“It became necessary to destroy the town to save it.”

INFAMOUS VIETNAM WAR QUOTE:           “It became necessary to destroy the town to save it.”        Comment by a U.S. Army Major during the Vietnam war        This oft-quoted, oft-mocked remark was included in a new report by Associated Press journalist Peter Arnett that was published in American newspapers on February 8, 1968. The Major was referring to destruction of the village of Ben Tre by American bombs, to prevent it from being taken by the Communist Viet Cong troops. Arnett did not name the officer, but he was later identified as Major Peter Booris by other sources. The line is sometimes quoted as “It became necessary to destroy the town in order to save it.” To read more about this infamous Vietnam War quotation, see the post on my This Day in Quotes site at this link.

DÉJÀ VU ALL OVER AGAIN ONE MONTH LATER:           “In splintered gardens that once grew green, on rubble where a graceful tower had stood, U.S. Marines advance under fire. Here was a paradox of war: the only way Hué could be won was by destroying it.”         From the caption of photos in Life magazine, March 8, 1968 showing the remains of the city of Hué during the Vietnam War, after American bombs turned much of it to rubble in an effort to retake control of the city from the Viet Cong

THE TRUMPISM VARIATION: “It is necessary to destroy the GOP in order to save it. The thing we call ‘Trumpism’ — the demagogic politics of white identitarianism — now exists independently of President Trump. Which shouldn’t surprise us, as Trump did not invent Trumpism; he merely harnessed its electoral potential in a way no presidential candidate had before...I have a radical solution: Dump this Republican Party and start building a new coalition. The party you’ve got now is like the Vietnamese city of Ben Tre: it’s crawling with Trumpist guerrillas.”         Scott Galupo         American freelance writer and political commentator         His variation in the Vietnam quote in and op-ed published in The Week magazine, November 2017

THE MEDICAL METAPHOR: “When we declare war on a disease, like cancer, we risk limiting understanding of the disease process to models like invasion, or territorial aggression, and so limit imaginable treatments to therapies that eradicate the invaders with poison or radiation. In effect, we accept that in the case of cancer, as in the case of the Vietnamese village of Ben Tre, it may be necessary to destroy the patient in order to save her. (This is not to say that chemotherapy and radiation don’t save lives; they do. Rather, it suggests that a military approach to disease can cause doctors to think of patients as battlefields, rather than as people.)”         Rebecca Gordon         American writer and philosophy professor at the University of San Francisco         In a 2017 op-ed posted on several sites, including the Common Dreams website

DR. DUBYA STRANGELOVE’S VERSION: “It Became Necessary to Destroy the Planet in Order to Save It!”        Khalil Bendib        Algerian-born American political cartoonist        Title of a 2003 book collecting some of Bendib’s scathing cartoons, including the one on the cover that bashed George W. Bush for launching the Iraq War

ROGER CORMAN MOVIE VERSION: “GAS-S-S-S...or IT BECAME NECESSARY TO DESTROY THE WORLD IN ORDER TO SAVE IT”         The full title of a 1970 Grade-B apocalyptic cult comedy movie directed by Roger Corman         (OK, maybe Grade-Z, but it does have a rare movie appearance by Country Joe and the Fish.)

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