Yesterday, trump delivered what some would call a “speech” in Iowa and said: "’I could have won the Vietnam War in a week, you know,’ he said. ‘They dropped whatever the hell that red c**p is that they…kept dropping it in the forest.’" [FN1] Someone corrected him... 1/20

“‘Agent Orange,’ to remind Trump of the name of the chemical herbicide the U.S. military used to destroy Vietnamese forests at the time. ‘Agent Orange,’ [t]rump said, ‘even though it's red.’" [FN2] trump declined an invitation that the Select Service System [FN3] sent to him. 2/20

There were ways to dodge the draft. [FN4] As U.S. involvement in Vietnam [FN5] wore on and U.S. troops in Southeast Asia topped 500,000, deferments became available only to the white and affluent, such as trump. [FN6] The U.S. could not have achieved military victory. 3/20

“The Pentagon Papers,” released in 1971, showed successive administrations, Truman through Johnson, misled the American people in order to expand our military presence there. [FN7] People who had opposed our actions in Vietnam and refused to serve in the military 4/20

faced prison or travel to another country. They did what was right. No matter what we were told, neither freedom nor democracy was at stake there. However, trump dodged the draft to do what was right for him. For trump to claim he could have won in Vietnam is absurd. 5/20

Worse, he ducked service. Better that “suckers and losers” go there to die. Part of the anger that appeared in the late 1960s and early 1970s & found solace in the campaigns for Pres of George Wallace was expressed by people who thought no one should question whether 6/20

our launching military attacks against other countries. They were fed the notion that we are a great country, that allowing our military to lose in Vietnam was the beginning of a long slide down, and that only table pounding belligerents like Reagan & now trump can 7/20

restore us to greatness. Reagan never served in the military. Neither he nor trump felt awkward about others killing and dying for their false assurances of our military always being “right.” We only have glimpsed “greatness.” Only dictators equate greatness w/size of military. 8/20

Three time lines track our country’s proximity to “greatness.”
1) 1789 - 1865 The Constitution protected chattel slavery. Then came Jim Crow & brutalities aimed at former slaves & their descendants. In 1954 Brown I said separate is inherently unequal & SCOTUS gave us glimpses of greatness. 9/20

2) Until Amendment XIX was ratified in 1920, women had few rights. Though they are over half of America’s population, the rights of women were at best an afterthought, at worst a joke. In the late 1960s movement toward equality began to be reality. 10/20

3) People who lived on this continent were called “Indians” by European explorers trying to find India. Indigenous peoples were victims of America’s pursuit of a “manifest destiny.”
Progress was made, but there was a blow against the military-industrial complex. 11/20

In the late 1960s, we stopped an undeclared “war.” We questioned authority. We also demanded our water and air be clean. Many people were scared. Some in positions of authority were able to convince others that the people fighting racism and sexism were to blame, because 12/20

warfare and racism and misogyny can make $$$ for the few. But the narratives of trump, et al, are false and based on false narratives. There never was a USA where everyone was white and happy or racist and Christian or straight and self-aware. When trump said, 13/20

“I could have won the Vietnam War in a week,” he uttered filth. Someone should have yelled: “You had the chance, you dumb bastard.” He couldn’t remember what Agent Orange is called, trump said “it’s red.” None landed on him because he wasn’t there. [FN8] 14/20

If you have not voted and you are registered, please make sure you vote. Would-be dictators do not easily cede power, especially when they might be facing a lot of time in the Bureau of Prisons for a whole boat load of heavy felonies. 15/20

Footnotes:
FN1. Jordan King, “Trump Says He Would Have Won Vietnam War in a Week, Mixes Up Cities,” Newsweek, 11/2/26.
FN2. Id. 16/20

FN3. The Selective Service System administered the draft.
FN4. Phil Ochs itemized various ways to avoid military service in “The Draft Dodger Rag,” on his album, “I Ain’t Marching Anymore,” 1965. 17/20

FN5. Congress never declared war against Vietnam. See, Constitution. Art. I, sec 8, Instead, it gave LBJ authority, under the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, to “take any action he wanted, without further reference to Congress.” Nigel Cawthorne, “Vietnam,” (2017) p. 38. 18/20

FN6. Farrah Tomazin, “Draft-Dodging Trump, 79, Brags About How He Would Have Won Vietnam War in Unhinged Rant,” The Daily Beast, 4/21/26, accessed 11/2/26.
FN7. See, Jordan Moran, “Nixon and the Pentagon Papers,” UVA Miller Center, accessed 11/2/26. 19/20

FN8. To be fair, draft dodging appears to be in the family lineage. See, Tim Chester, “Donald Trump's grandfather was banned from Germany for avoiding military service,” Mashable, 11/21/16, accessed 11/2/26. 20/20