I Like Good Quotes
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." (George Santayana)
This of course is a very famous quote but in my twenties I heard a codicil,",As is everyone else!"
I tracked that one down ,attributed to Kurt Vonnegut:
I've got news for Mr. Santayana: we're doomed to repeat the past no matter what. That's what it is to be alive.”
Consider one not so insignificant example,The Whiz Kids who JFK imported to guide his foreign policy. Very erudite educated,History forward men,led by Robert McNamara.
Despite the fact that the OSS had parachuted men into Viet Nam to convince Ho Chi Minh to fight against the Chinese(which he did)
Despite the experience of the French who the United States encouraged to go back in after WWII,the Whiz Kids thought the country just a domino,not to fall to the monolithic Communist hordes.
That ended rather badly with a brave Marine hanging on t the skids of a helicopter,54,000 men dead,countless wounded in mind and spirit.
Ho admired George Washington,and knew he could wait out the foreign invader a la George.
McNamara eventually apologized. Experts always go in with their theories and we trust them..They after all have "read History"
Part 1 of 2
This of course is a very famous quote but in my twenties I heard a codicil,",As is everyone else!"
I tracked that one down ,attributed to Kurt Vonnegut:
I've got news for Mr. Santayana: we're doomed to repeat the past no matter what. That's what it is to be alive.”
Consider one not so insignificant example,The Whiz Kids who JFK imported to guide his foreign policy. Very erudite educated,History forward men,led by Robert McNamara.
Despite the fact that the OSS had parachuted men into Viet Nam to convince Ho Chi Minh to fight against the Chinese(which he did)
Despite the experience of the French who the United States encouraged to go back in after WWII,the Whiz Kids thought the country just a domino,not to fall to the monolithic Communist hordes.
That ended rather badly with a brave Marine hanging on t the skids of a helicopter,54,000 men dead,countless wounded in mind and spirit.
Ho admired George Washington,and knew he could wait out the foreign invader a la George.
McNamara eventually apologized. Experts always go in with their theories and we trust them..They after all have "read History"
Part 1 of 2
