“Hearts and minds” became a cliché during the Vietnam War. Somebody noticed that many of the Vietnamese had no particular enthusiasm for either the War for Freedom, Democracy, and Domino Prevention or its American sponsors. Thus began a trademark U.S. effort to win the hearts and minds of the skeptical and the outright opposed. It was based on a belief that’s been the undoing of centuries of rulers: that “the masses” can be swayed by the right combination of propaganda, threats, repression, and fear.
The Americans had lost Vietnamese hearts and minds before most of them had even arrived. The 1954 Geneva accords partitioned Vietnam at roughly the 17th parallel and provided for reunification after elections in 1956. The U.S. government realized that communist Ho Chi Minh, a popular hero for his leadership of the resistance against the Japanese in World War II and the French afterwards, would easily win. The promised elections were not held.
That decision kneecapped the next 19 years of U.S. “saving democracy” propaganda. Even when a government controls the precious narrative, actions speak louder than words; hypocrisy’s stench overwhelms the honeyed propaganda. The man on the street, publicly lauded but privately disparaged by the ruling class, realizes the truth and doesn’t forget it.
Back home, the U.S. government has been losing hearts and minds for decades. The show-trial verdict against Donald Trump will push more people into the ranks of the permanently disillusioned, and that group already numbers in the tens of millions.
The almost automatic faith the government enjoyed through the Depression, World War II, and the years that followed suffered its first big hit with the Kennedy assassination and the Warren Commission whitewash. The Vietnam War took its toll, exacerbated by the draft and the treatment of returning soldiers.
Since Vietnam, the government and the ruling class have destroyed sentient Americans’ belief in their probity and effectiveness. Watergate, abandonment of the gold standard, double-digit inflation, Iran-Contra, serial financial crises, the Clintons’ scandals, the dot-com bust, 9/11 and the string of disastrous Middle East interventions it kicked off, the Patriot Act, the housing bust, too big to fail, Snowden’s revelations, and the rancid legislative maneuvers used to sneak through Obamacare set the table for Trump in 2016. His election kicked the lose-hearts-and-minds project into overdrive.
In their vicious arrogance and myopic stupidity, the regime and its media minions didn’t grasp that Trump rode a wave of those who treat anything they condemn as an endorsement and reject anything they endorse. “Deplorables” became a badge of honor. (Now another has been bestowed—“convicted felon”—already gracing T-shirts, baseball hats, banners, and memes.) Trump’s election was the Lexington moment for a Revolution that had already been effected in “the Minds of the People.” The regime recognized its significance before the revolutionaries did and even before Trump took office set out to destroy him.
Soviet secret police chief Lavrentiy Beria reportedly said, “Give me the man and I will give you the case against him.” The regime had its man, and they tried to build case after case against him. Mueller and Russiagate came up empty, as did two impeachment efforts. Ultimately, they employed another Soviet stratagem—an obviously rigged election—to at least temporarily vanquish Trump. With the January 6 persecutions, they went after both Trump and his supporters.
The only ones who still believe are the village idiots. The regime has waged lawfare against Trump with about the same success as its Ukrainian proxies have had against Russia. Smirking Joe Biden and regime toadies should enjoy the verdict and sentencing, it’s liable to be their Kherson moment (one of the few battles Ukraine won).
The Gulf of Tonkin incident Aug. 2 & 4, 1964 the steppingstone to destruction of the United States. Aug. 4 incident faked setting up a quick legislative approval of the Tonkin resolution giving LBJ carte blanche to escalate the war as he saw fit. In 1964 the federal government had 75% approval, by 1994 down to 15%. Not a blip on the radar screen but Lexington & Concord revolutionary.
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