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History stuff returneth.
Sep. 14th, 2009 03:47 pm3 weeks in and we haven't gotten to Vietnam yet. Would be less amusing if it weren't 'America in the Vietnam Era' class.
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Anyhow, what happens is, is that we do have… Old MacArthur comes in and instead of starting here [South Korea] and fighting up, he says ‘well, we’ll do an end run’. Sounded a little like John Wayne there, heh. And so we come in here [Middle of divided Korea] and we start goin’ up that way! And we start moving up, and they’re falling back, and we’re moving up, moving up, moving up. And now there’s a lotta folks that say ‘well, heck, why do we just go into China?’ There’s too many of ‘em! Right, I mean… wh- wha- what what what? This is just to stop Korean aggression! This isn’t to start World War III in Asia, besides, that’s a crazy place to wanna fight! And the Chinese kept saying ‘Don’t get too close, don’t get too close, don’t – YOU’RE TOO CLOSE!’ And what happens is that in the fall of ’50, the Chinese come in! And then – Radar and Hawkeye and and and and Klinger. All those guys get themselves caught in a Korean war on MASH that lasted longer than the actual war. Which, for their bank accounts was great. Yeah, MASH, folks, is Korea, it’s not Vietnam. It was broadcast during the Vietnam era, but it’s Korea, ‘kay? And Larry Gelbart, one of the major writers of both the movie and the television show passed away this weekend. So, the other part is now from ’50 into ’51, ’52, ’53, we’ll go back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. July 27th 1953 both sides say ‘Hey, enough.’ And we sign an armistice. And we sign it in a really neat building, it’s just a little bigger than this one. It had a line running right down the middle of it. And *steps* on this side of the line, you’re in South Korea. *steps* On that side of the line, you’re in North Korea. And you can take a tour… and when no one’s watching you can go *jumps from one side of line to the other and back*.. And you’d be in North Korea for a minute. But, anyway, we saw in the…” // “You can be in two places at once!” // “*laughs* I have unified the… *one foot on either side of line*Korea! *laughs* This conversation started here and it’s down here now. And what happens is we get a ceasefire, okay? And that’s basically what we’ve had since 1953. And of course, at the ceasefire, who’d gained the most territory? …. …. …. Well, where was the line before the war? *points to 38th parallel on map* And where’s the line after the war? *points to 38th parallel* Oh, don’t you love this Cold War?”
“But, as we were playing around with, before we left for a rainy weekend on Friday…” // “I don’t think it stopped raining. At all.” // “No, no. I did the backstroke to and from *location*. I, I think there was more water in the construction there at *location* than there was in the harbor. Um, that was like ‘Hey, hydroplane through here!’ What was cool, though, was that it was like 4 lanes of bumper to bumper traffic so you didn’t go too far. You know, like kids going bowling, and they put the bumpers up so you don’t get a gutter ball. That’s what 95 was like, kind of deal.”
“But, our four folks up there, they were known as the Weavers. They were in something that was very very popular in post-World War II America, kind of a folk revival, or, or the folk music deal that was starting to grow. Its popularity comes from a lot of different things. One is that it talked about a simplet time, ugh, because folks are really starting to be concerned about mushroom clouds and how fast technology’s going. So, a lot of this brought us back to a much simpler time of ‘Goodnight, Irene…’ which is all about a drug addict who kills his wife. Although the songs of the ‘50’s were… violent. Another one… do I have… Another one that… *searches computer files* Hummmm. *The Kingston Trio’s ‘Tom Dooley plays*Hear that? They used to make us sing this thing in elementary school! This is another one, like the Weavers and ‘Goodnight Irene’ this is another one from the ‘50’s. (Throughout history, there have been many songs written about the eternal triangle. This next one tells the story of a Mr Grayson, a beautiful woman, and a condemned man named Tom Dooley... When the sun rises tomorrow, Tom Dolley must hang). And, and the 3rd grade chorus would… Now this part was cool. This one was mine and Gabby H’s part. This was Gabby – (I met her on the mountain, there I took her life). My turn (I met her on the mountain, stabbed her with my knife) *makes appropriate hand gestures whilst singing along*And everyone cheered…. And Goodnight Irene is all about a drug addict, here we got a guy killing a woman, right? This is all the 50’s. And this is all a revival. To bring us to a simpler time.”
“But, the success of Nixon and the success of some of these other congressmen that we just don’t have time to play around with emboldens some others o want to do something. And one of these guys who wants to do something is the Junior Senator from the state of Wisconsin – Joe McCarthy. Joe… is a piece of work. Joe… is, is… Ah. Well, let’s put it this way. Um. ‘Why tell the truth when a lie can be so much louder?’ And that was Joe. Um, Joe goes up against in in in in in the Republican primary, Joe goes up against a Senator by the name of La Follette. Bob La Follette had been around for… ever and was a great senator. McCarthy wants to go up… ‘cause McCarthy’s got this drive, this determination, this zeal. He is going to, going to, going to, get all this stuff going. And, and he goes after La Follette on the only place that he can go after La Follette. La Follette didn’t serve in World War II. Well, no. La Follette was 46, 47 years old, had a whole bunch of physical infirmities, and was a member of the United States Senate. But, when Joe McCarthy said ‘I served this great country as a tail-gunner in a bomber plane, blowing missions over Europe…’ and everyone’s going ‘Wow… Tail-Gunner Joe!’ The only problem is… He didn’t do it.”
