Healing the Soul of America: on War & Peace


Lyndon Johnson: Secretary of Defense called Vietnam "a terrible mistake"

Robert McNamara, who was President Johnson's Secretary of Defense during the Vietnam War, wrote in his memoirs that the war was a "terrible mistake." More than 59,000 Americans dead, and 2 million Vietnamese, plus countless other devastated American lives, and it was all "a terrible mistake." McNamara also mentioned that he, and others who planned and directed that war, had no knowledge or understanding of the religion, language philosophy, or character of the people of Vietnam--and no one to teach them, even if they wanted to learn.

There is an inestimable human tragedy stuck to this nation as a result of that war, a significant aspect of which is the ever-more-frayed bond of trust between the American people and our government.

The Vietnam War Memorial is a uniquely powerful place because it is emotionally true. It doesn't lie. It pictures the war as a huge black gash across our landscape, which it is. It helps us grieve for who we were as a nation before that war so wounded us.

Source: Healing the Soul of America, by Marianne Williamson, p.101 Jul 24, 2018

Marianne Williamson: Vietnam was a huge black gash wounding America

Robert McNamara, who was President Johnson's Secretary of Defense during the Vietnam War, wrote in his memoirs that the war was a "terrible mistake." McNamara also mentioned that he, and others who planned and directed that war, had no knowledge or understanding of the religion, language philosophy, or character of the people of Vietnam--and no one to teach them, even if they wanted to learn.

There is an inestimable human tragedy stuck to this nation as a result of that war, a significant aspect of which is the ever-more-frayed bond of trust between the American people and our government.

The Vietnam War Memorial is a uniquely powerful place because it is emotionally true. It doesn't lie. It pictures the war as a huge black gash across our landscape, which it is. It approximately memorializes the lives of those who died such purposeless, tragic deaths in Vietnam. And it helps us grieve not only for them but also for who we were as a nation before that war so wounded us.

Source: Healing the Soul of America, by Marianne Williamson, p.101 Jul 24, 2018

Marianne Williamson: U.S. imperialistically devastated both Vietnam and Iraq

The very tyrannies from which we had fought to be free would reappear among us, and often we were the oppressors as well as the oppressed. With every generation, we've waged a fiery personal and political contest between our most noble and our basest thoughts. Which would control the destiny of our country? Even now, the contest rages.

To look in our national mirror is to see both glory and shame. We endured the horrors of a Civil War, heroically fought two world wars, brilliantly helped defeat Hitler--and then imperialistically devastated both Vietnam and Iraq. We are blessed with more money and more technological resources than any other nation in the world, yet we give only 1 percent of our budget away to nations less fortunate than us. America has always been a land of contradictions.

Source: Healing the Soul of America, by Marianne Williamson,p.xix-xx Jul 24, 2018

  • The above quotations are from Healing the Soul of America
    20th Anniversary Edition
    by Marianne Williamson    .
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Page last updated: Jun 10, 2019