Mr. Hanson,<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Did you volunteer or were you drafted (like so many of us) to fight in Vietnam? Did you know \u201cwe\u201d lost that war to those so called \u201ccommies\u201d and now those \u201ccommies\u201d make Trump brand shirts and ties?<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Also, are you willing to pay for increased US military involvement throughout the world with more tax cuts as the US did in the never ending wars in Afghanistan and Iraq? Cutting spending for meals on wheels, planned parenthood, health insurance benefits for Americans, clean air and water, might not be enough to pay for all your munitions or even meet payroll for a lowly paid non drafted military. At least US tax dollars paid for our napalm in Vietnam. What are you willing to sacrifice in Syria, Iran, Korea, Afghanistan, Iraq, etc. etc. etc. to \u201cmake America great again?\u201d Perhaps your own life or limbs again?<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Perhaps reading a little more George Santayana might help balance your thirst for blood. And perhaps a \u201cproportionate\u201d bombing of an air base\u00a0before warning Russia and Assad before time might actually be actually a bit more equal in \u201cproportions\u201d to scare your enemies. And as a veteran and historian try to remember how many bombs, and napalm, and bullets, and killings of the enemy and our own troops it took in that classic military loss. Revenge may be sweet but it doesn\u2019t always go as planned, even for those willing to pay for the effort with massive tax cuts. As a historian, that is one thing you should know by now.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Happy Easter.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Sincerely,<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Jimmy Gorman<\/em><\/p>\n Chicago Tribune Subscriber<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Dear Angry Reader Jimmy Gorman,<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I registered for the draft the day that I was eligible, and received a lottery number in 1972 at a time when the draft then shortly ended and less than 25,000 Americans were left in Vietnam at year\u2019s end\u2014and when U.S. combat operations on the ground were largely over in Vietnam.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Do you eat food? If so, would you be competent and morally qualified to comment on food policy, given the likelihood that you have never farmed or shared the life of a farmer, and have no first-hand experience with tractor work, peach pruning, or fertilization\u2014or the work of others that brings your food to your table? I also did not live in ancient Greece and therefore should not write about the Peloponnesian War? I cannot adjudicate the success or failure of a past ruptured appendix operation because I am not a surgeon?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We did not lose to North Vietnam, but achieved a settlement that was set up by a peace agreement between the two countries in 1973. The aftermath of Watergate and the serial cut-offs of all U.S. military aid to the South Vietnamese government encouraged North Vietnam to resume the war, and it did so successfully\u2014sort of as if Eisenhower had cut all U.S. aid to South Korea in the election year 1956 and withdrawn U.S. peacekeepers. Do you think South Korea would exist today?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Vietnam is opening its economy, but otherwise it is a Stalinist country; the millions who were jailed, executed, or fled as boat people might not share your rosy scenarios or jest. I opposed the bombing in Libya. I suggested that Obama was foolish to have set a redline in Syria that he never intended to honor and would empower the Assad government to kill even more innocents. I criticized judge\/jury\/executioner drone assassination missions (which Obama joked about at a White House Correspondence Dinner). Do you read or just rant?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n You must know, of course, that current defense spending is near historic postwar lows as a percentage of the budget, and that entitlements and social spending are at record highs. Go back and check the ratios between social expenditures as a percentage of the federal budget versus defense spending in 1950 and then compare those ratios to today\u2019s figures. And you must know that Obama doubled the debt in the largest spending spree in U.S. history, despite raising taxes and earning record revenues. Yet he never achieved 3% economic growth unlike both Bush and Clinton. Do you think those massive outlays since 2009 made the U.S. safer, the inner-city more tranquil, or the \u201cblue wall\u201d rust-belt states more prosperous?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Have you really read George Santayana other than to pull out his tired, one-trick pony quote on learning from history? I suggest you try reading his collected lectures on aesthetics published as The Sense of Beauty<\/em> and then once you get through them, write how inspired you were about its argument and aims. (Incidentally, the widely quoted \u201conly the dead have seen the end of war,\u201d which is usually and wrongly attributed to Thucydides, was Santayana\u2019s Soliloquies in England<\/em>).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I was waiting for the leftist ad hominem attack and of course it appeared with the slur \u201cthirst for blood.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Deterrence keeps the peace; appeasement starts wars and gets people killed. I have written repeatedly that war never goes as anticipated, that it is often more costly than expected, and that those who urge it often bail when it becomes controversial. Had \u201cwar monger\u201d Winston Churchill been prime minister in 1936 instead of the appeaser Stanley Baldwin there was a far greater chance that millions would not have subsequently perished as victims of the Third Reich.