REMEMBERING OPERATION LINEBACKER II, at In from the Cold:
For once, we agree with Bob Beckel.
The veteran Democratic operative and panelist on Fox News Channel’s “The Five” was outraged over a recent segment on the CBS’s reality show, “The Amazing Race.” And rightfully so. On a swing through Vietnam, someone thought it would be a swell idea to have the contestants pick up a clue in front of the wreckage of a U.S. B-52 bomber, shot down by an SA-2 battery during the war.
From The New York Post:
In the episode, the twisted metal of the downed plane is treated as any other prop, with a bright ‘Amazing Race’ ‘Double-U-Turn’ signed planted in front of it, signifying to contestants the next phase of their scavenger hunt.
The show also had contestants learn a song that was performed for them by children in front of a portrait of North Vietnam communist leader Ho Chi Minh, with subtitled lyrics that included “Vietnam Communist Party is glorious. The light is guiding us to victory.”
“It’s like One Direction,” one contestant said of the performance, referring to the popular boy band.
[snip]
Apparently few viewers understood the symbolism of that “memorial.” But one Vietnam vet did, and he sent an e-mail to “The Five” co-host Greg Gutfeld, who mentioned it to one of the show’s producers. That, in turn, led to a segment on the FNC program, which generated this response from Mr. Beckel:
“I’m so outraged by this I can’t believe it. CBS is idiotic; they’re stupid,” Beckel said. “To have people go to a memorial where Americans died, then you ought to get off the network.”
Read the whole thing. And then check out Orrin Judd’s review of Lewis Sorley’s 1999 book, A Better War: The Unexamined Victories and Final Tragedy of America’s Last Years in Vietnam, for the aftermath of the Linebacker II missions, including this provocative quote from British counter-insurgency expert Sir Robert Thompson: “In my view, on December 30, 1972, after eleven days of those B-52 attacks on the Hanoi area, you had won the war. It was over.”
Yeah, you should probably also read Orrin’s whole post as well.