TRUMP AND THE ARTS

The arts community is outraged because Trump's budget defunds the National Endowment for the Arts and the Endowment for the Humanities. The amounts involved--hundreds of millions of dollars are considered trivial by these opponents and by the standards of our multi-trillion dollar budget that has superficial merit. Those who protest these cuts not only argue how important "culture" is for our nation, but they all are mounting threats. A columnist in the LA Times points out how effective protests by the literati can be. One example given is the opposition to the Viet Nam War for which liberal activists take credit. There is some truth to this, but it ignores the effects of the withdrawal of the United States on the Vietnamese people and the Cambodians. Hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese died in trying to escape the communists (the "Boat People" and even more suffered in "re-education camps" and other brutalities. When we left we promised to provide air cover for the south Vietnamese army and also whatever munitions would be needed for them to defend themselves. We broke our promises, and the Vietnamese suffered terribly as we abandoned an ally. Among the reasons given for our failures were the fraudulent reports of men like Colonel Van who claimed the Vietnamese were too cowardly to defend themselves. He was lying. He, himself, had sent Vietnamese troops in suicidal attacks against superior Northern forces. The South Vietnamese followed his orders and attacked again and again, eventually being slaughtered. There is more to the story and I'll add it in another post.