September 16, 2017  Greetings!  The Vietnam War as portrayed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick began airing on PBS stations and on-line (along with the next four episodes) this past Sunday. Anti-war activists and academic experts who have previewed the whole series reach different conclusions about its treatment of the war and of the peace movement. Decide for yourself---but don't keep it a secret! Everyone agrees the series is very well done and emotionally engaging. Many are calling it the definitive TV history of the war that will shape opinions of generations too young to remember.  It will open long overdue conversations about what happened and why.  Viewers can be challenged to consider current human costs in all four countries, as well as lessons for today's and tomorrow's military conflicts. If you return our action form and indicate interest in the series, we will send you special updates analyzing every episode.  They will also be posted on our web page. If you "like" our Facebook page, you can post comments after each episode and see how others are responding. The Organizers Guide provides ideas for getting more seriously involved.      Resources Professor Maurice Isserman's critical review of how the anti-war movement is treated has been posted by Dissent.   Professor Jerry Lempke criticizes the film makers as "masters of false balancing" in a review for Public Books. Tom Fox who served with International Voluntary Service in Vietnam and became editor of the National Catholic Reporter has written a review for NCR, "'The Vietnam War' Weaves a Narrative of Human Calamity".   He mostly praises the series, but notes the absence of the experience of civilians who worked with NGOs in South Vietnam.  Ken Burns and Lynn Novick write in The Atlantic "How the Vietnam War Broke the American Presidency." The New York Times published its review of the series. and a superb article on "The Forgotten Victims of Agent Orange" by Viet Thanh Nguyen and Dick Hughes. Links to additional published reviews and  articles about the series are here. The Full Disclosure project of Veterans For Peace raises questions about each episode. VPCC's questions posted last month address the whole series. Volunteers of America has created a detailed guide for viewing the series and addressing moral injury. Paths to PBS PBS has a story gathering link for people to submit their own stories about the war, both supporters and opponents. Some stations have created a site for their own state, for example "Minnesota Remembers: The Story Wall"  Andy Berman, an activist in Minneapolis who served in the Peace Corps and then joined the army to organize from within, posted here  VPCC committee member Susan Hammond compiled information about public stations' plans and PBS also issued a summary.  Check there and look at your station's web site to learn the latest about its plans and how you can become involved.  Fifty libraries nationwide are planning programs with the assistance of PBS.  Others will use the series independently. Reports from Preview Screenings Most of the outreach events around the country featuring Burns and Novick have been carefully managed public relations events with often moving in-person comments by people who had been interviewed in the documentary. The most prestigious were at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. and Lincoln Center in New York earlier this week.  The Washington audience heard from Senators Kerry and McCain who spoke proudly of their work for normal relations and reconciliation. Ken introduced both veterans and opponents of the war.  (Both events were marred by high level representatives of the corporate sponsor, the Bank of America, who insisted on asking only veterans in the audience to stand, but not "protestors".  Maybe not too surprising.....BOA was targeted during anti-war demonstrations. A branch was burned in San Diego and a protester was killed there by police.) The tone was very different at a local roll out by a Massachusetts public station. Professor Michael Klare, director of the Five College Program in Peace and World Security Studies, spoke passionately as an invited panelist.  His scathing comments about the opening clip's characterization of good intentions for US intervention were quoted in the Greenfield Recorder under the headline, "Wounds of war still raw as Vietnam documentary preview airs in Northampton." ********************** VPCC NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT (EVEN MORE!) We have a rare opportunity and responsibility presented by the PBS Vietnam series and the 50th anniversary of the Pentagon march to impact public discussions about the legacies and lessons of the Vietnam War and about the peace movement.  To engage effectively, we need your financial support for inescapable costs, including our staff person in Washington and hiring a short term publicist.  We need to attract a high level of media attention to missing elements in the PBS series and to the Pentagon march commemoration. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation today through our not-for-profit fiscal sponsor, the Fund for Reconciliation and Development, or mail it to FRD at 64 Jean Court, Riverhead, NY 11901.  DONATE ********************* October 20-21  commemorate and connect  50th Anniversary of the  March on the Pentagon and of draft resistance The surge of interest in the Vietnam War created by the PBS series makes the 50th anniversary of the March on the Pentagon an ideal moment to remind the country and media of the vital role of the movement that helped make peace.  Plan to come to Washington and invite family and friends to join you.    The vigil at the Pentagon Friday evening will feature songs by Peter Yarrow, speakers about war legacies in Indochina and in the US, and a tribute to the draft resistance movement by men whose cards were among the 1,000 turned in to the Justice Department on October 20, 1967.   After a day of discussion, we will walk to the Vietnam memorial to mourn the needless deaths of 58,000 Americans and more than three million people in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Check our web page and expect to receive an update of the program in about a week.  We have added to the action form an opportunity to request or to provide housing.  If you already completed the form, just send a "seeking" or "offering" note to terryprovance@gmail.com so he can help you connect.   Donate  ******************************* Links to the March on the Pentagon Robert Altman's images and a moving description of his experience when he was 22.   Links to more photos and video are available here. ******************************** Next Trip to Vietnam (Option of Laos and Cambodia) New dates:  March 2018, guided by John McAuliff under the sponsorship of the Vietnam-USA Society; includes witnessing in My Lai the 50th anniversary of the massacre. Updated information here    ******************************** Donate Be sure to let us know if you want to receive updates on the PBS Vietnam  series and/or the Pentagon march events by completing our action form here.  Interim Committee (in formation) Sally Benson David Cortright Ann Gallivan Susan Hammond Frank Joyce Steven Ladd John McAuliff Terry Provance Brewster Rhoads Nancy Jane Woodside

