See No Evil

I feel that the Vietnam War effected many people that are in the age of my parents, making it difficult to show violent images to students. One thing I wonder about is if the Vietnam War would have more coverage in the history textbooks a hundred years from now, or if it would be censored as it is today. I was told by my history teacher that the National Archives of JFK are kept hidden until 2017 because many Americans would get angry if they knew the secret about the incident. I don’t know if this is a credible reason for the secrecy of the files, but if this was true, is the government doing the same thing for the Vietnam War? Or are they not covering the war fully to justify the war?

From the information Loewen gives us in his book, it seems to be clear that the government is hiding a lot of information to prevent students from having a bad image about their own country. There are obviously a lot of shocking images and episodes that would be disturbing to students that would not be appropriate for textbooks, because arguably they could be harmful to students. I assume that there would be many parents concerned about the material. Is it worth the risk to educate students about the cruel acts of America? I don’t think any textbooks would risk it. It is too much of an inconvenient truth.

(image source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/Vietnam_War_protesters._1967._Wichita,_Kans_-_NARA_-_283625.jpg)

(image source: http://cdn.abclocal.go.com/images/kabc/cms_exf_2007/news/world_news/8685670_600x338.jpg)