Tag Archives: Howard Zinn

Oliver Stone discusses Pacifist Presidential Candidate Henry Wallace on DN!

Oliver Stone's Secret History of AmericaDemocracy Now! aired a  report on how “Academy Award-winning Oliver Stone has teamed up with historian Peter Kuznick to produce a 10-part Showtime series called “Oliver Stone’s Untold History of the United States.'”  They have also produced a book of the same name.

The series centers on the effect that the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan had on the history of the US.  In questioning whether it was necessary to drop the A-bomb, Stone and Kuznick explore the different path the United States almost took if the pacifist Henry Wallace had remained as  Franklin D. Roosevelt‘s Vice President and had won 1944 Presidential nomination of the Democratic Party.  In the interview, Stone discusses the success of the progressive policies of Wallace as FDR’s Secretary of Agriculture prior to becoming his second Vice President:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XO-Y8wNwbuA&t=8m13s]   Continue reading Oliver Stone discusses Pacifist Presidential Candidate Henry Wallace on DN!

Howard Zinn’s The “Moral Equation” of War is Wrong

The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of PeaceHoward Zinn‘s 1970 essay Vietnam: The Moral Equation is the seventeenth chapter of The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of Peace .  I am proponent of Zinn’s People’s History of the United States,  and especially the graphic novel versionA People’s History of American Empire And Zinn seems to be a force behind this book of pacifism, including contributing the introduction.

Yet, here I go committing heresy:  Howard Zinn is wrong.  In the first few paragraphs of this essay he gives away the whole pacifist store.  Now I am all for the concept of free, but not when it means surrendering my pacifism from the get-go.  Zinn starts by giving up on pacifism:

I would start such a discussion from the supposition that it is logically indefensible to hold an absolutely nonviolent position . . . .  Continue reading Howard Zinn’s The “Moral Equation” of War is Wrong