What America can learn from Germany
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Even now, 68 years after the Second World War, Nazi hunters are still tracking and bringing to court the guards who worked at concentration camps. Not only guards, even people working in kitchens are brought in, and they never directly took part in the ki
Chemicals have only been used twice on a large scale in war, by the Nazis and by the US. But there are big differences. Nobody is hunting down the American war criminals responsible for using chemicals in Vietnam! And the Vietnam story is in some cases even worse than the Nazi story. The US story is still ongoing 38 years after the war. Innocent babies born now are still punished by birth defects from Agent Orange. It’s a never-ending punishment of poor people on the other side of the globe. America never admitted any wrongdoing nor took any responsibility, and refused all claims for compensation.
The Germans apologised, paid compensation and have taught and are teaching in the schools about all the wrongs of the Nazis. They have admitted and faced their ugly past. Not the US: What do they teach in the schools about the Vietnam War? What do the official American history books tell about the Vietnam War? And what about apologises, war compensation?
Oliver Stone asked American soldiers going to Afghanistan what they knew about the Vietnam War. They knew little or nothing. Everything seems to have been swept under the rug. The use of chemical weapons in Syria should remind Americans about what’s under that rug and to start facing their own history and start cleaning up, like the Germans did.
A north-country man
Chonburi
