Fifty years after Vietnam, America is again clinging to illusion, burying failure, and courting collapse — this time from within.
By Bear Howard. —
Sedona, AZ — Two hundred days into Donald Trump’s second presidency, America feels eerily familiar — like a nation marching confidently toward disaster while insisting everything is under control. Federal agencies have been gutted, truth fractured into shards of grievance, allies abandoned, and the Constitution bent into the shape of one man’s will. The country insists it is “winning” even as the ground beneath it gives way.
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We have been here before.
Half a century ago, American generals told the public we were turning the corner in Vietnam, even as the body bags multiplied and the villages burned. The official line was victory; the reality was futility. Tens of thousands of American soldiers died. Millions of Vietnamese civilians and soldiers on both sides were killed, maimed, or traumatized. And when the helicopters finally lifted off the rooftop in Saigon, all that sacrifice bought us nothing enduring — no lasting victory, no moral clarity, not even a coherent memory of why we went.
The lesson should have been simple: face failure honestly, learn from it, and do not repeat it. But we never did. We buried the truth, turned away from the pain, and allowed the myth of American exceptionalism to paper over the catastrophe. And because we refused that reckoning, we find ourselves repeating the same cycles of overreach, denial, and destructive bravado — only this time, the battlefield is not distant jungles but our own democratic institutions.
The New Battlefield
In 2025, the human toll looks different but no less devastating.
Trust in government is collapsing: Career civil servants are fleeing at record rates. The State Department has lost more than a third of its senior diplomats since January, many replaced by campaign loyalists with no international experience.
The military has been pulled inward: The Department of Homeland Security has floated plans to use active-duty troops for routine immigration enforcement — an idea once dismissed as unconstitutional now discussed in daily press briefings.
Alliances are unraveling: For the first time in NATO’s history, the U.S. president has openly questioned whether America would honor Article 5 — the mutual defense guarantee that held the alliance together for 75 years. European states, stunned, are building alternative security pacts that deliberately exclude Washington.
The echoes of Vietnam are unmistakable. Then, as now, leaders sold illusions of strength while reality collapsed beneath them. Then, as now, Americans clung to the fantasy of control, even as events slipped irretrievably beyond it.
A Veteran’s Warning
Last month, at a VFW hall in rural Ohio, an 82-year-old Vietnam veteran addressed a crowd that included Iraq and Afghanistan vets. He had buried three friends before he turned 21. He remembered the smell of napalm and the lies about “progress.” Asked what he thought of Trump’s America, he shook his head and said:
“Back then they told us we were winning while we were dying. Now they’re telling us we’re great while we’re falling apart. Different battlefield, same lie.”
The room fell into silence. Every head nodded.
The Flaw in the American Mind
The painful connection between these two eras is clear: a deeply embedded flaw in the American collective mind. It is an inability to confront failure honestly, to learn humbling lessons, and to adjust course before irreversible damage is done.
Without that reckoning, America faces not just temporary political storms but an extended period of diminishment. Our moral authority, global leadership, and internal cohesion are eroding, leaving us a diminished player in a world that no longer waits for American leadership or accepts its self-image as exceptional. Already, trade blocs in Asia and Africa are finalizing pacts without U.S. involvement. The dollar still reigns, but its permanence is now openly questioned in boardrooms from Berlin to Beijing.
A Nation Without Humility
Sometimes, the only way a lesson is learned is through pain. After 250 years, America — like a spoiled, rich child — may now be entering an extended season of diminishment, both at home and on the world stage. And perhaps that is what must happen. Only in failure do nations, like people, confront their illusions and discover humility.
For a country with so much potential to do good, the Age of Trump may be the crucible we have brought upon ourselves: a hard season meant to strip away entitlement and privilege, to remind us that with only 4% of the world’s population, we were never destined to be the fat cat dictating the terms of history. If there is redemption ahead, it will not come from clinging to myths of greatness, but from a hard-earned wisdom — the willingness to accept limits, to act with humility, and to reimagine progress not as swagger but as service.
Because in the end, it is only by facing our past with clear eyes — by admitting that even our most painful sacrifices can teach us how to be better — that we ensure they were not made in vain. Without that humility, we squander both the loss and the lesson, and the price we will pay next may be the very soul of the nation itself.
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15 Comments
Too bad Neil Sheehan isn’t around to write a sequel to his A Bright Shining Lie tailored to the criminal shenanigans of King Dumpty Wumpty!
