Monday, December 24, 2012

tomhayden.com - Home - Christmas Lessons From Hanoi

tomhayden.com - Home - Christmas Lessons From Hanoi:


CHRISTMAS LESSONS FROM HANOI

The wreckage of an American B-52 shot down in the middle of a residential neighborhood during the Christmas air raids of 1972, Huu Tiep Lake, Hanoi.
Today’s peaceful Hanoi, alight with Christmas ornaments, was the scene of a decisive battle forty years ago this week, one which the Pentagon prefers to forget. I will be there this week to take part in the restoration of memory and reflect on how wars end.
During the fall of 1972, Jane Fonda and I travelled with the Indochina Peace Campaign (IPC) to one hundred cities campaigning for peace in Vietnam and the election of Sen. George McGovern. Fearing the peace movement, a paranoid Richard Nixon instructed Henry Kissinger to float the idea in late October that peace was “at hand.” Nixon won in a landslide, but peace talks