-------------------------
Anyhow, what happens is, is that we do have… Old MacArthur comes in and instead of starting here [South Korea] and fighting up, he says ‘well, we’ll do an end run’. Sounded a little like John Wayne there, heh. And so we come in here [Middle of divided Korea] and we start goin’ up that way! And we start moving up, and they’re falling back, and we’re moving up, moving up, moving up. And now there’s a lotta folks that say ‘well, heck, why do we just go into China?’ There’s too many of ‘em! Right, I mean… wh- wha- what what what? This is just to stop Korean aggression! This isn’t to start World War III in Asia, besides, that’s a crazy place to wanna fight! And the Chinese kept saying ‘Don’t get too close, don’t get too close, don’t – YOU’RE TOO CLOSE!’ And what happens is that in the fall of ’50, the Chinese come in! And then – Radar and Hawkeye and and and and Klinger. All those guys get themselves caught in a Korean war on MASH that lasted longer than the actual war. Which, for their bank accounts was great. Yeah, MASH, folks, is Korea, it’s not Vietnam. It was broadcast during the Vietnam era, but it’s Korea, ‘kay? And Larry Gelbart, one of the major writers of both the movie and the television show passed away this weekend. So, the other part is now from ’50 into ’51, ’52, ’53, we’ll go back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. July 27th 1953 both sides say ‘Hey, enough.’ And we sign an armistice. And we sign it in a really neat building, it’s just a little bigger than this one. It had a line running right down the middle of it. And *steps* on this side of the line, you’re in South Korea. *steps* On that side of the line, you’re in North Korea. And you can take a tour… and when no one’s watching you can go *jumps from one side of line to the other and back*.. And you’d be in North Korea for a minute. But, anyway, we saw in the…” // “You can be in two places at once!” // “*laughs* I have unified the… *one foot on either side of line*Korea! *laughs* This conversation started here and it’s down here now. And what happens is we get a ceasefire, okay? And that’s basically what we’ve had since 1953. And of course, at the ceasefire, who’d gained the most territory? …. …. …. Well, where was the line before the war? *points to 38th parallel on map* And where’s the line after the war? *points to 38th parallel* Oh, don’t you love this Cold War?”
“But, as we were playing around with, before we left for a rainy weekend on Friday…” // “I don’t think it stopped raining. At all.” // “No, no. I did the backstroke to and from *location*. I, I think there was more water in the construction there at *location* than there was in the harbor. Um, that was like ‘Hey, hydroplane through here!’ What was cool, though, was that it was like 4 lanes of bumper to bumper traffic so you didn’t go too far. You know, like kids going bowling, and they put the bumpers up so you don’t get a gutter ball. That’s what 95 was like, kind of deal.”
“But, our four folks up there, they were known as the Weavers. They were in something that was very very popular in post-World War II America, kind of a folk revival, or, or the folk music deal that was starting to grow. Its popularity comes from a lot of different things. One is that it talked about a simplet time, ugh, because folks are really starting to be concerned about mushroom clouds and how fast technology’s going. So, a lot of this brought us back to a much simpler time of ‘Goodnight, Irene…’ which is all about a drug addict who kills his wife. Although the songs of the ‘50’s were… violent. Another one… do I have… Another one that… *searches computer files* Hummmm. *The Kingston Trio’s ‘Tom Dooley plays*Hear that? They used to make us sing this thing in elementary school! This is another one, like the Weavers and ‘Goodnight Irene’ this is another one from the ‘50’s. (Throughout history, there have been many songs written about the eternal triangle. This next one tells the story of a Mr Grayson, a beautiful woman, and a condemned man named Tom Dooley... When the sun rises tomorrow, Tom Dolley must hang). And, and the 3rd grade chorus would… Now this part was cool. This one was mine and Gabby H’s part. This was Gabby – (I met her on the mountain, there I took her life). My turn (I met her on the mountain, stabbed her with my knife) *makes appropriate hand gestures whilst singing along*And everyone cheered…. And Goodnight Irene is all about a drug addict, here we got a guy killing a woman, right? This is all the 50’s. And this is all a revival. To bring us to a simpler time.”
“But, the success of Nixon and the success of some of these other congressmen that we just don’t have time to play around with emboldens some others o want to do something. And one of these guys who wants to do something is the Junior Senator from the state of Wisconsin – Joe McCarthy. Joe… is a piece of work. Joe… is, is… Ah. Well, let’s put it this way. Um. ‘Why tell the truth when a lie can be so much louder?’ And that was Joe. Um, Joe goes up against in in in in in the Republican primary, Joe goes up against a Senator by the name of La Follette. Bob La Follette had been around for… ever and was a great senator. McCarthy wants to go up… ‘cause McCarthy’s got this drive, this determination, this zeal. He is going to, going to, going to, get all this stuff going. And, and he goes after La Follette on the only place that he can go after La Follette. La Follette didn’t serve in World War II. Well, no. La Follette was 46, 47 years old, had a whole bunch of physical infirmities, and was a member of the United States Senate. But, when Joe McCarthy said ‘I served this great country as a tail-gunner in a bomber plane, blowing missions over Europe…’ and everyone’s going ‘Wow… Tail-Gunner Joe!’ The only problem is… He didn’t do it.”
