06-25-2018, 11:45 PM
(06-25-2018, 06:51 PM)Ragnarök_62 Wrote:(06-13-2018, 09:18 AM)David Horn Wrote:(06-11-2018, 10:59 AM)beechnut79 Wrote: I would tend to say that the Watergate scandal was the event that ushered in the "don't trust the government" mood.
I think that Watergate certainly solidified it, but it was there already. The release of the Pentagon Papers is a better marker, because it exposed just how badly the government lied about things that directly affected people's lives. When the government at its highest levels sends young men to die in a war they already know is unwinnable, that hit home.
Yes, that the Pentagon Papers was one of many "Lessons of 'Nam". Nam is still relevent since we ,
Nixon's Children are still around.
The lies about Vietnam were discussed at teach-ins from 1965 onward. The Pentagon Papers was a good summary of some of the lies that further confirmed what the protesters knew and said. And Watergate was the scandal (itself partly catalyzed by the Pentagon Papers that Nixon reacted to) that solidified the mood of distrust such that it never went away.