“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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“Hearts and minds” – from the Bible to Vietnam to the Middle East…

THE FAMOUS BIBLICAL QUOTE: “And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ.”         St. Paul         A famous line from his Epistle to the Philippians, c. 62 A.D.          This Biblical verse from Philippians 4:7 helped popularize two famous phrases: “the peace of God, which passeth all understanding” and “hearts and minds.”

JOHN ADAMS’ REVOLUTIONARY WAR QUOTE: “The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments of their duties and obligations...This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people, was the real American Revolution.”          John Adams         Second President of the United States        From a letter he wrote to Hezekiah Niles, February 13, 1818

LBJ’S VIETNAM WAR QUOTE: “We must be ready to fight in Vietnam, but the ultimate victory will depend upon the hearts and the minds of the people who actually live out there.”        Lyndon Baines Johnson        36th President of the United States        His famous (and infamous) “Hearts and Minds” speech (May 4, 1965)

THE GREEN BERETS’ VIETNAM WAR COUNTERQUOTE: “If you've got them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow.”         U.S. Green Berets slogan during the Vietnam War

AN IRAQ WAR VARIATION: “What have you done to win Iraqi hearts and minds today?.”         Headline on posters that US General David Petraeus ordered to be posted in American military facilities in Iraq in 2003. The line reflected policies in the “Counterinsurgency Manual” he wrote, which were supposed to help to gain Iraqi support for the continued US presence in their country and to reduce attacks on US troops by “insurgents.”

AN AFGHANISTAN WAR VARIATION: “[General] Petraeus’s counterinsurgency manual, with all its talk of winning hearts and minds, is pure Vietnam.”         Jonathan Schell (1924-2014)                American columnist and author         In a 2009 commentary in The Nation about the “counterinsurgency” policies created by Gen. Petraeus, which were then being applied in Afghanistan.

PRESIDENT OBAMA’S QUOTE ABOUT ISLAMIC EXTREMISM: “We know that military force alone cannot solve this problem…Our campaign to prevent people around the world from being radicalized to violence is ultimately a battle for hearts and minds.”        Barack Obama        44th President of the United States        In an op-ed he wrote about the recent wave of killings by Islamic extremists, fist published in the L.A. Times on February 17, 2015

A RESPONSE TO OBAMA'S QUOTE: “Anytime I see the ‘win their hearts and minds’ as the key driver of our warfare strategy I know we’re screwed.”         Reader comment posted on a PoliticalHotwire.com thread titled “Obama administration solution to stop ISIS...get them jobs!”

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The “light at the end of the tunnel” – from Joseph Alsop and Robert Lowell to Hunter Thompson

THE PRO-WAR JOURNALIST’S FAMOUS QUOTE: “At last there is light at the end of the tunnel.”        Joseph Alsop (1910-1989)        American journalist and newspaper columnist         An oft-cited comment he made about the Vietnam War in his September 13, 1965 syndicated column         Many books and websites about quotations or the Vietnam War mention this line by Alsop. It’s often assumed to be either the origin of the metaphor or the first use related to Vietnam. In fact, the figurative use of “light at the end of the tunnel” dates back to at least 1922. And, ironically, it had been used in reference to Vietnam in 1953 by French general Henri Navarre, who told reporters he could see France’s eventual success in its war with communist leader Ho Chi Minh’s troops “clearly, like light at the end of a tunnel.” A year later, Minh’s troops decisively defeated French forces at the battle of Dien Bien Phu and France lost control of its former colony. Joseph Alsop’s use of “light at the end of the tunnel” in 1965 was in a column predicting that America would eventually defeat Ho Chi Minh’s troops in Vietnam. Alsop said the French lost because they fought “with grossly insufficient resources.” He wrote: “This is in fact the real flaw in the argument of the silly people who parrot the assertion that this kind of war cannot be won, because the French failed...Today, however, American power is fully committed here, side by side with the considerable and courageous army of South Viet Nam. The American troops in the country already number more than 100,000. And eventually the U.S. force in South Viet Nam is likely to reach 200,000...at last there is light at the end of the tunnel.” Of course, 10 years later, after more than 58,000 Americans had been killed (along with an estimated 2 million Vietnamese troops and civilians), America essentially lost the war and pulled out of Vietnam.

