Chamblee54

Long Island Congressman Peter King is in the news these days. He was on the Laura Ingraham radio show recently, and made a few comments about the Occupy Wall Street movement. “They have no sense of purpose other than a basically anti-American tone and anti-capitalist. It’s a ragtag mob basically,’ … ‘We have to be careful not to allow this to get any legitimacy … I’m taking this seriously in that I’m old enough to remember what happened in the 1960’s when the left-wing took to the streets and somehow the media glorified them and it ended up shaping policy. We can’t allow that to happen.’
Wikipedia has a few stories about Mr. King. He joined the National Guard in 1968, when he finished law school, and he could not claim a student deferment any longer. 1968 was also the year of the Tet offensive. While a military victory for the United States, the Tet offensive was a psychological victory for the Viet Cong. It convinced many in the United States that the war in Vietnam could not be won. It was a turning point. The anti war protests in the United States had little to do with this.
PG is also curious as to what Mr. King meant when he said “it ended up shaping policy”. In the 1968 elections, Richard Nixon won. He persued a policy of “Vietnamization”, or withdrawing the United States combat forces. It was not until 1973 that the Paris accords were signed. These called for the withdrawal of the final American forces, and the release of POWs. (Rumors of POWs kept by North Vietnam continue to this day.) During the Nixon years of the Vietnam war, 20,000 American troops died, as did untold Vietnamese soldiers and civilians. There was an invasion of Cambodia. The conflict spread into Cambodia, with a horrendous loss of life. It is tough to see how American policy was affected by the domestic war protests.
Peter King is the Chair of the House Committee on Homeland Security, and seems to be a piece of work. At one time, he was considered to be a friend of the Muslim community. Mr. King was a friend of the Irish Republican Army. “In 1982, speaking at a pro-IRA rally in Nassau County, New York, King said: “We must pledge ourselves to support those brave men and women who this very moment are carrying forth the struggle against British imperialism in the streets of Belfast and Derry.”
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.