It’s a great article
Funny you mention Saigon, Nixon and his sycophantic lying body counting Generals. That is precisely what this is all about! MAGA formerly known as the GOP were caught with their pants down breaking law after law and lying to the American public (and mainly draftee military). The very same Criminal Assholes behind Criminal DICK Nixon are the same Criminal Assholes who were behind Ronnie Raygun’s Iran Contra crimes against America and are the same Criminal Assholes who helped Bush Sr make clandestine deals with Noreiga, Saddam, Iran and many others only to turn on them and launch wars upon them, as the monsters they created became too monstrous for their liking. And they are the exact same Criminal Assholes behind King Squatty Potty today! From Roger Stone to Steven Treasonous Insurrectionist Bannon and Fascist Jew Pee Wee Stephan Miller!
They have attempted to thwart our Constitution and laws one Criminal POTUS at a time. They got caught each time but of course were pardoned by one another in succession. This time they’ve decided the gloves are off and they could give a shit less what anyone says about their crimes because they now have a Criminal POTUS granted un precedents complete and absolute immunity by his Criminal Asshole SCOTUS Judges, each lying under Oath during their confirmation hearings and each willing to play dumber than the Orange moron and claim things suddenly exist as law that were either struck down decades ago or are non existent. It’s a long game and they want vengeance for being made to look like the Criminal fools they all are time and time again.
That’s how Hitler rose in power to be Führer despite being a failed Artist, disgruntled veteran (this definitely does not apply to the Privileged Draft Dodger and Thief) and failed Insurrectionist (Just like the Privileged Draft Dodger and Thief). Judges sympathetic to Hitler’s insane Rascist Fascist ideology pardoned him for being a traitor to Germany. Just as our Judges on SCOTUS and within the DOJ have pardoned Criminal King Ding Dong time and time again. Not because he was in the right but because they’re wholly sympathetic to his insane Racist Fascist ideologies!
That’s where we are at and why as a f’d up nation!
Great article Mr Bear,
talk about lies sold to the American people:
Kari Lake’s accusations about VOA and China are bad for the country
Kari Lake says VOA cooperated with the Chinese Communist Party. In reality, VOA fights propaganda.
https://apple.news/ADfesR7kyQ8CRWKVCFFz_jg
This is the kind of ignorance is produced by people appointed to positions in government they know absolutely nothing about. From RFK junior conspiracy theorist doctor wannabe nut case to Scary Lake the Conspiracy Theorist nutjob the administration is full of em and full of it!
The sane World see’s right through the Orange Cowardly, Brainless, Heartless Oz Character. Open your eyes and you’ll all see Peter Pumpkinhead for what he is-
Putin’s Manchurian Candidate!
President Marcelo labels Trump a “Russian asset”
Speaking at the Social Democratic Party’s (PSD) Summer University, the President said that the current U.S. administration “threatened sanctions (against Russia) but imposed none.”
https://portugaldecoded.substack.com/p/president-marcelo-labels-trump-a
Gee I wonder who King Incompetence will fire now to divert eyes and ears from his lies and incompetence?
The U.S. added just 22,000 jobs in August, confirming dramatic slowdown in the labor market
The August report is the first since Trump fired a top Labor Department official over accusations of releasing inaccurate data.
https://apple.news/Amu2mx7DGQXOMt12mM3vrEQ
Food and Utility Prices are through the virtual roof as well, because Mr Quixote decided that green energy like windmills that most red states have Yuge quantities of are voodoo and only dirty assed coal and dinosaur dung are the way to go as we all choke to death!
Quite humorous that Trump has to re-name the Defense Department back to its defunct former name War Department! I specifically recall every MAGA sycophant on here claiming that Trump was a No War President which is a complete and total lie like 99.9% of everything that comes out of that big hole in his Big Orange Head. If that were remotely true why is he re-naming the DoD and why are we attacking Gaza, Yemen, Venezuela and other countries? You all bought and paid for this loser and now you’re beginning to see what you get for having done so! High unemployment, high utilities, high grocery prices and loss after loss in appeals courts for violating laws and constitutional protections. Yep, you must all be tired of winning sooooo much!
How about that completely un redacted Epstein file he promised the nation would be released in full?
PATHETIC!!!!
Saigon huh? Try Munich post beer hall rallies!
US imposes sanctions on Palestinians for requesting war crimes inquiry
Rights groups in Gaza and Ramallah had asked international criminal court to investigate Israel over genocide claims
https://apple.news/Al0SrZy2MRuy4FwiBsvUp9w
Makes perfect sense….if you’re a heartless moron! Wonder how many future 9/11 style attacks await us should we survive as a country? We’re not making allies just lifelong enemies!
Speaking of RFK Jr. Maybe he has a hole in his head as a result of genetic trauma? He definitely has no brains either! And you MAGA morons bought into the snake piss he sells the country! No science, No vaccines, No regulation, No oversight and No fu@king brains!
