Moyar and Sorley against The Pentagon Papers and Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America’s Vietnam which won the Pulitzer Prize in History in 2013.

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Education Reading

Dave Duerson Triumph, Trauma and Tragedy in the NFL

Dave Duerson committed suicide on February 17, 2011.  He will always be remembered as a member of the 1985 Chicago Bears Super Bowl team.  He was a four time NFL Pro Bowl player and won a second Super Bowl with the New York Giants. He finished his career with the Phoenix Cardinals. Dave Duerson was the 1987 NFL Man of The Year award winner.

dave duerson

I remember watching Dave Duerson play at Notre Dame. He was a two time All American.  Dave also graduated with honors in Economics.

Early in his retirement Dave started his own food processing company. He turned into a multi-million dollar enterprise.

However Dave Duerson succumbed to the impact of chronic brain trauma. All for the glory of Sunday football. It was only after his family donated his brain to research did the tragic effects of his brain trauma reveal the type of punishment professional athletes in many sports accept as part of the game. The suicide of San Diego linebacker Junior Seau proved Dave Duerson’s death was not unique.

How much longer will we see former NFL players suffer long term brain injuries after their glory days are over.  More importantly will the NFL or fans realize the game has reached such a high level of contact that its literally killing their Sunday heros?

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Education Milwaukee Reading

Malcolm Gladwell evening in Milwaukee

Friday was a wonderful evening with Malcolm Gladwell. I was able to get a personalized copy of his book David and Goliath. As usual he was sharing a remarkable series of intertwined events. Tonight it was about the IRA collapse in Belfast, Alva Vanderbilt and the women’s suffrage movement in America. Malcolm is truly a great storyteller.
Malcolm Gladwell in Milwaukee

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Education Reading Vietnam War

Photo history: Vietnam the real war

Vietnam The Real WarAfter reading the Pentagon Papers and a number of critically acclaimed books about the war I am somewhat haunted at this new book.

For the first time, The Associated Press reviewed its 25,000+ photos of the war and reprinted a select 250 in “Vietnam: The Real War”

This photograph takes me back to a college history class on the Vietnam war taught by Dr. Charles DeBenedetti. His style and passion for teaching is something that I have never forgotten.  To this day I can still see him at the front of class on the fifth floor of University Hall lecturing us on this tragic war.

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Education Vietnam War

MadMen’s Vietnam

Madmen finished a rather interesting season. I only found interest in the season premier when Don sat at a bar in Hawaii and had a drink with a US Soldier on leave from the war.  Many have written about Chevrolet was their “Vietnam” for the season.
madmen vietnam
Other segments throughout this season seemed tied into the cultural change the war took on American society. For example, the necklace of ears segment was rather interesting as the horror of war not only hit home but required the firm to change their advertising strategies.

Did you think their pot smoking scene or the death of a firm’s sibling (killed in Vietnam) reach the audience?  Many didn’t seem to think so — maybe they were not looking deep enough?