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The usefulness of military history is in trying to keep the current peace (unless you think oncologists like tumors or seismologists enjoy earthquakes), and in remembering that the tragic lessons from the past are predictable: military readiness in a consensual society deters aggressors and keeps the calm; disarmament or appeasement encourages belligerents to try something stupid.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As a self-described historian of some sort, that is one thing you should know by now.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Happy Post-Easter.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sincerely,<\/p>\n Vic Hanson<\/p>\n Chicago Tribune syndicated columnist<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From an Angry Reader: Mr. Hanson, \u00a0 Did you volunteer or were you drafted (like so many of us) to fight in Vietnam? Did you know \u201cwe\u201d lost that war to those so called \u201ccommies\u201d and now those \u201ccommies\u201d make Trump brand shirts and ties? \u00a0 Also, are you willing to pay for increased US […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[6,1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-2Dv","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":18,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/angry-reader-6-responds-to-bush-reconsidered\/","url_meta":{"origin":10137,"position":0},"title":"Angry Reader #6 Responds to “Bush Reconsidered”","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 4, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Angry Reader #6 wrote: \u201cVDH Trash\u201d VDH do you actually believe\u00a0this? I have to doubt your sanity. So many examples but I think the breezy dismissal of Iraq, not mentioning torture, the health of the economy circa 2009 and the Bush tax cuts relationship to the deficits are the real\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Angry Reader"","block_context":{"text":"Angry Reader","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/angry-reader\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11754,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/angry-reader-04-02-2019\/","url_meta":{"origin":10137,"position":1},"title":"Angry Reader 04-02-2019","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 2, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"From An Angry Reader: Dear Mr. Hanson, though your academic accreditations appear substantial, your view of history seems almost deliberately moronic. I generally don\u2019t like to wade into a debate with an ad hominem; but defending George Bush and his disastrous military policies?? The only rational explanations are intentional distortion\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Angry Reader"","block_context":{"text":"Angry Reader","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/angry-reader\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11622,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/angry-reader-01-23-19\/","url_meta":{"origin":10137,"position":2},"title":"Angry Reader 01-23-19","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 23, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"From An Angry Reader: Re: IMPEACH TRUMP Dear Sir: I just read your article in the opinion section of the Albuq. Journal today. I guess I want to ask you if you approve of the President of our Country, the role model for our children, going out there every day\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10571,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/10571-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":10137,"position":3},"title":"09\/13\/17 From An Angry Reader:\u2026","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 13, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"09\/13\/17 From An Angry Reader: Angry Reader Rich Laughlin \u00a0 Mr. Hanson, please try using sentences with less words. Most recently, I read one of your articles that had a sentence with 44 words. Other sentences in the same article were almost as bad. Really. You are loosing me with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Angry Reader"","block_context":{"text":"Angry Reader","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/angry-reader\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6425,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/syria-in-historical-context\/","url_meta":{"origin":10137,"position":4},"title":"Syria In Historical Context","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 6, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"What lessons does the past have for President Obama's policy? by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0National Review Online President Obama\u2019s on-and-off-again planned American attack on Syria is nothing new. Besides its five declared wars, America has a habit of intervening all over the world. Even apart from clandestine CIA operations, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "International Relations"","block_context":{"text":"International Relations","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/geopolitics\/international-relations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12593,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/angry-reader-08-30-2020\/","url_meta":{"origin":10137,"position":5},"title":"Angry Reader 08-30-2020","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 30, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"From An Angry Reader: Hello Professor Hanson, First let me say, I am a regular reader and viewer of yours. I relish your take on the important issues. This evening on Tucker Carlson Tonight with Brian Kilmeade 7\/16\/2020 you used some imprecise language that caused both me and my bride\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10137"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10137"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10138,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10137\/revisions\/10138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Victor Davis Hanson’s Reply:<\/h3>\n