There was a time when Americans absolutely believed and trusted the president, said Paul Hutton, UNM history professor.
It's something he said he has a hard time getting students in his Vietnam Era course to believe.
"Maybe we were being naive, but now there is an expectation of deceit," he said.
During the Vietnam War, Hutton said there was a division between age lines, as younger people experimented with rock 'n' roll and drugs.
"It was almost like all the customs that had bound people in society broke down," he said, adding it is seen today in popular and youth culture.
It changed the country fundamentally, he said, and left a legacy of mistrust that has cast a shadow over America for 40 years.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
It began with Lyndon B. Johnson going into a war under false pretenses, he said, and it's similar to what President Bush did with the war in Iraq.
"We were lied to about how it started," said Vietnam veteran Manny Garcia, author of An Accidental Soldier.
He said he sees the same thing today.
Hutton said Bush used weapons of mass destruction the same way Johnson used the Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964 as scare tactics to push America toward war.
"I couldn't believe the administration was using those threats for war," Hutton said. "I was amazed (Bush) used a lame excuse, even though he had good excuses to go."
Many who fought in Vietnam were drafted, while the war in Iraq has not exercised a draft.
Opposition to the Vietnam War started in liberal churches and in colleges, slowly spreading across America, Hutton said.
Large-scale protests erupted before the Iraq War started.
Veteran Brian McKinsey fought in jungle terrain during the Vietnam War, which he said is a major difference between the conflicts. A lot of the fighting in Iraq takes place in urban settings.
The Army is better equipped now, but our national security is threatened because America was attacked, Hutton said.
When the planes hit the Twin Towers on Sept. 11, he said there was a hesitance to react brought on by Vietnam.
"We weren't very active in going after them, because the president felt his hands were tied by the legacy of Vietnam and hesitancy to use force," Hutton said.
But it was an event that brought people together, he said, like one great family.
"There was so much more that united us, rather than divided us," Hutton said. "Vietnam destroyed that oneness that we had as a people, as different as we are."
August 1970
"About four or five days left in the Nam! I don't know how to start this letter, but to say this will probably be my last one from the RVN ... sounds very appropriate ... also feels very strange. I'm No. 1 on the list now ... in other words, I'm not short anymore ... I'm NEXT!"
Vietnam Voices and Visions Unfiltered exhibit runs Oct. 15-Jan. 16 at Jonson Gallery, the UNM Art Museum, the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology and the Center for Southwest Research Gallery in Zimmerman Library. More information can be found on the Web site at
www.vietnamvoicesandvisions.org.
