Landmark Quotation

Perhaps the most famous quote to come out of the Vietnam War was “we had to destroy the village in order to save it". These few darkly comic words captured the absurdity of the position in which the United States found itself in 1968. America’s intentions—to stop the spread of communism and to confer the blessings of democracy on the Vietnamese people—were noble, but as it poured ever more lives and treasure into Vietnam, these goals seemed not only elusive but impossible. The only way to win in Vietnam was to destroy it.

With the carnage headlining the nightly news in 1968 CBS anchorman Walter Cronkite, the “most trusted man in America,” turned against the war. Although there were many battles and deaths to come, we didn’t know it at the time but the war was lost. But enough reminiscing.

The landmark quotation that defines this era may have been spoken by none other than Joseph Biden:

We have to go spend money to keep from going bankrupt.

Walter Cronkite has yet to weigh in.

[Update - 5/17/09: Walter Cronkite has died. The above post is in bad taste post facto. I apologize. Thank you, Walter. Many tried to fill your shoes, but no one did. Pax.]