Vietnam haunts American politics, says history professor Bloom

"Some people thought the Vietnam-service issue was put to rest when Bill Clinton won the White House in 1992,'' he says. ''Others viewed it as behind us when Bush ran against Gore in the 2000.'' Yet Vietnam is re-emerging in a new way in the current race for the White House, he argues. ''And it is less about the war itself and more about character and conduct.''

In a recent article in the Baltimore Sun, Bloom explains: ''The candidates' conduct during Vietnam, specifically the records of Bush and Kerry, are being examined as a means of revealing their character. During a difficult time that tested our country, and tested these men early in their lives, what did they do? Did they take the easy way out or pursue a hard road?''

The National Guard of 2004 is very different from the National Guard of 1968. ''Back then, if you joined the Army National Guard or the Air National Guard, you knew you were likely getting out of going to Vietnam, without having to go to Canada, seek a medical deferment, or file as a conscientious objector.'' Today, he notes, if you join the Guard, there's a very real chance you will be sent to Iraq.

''The questions being raised today about the Vietnam era speak to notions of privilege, especially among those who served in Vietnam, had a family member who serve, or who made difficult and often sacrificial decisions so as not to go,'' says Bloom. ''Getting your father to have your name jumped to the head of the line helped you avoid facing any of the difficult choices--which is especially galling if one vocally supported the war, but then took an easy path to avoid fighting in it.''

The current debate, Bloom says, ''is not about the Vietnam war itself but about these men and the choices they made.'' John Kerry, he says, has managed to separate the concept of the soldier from the war. ''Those who value military service to country realize that he served bravely in combat,'' Bloom notes. ''Those who have traditionally been opposed to the Vietnam War recall Kerry's voice on the home front, speaking out in strong opposition as a leader of the Vietnam Veterans' Against the War, after he returned home.''

Professor Bloom's books include Long Time Gone: Sixties America Then and Now (2001, Oxford University Press). He is co-editor of the anthology Takin' it to the Streets: A Sixties Reader, the second edition of which was published in 2002 by Oxford University Press. His Web page:
http://www.wheatonma.edu/Faculty/AlexanderBloom.html

The Wheaton professor's current project is the soon-to-be published book, The End of the Tunnel: The Vietnam Experience and the Shape of American Life, a study of the way in which the Vietnam war has shaped American life--politically, socially, diplomatically, and culturally--since that war ended in 1975. ''Vietnam hangs like a shadow over this entire [Iraq] experience, from the way we measured antiwar activity last year to fears about a policy that may lead us into another quagmire. We are still haunted by that loss.''