The most searing tragedy for most of America’s older citizens was the recurrent trauma of the height of the Viet Nam War.
Selection from the Encyclopaedia Britannica:
U.S. military advisers, present in small numbers throughout the 1950s, were introduced on a large scale beginning in 1961, and active combat units were introduced in 1965. By 1969 more than 500,000 U.S. military personnel were stationed in Vietnam. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union and China poured weapons, supplies, and advisers into the North, which in turn provided support, political direction, and regular combat troops for the campaign in the South. The costs and casualties of the growing war proved too much for the United States to bear, and U.S. combat units were withdrawn by 1973. In 1975 South Vietnam fell to a full-scale invasion by the North.
The human costs of the long conflict were harsh for all involved. Not until 1995 did Vietnam release its official estimate of war dead: as many as 2 million civilians on both sides and some 1.1 million North Vietnamese and Viet Cong fighters. The U.S. military has estimated that between 200,000 and 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers died in the war. In 1982 the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C., inscribed with the names of 57,939 members of U.S. armed forces who had died or were missing as a result of the war. Over the following years, additions to the list have brought the total past 58,200. (At least 100 names on the memorial are those of servicemen who were actually Canadian citizens.) Among other countries that fought for South Vietnam on a smaller scale, South Korea suffered more than 4,000 dead, Thailand about 350, Australia more than 500, and New Zealand some three dozen.
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In late July (1965) Johnson took the final steps that would commit the United States to full-scale war in Vietnam: he authorized the dispatch of 100,000 troops immediately and an additional 100,000 in 1966. The president publicly announced his decisions at a news conference at the end of July. There was no declaration of war—not even an address to Congress—and no attempt to put the country on a war footing economically. The National Guard and military reserves were not called to active service, even though such a measure had long been part of the military’s mobilization plans.
The worst of the Viet Nam war combat was the time from 1965-1973. The worst death counts were in 1968 and then 1969. For the peak year of 1968, official statistics (Vietnam Conflict Extract File) record that 16,889 Americans died in the war, an average of 46 lost per day during that horrific year.
As of today, Donald J. Trump has surpassed that sorry record with his response to COVID-19. Except his death toll average is for every hour, not every day.
And as the Surgeon General announced on TV this morning, this next week will be like another American Pearl Harbor and 9/11. In other words, we are still on the early side of the carnage.
From CNN reporting on a Fox News Sunday Interview a few hours ago:
The US surgeon general said this week is going to be the “hardest and the saddest” for “most Americans’ lives,” describing the upcoming grim period of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States as a “Pearl Harbor moment” and a “9/11 moment.”
“This is going to be our Pearl Harbor moment, our 9/11 moment, only it’s not going to be localized, it’s going to be happening all over the country and I want America to understand that,” Vice Admiral Jerome Adams said on “Fox News Sunday.”
Adams continued: “I want Americans to understand that as hard as this week is going to be, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.”
Officials are warning the next two weeks will be crucial in the fight to stop the spread of the virus.
The very first death in the US from COVID-19 came on February 29, less than 45 days ago (though it seems like a lifetime removed). Now we are suffering 1,000 new deaths per day. We are also burdened with 20,000 new cases of infection per day.
And that is a bad undercount; just a minimum number because we still can’t test hundreds of thousands who warrant surveillance due to negligent lack of supplies, resources, and personnel.
We could metaphorically be in the 14th Century.
King Edward III Counting Bodies at Crecy (1346)
One seamy little example. When an older person with an underlying health condition who also has acute respiratory symptoms dies next week at home, and she hasn’t been tested for COVID-19, are you going to get a COVID-19 test post-mortem to confirm the diagnosis, or just chalk it up to the underlying condition and move on to the living who desperately need treatment?
What do you think Doctors will do? Does that mean her COVID-19 potential death cause is somehow wiped clean by the Grace of the Lord? That she doesn’t merit the dignity of being counted in the Epidemic Toll if she belongs there? That her family should be kept in the Dark?
Bad Testing Conditions Lead to Inaccurate Information About the Crisis. Go Ahead and Keep Poking Yourself in the Eye With A Stick. It Will All Be Over Soon; So Says Trump.
Still there is nonsense and incoherent conflicting rubbish coming from 1600 Pennsylvania, day by day without cease.
Frankly, this just makes a grown man want to cry for our Country, the sick and the dying,
From CNN (Saturday February 29, 2020):
A patient infected with the novel coronavirus in Washington state has died, a state health official said Saturday, marking the first death due to the virus in the United States.
The patient was a man in his 50s who had underlying health conditions, according to Dr. Jeffrey Duchin, health officer for Seattle and King County, Washington. County health officials became aware of the case on Friday, he said.
“I want to assure that family they are on the hearts of every American,” Vice President Mike Pence said in a press briefing Saturday.
There was no evidence the patient had close contact with an infected person or a relevant travel history that would have exposed the patient to the virus, said Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at the White House Saturday, suggesting the patient became ill through community spread.
While this is the first death in the United States from the coronavirus, it is not the first death of an American. A 60-year-old US citizen died earlier this month in the city of Wuhan, China, where the virus first appeared in late December.
President Donald Trump and US officials previously said in a press briefing that the patient was a woman. A senior administration official later blamed the mix up on Redfield, who tweeted later Saturday that the “CDC erroneously identified the patient as a female” during a briefing with Trump and Pence.
US officials urged Americans not to panic.
“We respectfully ask the media and politicians and everybody else involved not do anything to incite the panic, because there’s no reason to panic at all,” Trump said.
And the Hits Just Keep on Coming. For those with intact recent memory function, you may recall that when Trump.45 grandstanded an earlier Press Briefing, he managed to identify the first dead COVID-19 victim as a woman, not a man. And background blamed the CDC Director for Trump.45’s dumbass error. 50/50 shot anyway. Good enough for Trump World.
From start to present: ill-informed, ignorant, foolish, and incompetent. A veritable All-Star Performance.
Lord, why doesn’t he just STFU!