THE ANTI-WAR POET’S COUNTERQUOTE: “If we can see light at the end of the tunnel It’s the light of the oncoming train.”        Robert Lowell (1917-1977)        American poet, World War II conscientious objector and anti-Vietnam activist         These lines are from “Since 1939,” a poem originally published in Lowell’s book Day by Day (1977)

DÉJÀ VU ALL OVER AGAIN: “Leon Panetta leaving the CIA to replace [Robert] Gates at the Pentagon and General David Petraeus taking Panetta’s job in Langley just seems like a revolving door that bodes ill (more drone attacks and missile strikes) for the people in the AF/Pak  war...There seems no light at the end of the dark tunnel U.S. policy makers have put us in and which most Americans continue to enable with their passive indifference.”        Dave Lefcourt        American blogger and book author        In an opinion piece about the war in Afghanistan and U.S. military operations in Pakistan, posted on the OpEdNews site, June 11, 2011

DÉJÀ VU ALL OVER AGAIN — AGAIN: “When Mr Obama assured the UN and the world that the ‘kinetic military action’ would quickly subdue Libyan military forces, he forgot an axiom of war. It is easy for a national leader to start one; but once started, it is impossible to stop...NATO airstrikes have fostered a war, which has turned into an inconclusive trudge through the swamp. Not only is there no light at the end of the tunnel, there appears to be no tunnel.”        A Bangkok Post editorial titled “What are they doing in Libya?” (June 10, 2011)

HUNTER THOMPSON’S OBSERVATION: “This was the fatal flaw in Tim Leary’s trip. He crashed around America selling ‘consciousness expansion’ without ever giving a thought to the grim meat-hook realities that were lying in wait for all the people who took him too seriously...a generation of permanent cripples, failed seekers, who never understood the essential old-mystic fallacy of the Acid Culture: the desperate assumption that somebody — or at least some force — is tending that light at the end of the tunnel.”        Hunter S. Thompson (1937-2005)        American “gonzo” journalist and novelist        In his novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1971), about the darkly comic misadventures of the semi-autobiographical character “Raoul Duke.” (A slightly altered version of these words are also spoken by Johnny Depp, as Raoul Duke, at the end of Terry Gilliam’s 1998 film adaptation of Thompson’s novel.)

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Afghanistan “Heart and Minds” — The Déjà Vu Edition

FAMOUS PRESIDENTIAL QUOTE: “We must be ready to fight in Vietnam, but the ultimate victory will depend upon the hearts and the minds of the people who actually live out there.”         U.S. President Lyndon Baines Johnson         His oft-cited “Hearts and Minds” speech, May 4, 1965

GENERAL PETRAEUS QUOTE: “Make no mistake: Insurgents are constantly targeting these areas of success. They bomb new roads and throw acid on girls who go to school. But if we stick by the Afghan people, we will win over their hearts and minds.”        Army Gen. David Petraeus        Quoted in the San Diego Union Tribune, November 29, 2009

A ROYAL QUOTE: “The Prince of Wales has paid tribute to 1st Battalion Welsh Guards who fought in Afghanistan, calling them ‘an immense credit to this nation’... ‘This work is absolutely vital in terms of winning over hearts and minds as far as the local population is concerned and I’m absolutely convinced you've done so much of that.’”        Remark by Great Britain’s Prince Charles         BBC, December 1, 2009

A FATHER’S QUOTE: “General McChrystal is too enamored with ‘hearts and minds’; hearts and minds is not a strategy. To be clear: I don’t say this solely because my son was killed implementing this idea... If we're not bringing our entire force to bear against the enemy, then what sort of protection are we providing?”        John Bernard         Father of slain soldier Lance Cpl. Joshua Bernard        Op-ed in Newsweek magazine, November 30, 2009

A REALITY CHECK QUOTE: “The notion seems to be that we must win the ‘hearts and minds’ of the population, but the very presence of an occupation army whose history, culture and traditions are literally and figuratively on the other side of the world puts that goal out of reach.”        Nick Mills         Associate Professor of Journalism, Boston University         Commentary on The HuffingtonPost.com, December 2, 2009

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