RFK Jr’s anti-science agenda will be catastrophic for the United States
https://apple.news/AqTs9j6PjTKSKwvABlhNi8w
Nothing like having president pretending to be a tough guy attacking our own cities and citizens with his “War Department!” If he was half the man he imagines he is he’d leave office, join ICE and demand to be out on the streets hunting down his so called “most violent heavily armed Migrant Gangsters of Tren de Araqua ” who have fictitiously besieged the entire country. His little charade of having the military strike a so called Tren de Aqraqua, was likely old Coast Guard footage of smugglers from Columbia or just Venezuelan fishermen like the N Korean fishermen he had SEAL Team VI “obliterate” while attempting to bug his lover Un to see if he was cheating on him. Maduro declared war on Tren de Araqua years ago so how is it possible they’re openly smuggling so called “drugs” in Venezuelan waters? It’s all Wag the Dog bullshite to divert from the economy and Epstein files is what it is.
Just proves what a wanker cu@t he truly is!
*Trump threatens Chicago with “Department of WAR” ahead of planned crackdown
https://apple.news/AG24EHB1GSj-hkeFx1g4-dg
Republican condemns Vance for ‘despicable’ comments on Venezuelan boat strike
Rand Paul decries ‘thoughtless’ comment after vice-president defends strike against alleged drug traffickers
https://apple.news/AYCBY740hTLOaEtbOAY6GXQ
Typical tough guy talk from a bunch of Cowards! “Let’s send Democrats to die in Russia” WTF? He was a Dem and so was Trump! Both evaded Combat by either paying their way out of it or by securing a non combat “journalist” position. Tough guys in the Infantry, Armor and Artillery do the fighting not cowards who talk tough but have never heard a shot fired in anger directed at them on the field of battle.
This article well written but clearly out of touch with reality. The article is the same old very tired Donald Trump is Hitler dogma that has pasted the Democrats with a 19% approval rating.
The Southern Border is under Military Control. It was needed. The Majority of Americans agree.
Crime is out of control in America’s Central Cities. Over one million gang members and other criminals were part of the 20 million illegal aliens that violated American Law and squatted wherever they wanted in our country. Now they wipe their asses with the American Flag and drain billions from the American Treasury.
The author reminds me of one of the recent white liberal protesters that dominated the group chanting “FREE DC”! What’s entertaining is the fact that the author is a coward and would never walk the streets of the Bronx or the Southside of Chicago after dusk . The residents of Washington DC are delighted their children are safe.
As for your Vietnam bullshit (if you even were alive from 60 to 73) you should know that Johnson blew the shit up and Nixon ended the War. As far as soldiers evaluate victory,, your statistics on body bags appear accurate . Today, Vietnam is one of our best trading partners.
Back to your doom and gloom bullshit, the borders are secure, illegal aliens are being sent back to their own countries, Iran and all of its terrorist assholes got a grenade up their asses and boys have been banned from girl locker rooms and sports. And you’re still whining?
You sit in Sedona which is as diverse as a KKK Recruitment Drive and continue to whine like your a victim. How pathetic.
Remember, the Majority of Arizonans voted for Trump. So practice what you preach and support the democratically elected president.
You hypocrite, as well as the usual dysfunctional desert peyote eating fans that support your vomit.
MANDAMI for Sedona Mayor!!!
Keep on cheering Trump on as he goes down like DICK Nixon relegated to collecting piss clams off the beach.
Nixon ended the war??? You’re an absolute ignoramus moron if you actually believe that! He illegally and secretly bombed Cambodia and Laos, bolstered fictitious body counts from sycophantic General Officers, covered up Mai Lai, had CRIMINALs break into the DNC and Neil Sheehans offices, lied about the existence of his illegal recordings, lied to Congress and the American people just like Trump! And yet you defend him! You’re quite mentally ill aren’t you?
I give a shot how many people voted for Trump. Doesn’t making him any less the convicted criminal he very very much is!
He even just today defended men who beat their wives!
Defend him to your ignorant bliss! Doesn’t change the facts about the Orange jackass or any of the other Criminals you cheerlead for! Gooooo Fascism! Right? You un American dirt bag!
Hi Cory Kruger How’s that claim about that Biden AI bot doing for your business
Where is our top down leadership?
We have one Republican Governor calling for a time out, peace and calm. That’s called leadership. Then we have a President and Republican House and Senate representatives labeling his opposition American enemy #1.
Reporter Reveals Nancy Mace’s Stunning Hypocrisy.
Like someone said to Megan Kelly today after she spoke decisively and hostile toward the left, “funny you feel that way seeing how your own father was a target of such hostility and hate.”
You can’t spread hate and then demand a time out for your side when you lose a player. Try committing yourselves to the gospel as written rather than perceived.
Remember- An eye for an eye leaves everybody blind!