Helpless, Helpless, Helpless, Helpless
March 11, 2026
by William P. Meyers

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From the Vietnam War to the Iran War

I admit to being an old man. I have learned a bit from reading history and from living through about seven decades of it. This new Iran-American War is just another chapter in a consistent history book that started before the American Revolution of 1776. But the learning curve can be steep, because they (adults) lie to you when you are a child.

My parents were both U.S. Marines (my mother just briefly during World War II). In the early sixties, as a child, I figured on growing up to be a Marine. I watched TV shows glorifying the American military, like Combat!, and reruns of old movies about World War II, both the war with Germany and with Japan. There were occasional contradictions, ranging from Hogan's Heroes to being told Jesus was the Prince of Peace (during years of Catholic school). Also my dad, who served in the Pacific (Guadalcanal, Tarawa) and then was stationed for a year in Japan when I was an infant, said that the Japanese were actually nice people, and I should not run down the Germans too much, since I had a German last name (ouch!).

I knew, at some point, that there was also a Korean War, but that while the U.S. won, somehow North Korea survived and no one wanted to talk about it much. I knew atomic weapons were used on Japanese cities to avoid a U.S. invasions of Japan proper.

I doubt I heard (or understood) anything about the Vietnam War was until at least 1965. My take for years was that the North Vietnamese were evil atheist communists and that brave American soldiers were defending the good non-commie people of South Vietnam. Lyndon Johnson was President. Walter Cronkite narrated the war almost every evening, on TV. From TV I also became aware of protests against the war (and civil rights, and counterculture).

In 1969, in high school (not Catholic), I remember, in answer to a question posed by my History teacher, Mr. Randolph, that I thought the U.S. should nuke North Vietnam. Most of my classmates, from more sophisticated families, were already against the war. Some argued with me afterwards.

Yet I had a learning curve. By 1971 I was against the war, though I did not dare tell my parents. By 1972 I hated President Richard Nixon and wanted a peace candidate as the Democratic Party nominee. In the fall, having escaped from my parents, I volunteered for the McGovern for President campaign.

I was deeply disappointed when Nixon won by a landslide. I majored in Political Science in college to try to figure out why people would support something as obviously evil as the Vietnam War. But I had not yet figured out that Vietnam was not first bad war American fought. I think the first American war that I considered as possibly evil was the Philippines War (usually lumped into the Spanish American War).

Eventually the U.S. sued for peace in Vietnam. The war went on too long, killed too many Americans, and was too harmful to the American economy. The Vietnamese refused to quit.

I thought America's imperialist war days were over. Surely not just the American politicians, but the American people, learned a lesson. Which I thought was: don't invade other nations or try to boss them around.

But we were helpless, helpless, helpless, helpless.

The United States of America kept it military bases overseas. It kept a bloated military. And under President Reagan, our rules started re-accustoming us to war. Bit by bit. Little wars like Grenada, little bundles of helpful American troops anywhere people showed a bit of independence.

Then the wars got bigger. Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya.

And now Iran, aka Persia (which puts it in better historical perspective, since Persia was a major civilization when Rome was still a small town.)

I protested every war. I met people from the 1960's antiwar movement (like, but not necessarily, the Weather Underground) who believe violent resistance helped end the Vietnam War, and that to set things right in the U.S. we would need a violent revolution.

At some point in the 1980s I was listening to two old anarchists (probably then in their 60s or 70s) say that they did not think violence would work. That led to a train of thought. The Communist Manifesto, predicting world-wide proletarian (working class, socialist or communist) revolution was published in 1848. The anti-war movement peaked in the U.S. in the 1960s. Sure, there had been revolutions, some of which worked out better than others. But not in the industrialized nations, which is where Marx thought they would take place.

So what can a poor boy do? I think it is important to protest wars, it might give politicians and generals pause. If you want to try civil disobedience, go ahead. I mainly have done electoral politics this last decade or so. I am sure things would be even worse it anti-war people had not done what they could.

American is a military culture. It was founded on the principles of violence. I don't think your average teenage boy is as gung-ho to sign up for military duty as was the case in the past. But we have over 330 million people, and war is now dominated by technology, so our ruling class can always find a new set of fools to fight another war.

Then there is Trump. Every once in a while a new Hitler arises somewhere in the world. I am not sure how he can be stopped inside America's legal framework. As much as I hate fanatical, religious governments, I can only conclude that the best thing for my America is a defeat by Iran. Perhaps also America falling apart from the added economic chaos from the war, in addition to Trump's ridiculously bad economic policies.

Stay safe, stay free, do something if you can, but please don't do anything stupid.