“The criticisms were so tepid they were embarrassing. Almost nobody, including me, dared to criticize the U. S. attack on South Vietnam. That's like talking Hittite. Nobody even understood the words.”

— Noam Chomsky , book Class Warfare

Quotes 1990s, 1995-1999, Class Warfare, 1995

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The criticisms were so tepid they were embarrassing. Almost nobody, including me, dared to criticize the U. S. attack o…" by Noam Chomsky?

Noam Chomsky photo

Noam Chomsky 334

american linguist, philosopher and activist 1928

Related quotes

“In the twentieth century no one's hands were clean. Korean troops committed more atrocities per capita than Americans, in Vietnam. Vietnam of course attacked Cambodia. Japan attacked almost everyone. And so on.”

James W. Loewen (1942) American historian

NGO Holiday Card http://sundown.afro.illinois.edu/
2010s

“There were subjects we tackled that had never been even discussed, like I had an abortion. Nobody ever talked about that.”

Bea Arthur (1922–2009) actress, singer, comedian

Interview, TV Legends, August 6, 2005

“You’re talking about Vietnam and at that time nobody had ever heard of the country.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

Trump was describing the US knowledge about Vietnam in 1968, when about one half million US troops were stationed in Vietnam, as quoted in [Trump says was 'never a fan' of Vietnam War, and that Americans hadn't heard of country in 1968, Japan Times, https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/06/06/world/politics-diplomacy-world/trump-says-never-fan-vietnam-war-claims-americans-hadnt-heard-country-1968/#.XraZ4hMzbOQ]
2010s, 2019, June

“An important body of evidence that suggests the irrelevance of enemy atrocities to U. S. intervention in Vietnam may be found in official Washington responses to a broader spectrum of foreign atrocities. Official estimates of deliberate NLF killings in South Vietnam for the nine-year period 1958-1966 are on the order of 12,000, and the Defense Department estimates 19,578 enemy killings of civilians in South Vietnam from 1964 through September 1969. Yet in 1966 between 500,000 and 1,000,000 men, women, and children were slaughtered in Indonesia without even provoking any official U. S. protest, let alone an invasion to prevent mass murder.”

Edward S. Herman (1925–2017) American journalist

Source: Atrocities in Vietnam: Myths and Realities, 1970, pp. 13-14.

“There is a sad reality: Vietnam — a nation representing the aspirations, the hopes of a whole world of forgotten peoples — is tragically alone. This nation must endure the furious attacks of U. S. technology, with practically no possibility of reprisals in the South and only some of defense in the North — but always alone.”

Ernesto Che Guevara (1928–1967) Argentine Marxist revolutionary

Message to the Tricontinental (1967)

“Even if military advantages were not to be had by deliberately limiting attack to counterforce targets, I suspect that most governments would still prefer to observe such limits. Almost nobody wants to go down in history as the first man to kill 100,000 people.”

Herman Kahn (1922–1983) American futurist

The Magnum Opus; On Thermonuclear War

“Although there was much to criticize in American domestic and foreign policy, what struck me was the one-sidedness, unfairness, and systematic use of the double standard in the attacks against the United States and South Vietnam. … He called upon the United States "to denazify itself," but not North Vietnam or China. What practices in the United States, compared to the barbarous practices of Cuba or of China or of North Vietnam, warrant such a characterization? In those countries how long would one survive who whispered the kind of criticisms Chomsky was perfectly free to broadcast in the United States and be rewarded for it?”

Sidney Hook (1902–1989) American philosopher

Out of Step (1985)

“You give attention to army, police and things like that. Who pays attention to science? When I got the Dan David prize, which is similar to Nobel and given once in a few years by Israel, nobody talked about it. Nobody asked me anything about it. Nobody even knows and nobody understands it. It is so prestigious in the world of science but why didn’t anyone write about it?”

C. N. R. Rao (1934) Indian chemist

Scientist wonders why nobody asks him about Dan David prize (2013)

“[The newspapers] are talking of nationalism as if it were the property of an individual or as if it were confined to one group only. Nationalism is the property of all. Nobody can take possession of it just as a glittering word which attracts the hearts of stupid people.”

Abd al-Karim Qasim (1914–1963) Prime Minister of Iraq

The historical extempore speech at the Reserve Officers' College (1959)

“Nobody told me when to retire. Sourav (Ganguly) took his decision, I took my own decision, there was no pressure. Let`s leave it to the individuals. Criticism is fine but don`t do it without reason. Don`t start questioning the ability of the players. There is no retirement scheme, that`s rubbish.”

Anil Kumble (1970) Former Indian cricketer

Quoted in "Kumble Calls It A day: Quotes... For and By Kumble..."

Related topics