VPCC c/o Fund for Reconciliation & Development, 64 Jean Court, Riverhead, NY 11901

Updated: December 30, 2017
Most Koreans know their history very well, even if most Americans and most Australians and others do not. 

.

The ‘news’ media is largely to blame for this ignorance, with its simplistic and one-sided reporting. Owners of the media and the vested interests they represent profit more from the obscene business of war than from diplomacy and peace. Instead of believing the self-serving lies and propaganda of warmongers echoed by the mainstream ‘news’ media, do your own research. 
.

The Korean War did NOT start in 1950 with "North Korea invading South Korea", and “we” were NOT the “good guys”. Understanding the diabolical US-led crimes against Korea, at least from 1945 until today, should lead to empathy for the people of North Korea. This is an essential first step to a peaceful and sustainable solution to the Korean peninsula crisis.

.

There is no desirable military solution. 

Some enlightening reading:

How Cheney and His Allies Created the North Korea Nuclear Missile Crisis
By Gareth Porter, December 29, 2017. ~ MUST-READ!

“…North Korea reached agreements with both the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations… a group of Bush administration officials led by then-Vice President Dick Cheney sabotaged both agreements…to curb North Korean nuclear and missile development…because those agreements would have been a political obstacle to fielding the group's main interest: funding and fielding a national missile defense system…that served only the interests of the powerful contractors behind it…”

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/43048-how-cheney-and-his-allies-created-the-north-korea-nuclear-missile-crisis

The Problem is Washington, Not North Korea

By Mike Whitney

https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/04/17/the-problem-is-washington-not-north-korea/

This Is What’s Really Behind North Korea’s Nuclear Provocations

It’s easy to dismiss Kim Jong-un as a madman. But there’s a long history of US aggression against the North, which we forget at our peril.

By Bruce Cumings

https://www.thenation.com/.../this-is-whats-really.../

The Mindless Hawkish Response to North Korea’s Missile Test

"Threatening North Korea with regime change... is one of the stupidest things the U.S. could do..."

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/the-mindless-hawkish-response-to-north-koreas-missile-test/

What the N. Korean “Crisis” Is Really About

By Paul Craig Roberts

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46997.htm

What Corporate Media Never Tells You About North Korea

By Joe Clifford

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46960.htm

NYT’s ‘Impossible to Verify’ North Korea Nuke Claim Spreads Unchecked by Media

http://fair.org/.../nyts-impossible-to-verify-north.../

Why Does North Korea Want Nukes?

By Paul Atwood

https://www.counterpunch.org/.../why-does-north-korea.../

Facts of the Korean War: UN Security Council, Instrument of US led Wars, Blatantly Biased Against North Korea

http://www.globalresearch.ca/facts-of-the-korean-war-united-nations-security-council-blatantly-biased-against-north-korea/5606825

How History Explains the Korean Crisis

August 28, 2017. Special Report: Many Americans simply view North Korea and its leaders as “crazy,” but the history behind today’s crisis reveals of a more complex reality that could change those simplistic impressions.

