Scholar Finds Many Vietnam War Myths Being Taught on U.S. Campuses

Scholar Finds Many Vietnam War Myths Being Taught on U.S. Campuses

By Jim Brown
April 22, 2005

(AgapePress) - An Air Force intelligence officer who served in Vietnam is attempting to debunk myths about the Vietnam War that he says are prevalent and still being taught in many of America's colleges and universities.

Dr. Earl Tilford, a military historian who teaches at Grove City College, is the author of three books on air power in Vietnam, and one of the authors of the 14-volume official history of the Vietnam War. He says myths abound today on American campuses concerning that conflict, which was fought on the ground in Vietnam and bordering areas of Laos and Cambodia between 1957 and 1975.

Probably the most common myth circulating about the Vietnam War, Tilford notes, would be "that it was an illegal or an immoral war." He contends it was neither. "It was maybe ill advised," he says, "but it was neither illegal nor immoral." However, that is only one of the many myths the historian finds prevalent in U.S. institutions.

"Conservatives have a myth out there that we won all the battles but lost the war because of political strength," the historian says. And while that idea is commonly taught on the Right, he adds, "Liberals have a myth that we committed genocide in Vietnam. At the extreme Left, you would get that myth."

Also, Tilford says college students today are unfortunately being taught that the anti-war movement was responsible for ending the Vietnam War. But he believes that is an erroneous assertion, considering the ways the anti-war movement came undone and was eventually discredited after the Chicago Convention of 1968.

The Grove City professor says the Vietnam-era anti-war movement "had some cohesion up to that point as it came out of the American civil rights movement, but after that, it really fell apart." This collapse occurred, he points out, to some degree, "over the role of women in the anti-war movement."

The extreme Left, namely the Marxists, did not want women involved in the anti-war effort, Tilford explains. "Marxists tend to be sexual purists when it comes to political matters -- and rather unregenerate chauvinist pigs," he says.

But it is important to note, Tilford says, the Vietnam War protest movement met with little actual success. For instance, the military history scholar notes, the anti-war effort never stopped the draft and never stopped a single trainload of American soldiers from going overseas; yet, he notes, that movement has been given more credit for "turning the political tables" than it deserves.


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