By William R. Polk

https://consortiumnews.com/2017/08/28/how-history-explains-the-korean-crisis/

“History of U.S. Sabotage of Korean Peace and Reunification”

By S. Brian Willson
“…The well documented but little publicly known historical record of the United States in Korea is nothing short of demonic and shameless… This pattern of U.S. behavior pre-dates the Cold War…”

http://www.brianwillson.com/history-of-u-s-sabotage-of-korean-peace-and-reunification/

Trump and the Geopolitics of Crazy

The Times They Are A-Changin’ in North Korea

By John Feffer. August 22, 2017.

” The United States has beaten its head against the wall of North Korea for more than 70 years, and that wall has changed little indeed as a result. The United States, meanwhile, has suffered one headache after another… It's way past time for the Trump administration to take a few aspirin and a few deep breaths, and seize this opportunity to talk with the North Koreans before both head and wall sustain irreparable damage.”

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176320/tomgram%3A_john_feffer%2C_avoiding_war_with_pyongyang/#more

Why Trump Won’t Start a War With North Korea

By Mike Whitney. September 8, 2017.

“…The US already has the arrangement it wants on the Peninsula… North Korea agreed to end its nuclear weapons program in 1994 if the US met its modest demands?...The North kept its word, but the US didn’t. It’s that simple…It’s the same game Washington has been playing for the last hundred years…”

https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/09/08/why-trump-wont-start-a-war-with-north-korea/

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/47771.htm


State of Fear: How History’s Deadliest Bombing Campaign Created Today’s Crisis in Korea
By Ted Nace
https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/12/08/state-of-fear-how-historys-deadliest-bombing-campaign-created-todays-crisis-in-korea/

Why Does North Korea Hate Us?
By Robert C. Koehler
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/47633.htm

The Social and Economic Achievements of North Korea. The DPRK Confronts Barbaric Actions by UN Security Council
By Carla Stea. Global Research’s correspondent at United Nations Headquarters, New York, N.Y. (June 11, 2017)
“…History will condemn the current US-led United Nations assault on the DPRK as one of the greatest crimes of the twenty-first century… Upon my return, on May 25, 2017 from the DPRK, I was appalled by the totalitarian mind-set revealed by the fifteen members of the UN Security Council who supported the new Chapter VII Resolution 2356, increasing the strangling sanctions against the DPRK, a heroic , progressive, admirable people desperately trying to defend themselves from any repetition of the barbaric slaughter inflicted upon their nation, with the criminal collusion of the UN Security Council, during the first Korean War, 1950-1953. The unanimous support for the new sanctions by all 15 Security Council members is shameful. All fifteen members of the Security Council, including the United States, know, categorically, that the DPRK will not attack another country unless they are attacked first, or provoked intolerably….”
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-social-and-economic-achievements-of-north-korea/5594234

Additional references:

Bruce Cumings, "A Murderous History of Korea", London Review of Books, May 18, 2017

https://www.lrb.co.uk/v39/n10/bruce-cumings/a-murderous-history-of-korea?utm 

Tim Shorrock, "Diplomacy With North Korea Has Worked Before, and Can Work Again", The Nation, Sept. 5, 2017 

https://www.thenation.com/article/diplomacy-with-north-korea-has-worked-before-and-can-work-again/

Darrell Prince, "North Korea situation Sept 3, 2017: You catch more flies with honey, than vinegar"

http://thecallforunity.org/north-korea-situtation-sept-3-2017/

Bruce Cumings, Korea's Place in the Sun. A Modern History (New York: W.W. Norton Co., 1997)

William Blum, from “Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II” - Chapter 5
“How is it that the Korean War escaped the protests which surrounded the war in Vietnam?…”
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/47825.htm

ABC: Understand the North Korean Crisis 

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/rearvision/understand-the-north-korean-crisis/8881218

ABC: A history of North Korea

Rear Vision looks at the history of North Korea and in particular the history of the relationship between North Korea and the United States of America. 
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/rearvision/north-korea/3352778

Read more by following my page on Facebook - Bruce McPhie