Vietnam

[Joel S. Berson]

Shown on TV news was a speech in which Blumenthal clearly says he was
not in Vietnam, but served during that time.

At 5/18/2010 04:38 PM, David A. Daniel wrote:
>As a guy who was in the Marine Corps Reserve, Blumenthal knows full well
>that he is not entitled to say that he was "in Vietnam". Someone who had not
>been in the service(s) at all might make this mistake ("Yeah, my uncle was
>in Vietnam", or the like) but not someone who was. He just flat out lied,
>and has probably been lying, waffling and shuffling about his military
>service for his whole political life.
>DAD
>
>
>___________________________________________
>"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy" Benjamin Franklin
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
>Bill Palmer
>Sent: Tuesday, May 18, 2010 5:07 PM
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject: Re: Vietnam
>
>
>
>Victor,
>
>IMHO, this is hyperanalyzing a simple lie.
>
>  The man tried to claim, imply, suggest, assert, or whatever, that he had
>served in a combat zone, when he, demonstrably, had never done so.  And he
>did it purely for poitical gain, to gain votes from those who would support
>him on the basis of his supposed service to his country.  Why try to find a
>million ways where he could have been making a truthful statement that was
>simply misconstrued?
>
>He would have been better advised to weasel word a claim of military service
>as a veteran of the Vietnam Era, which does not require that service have
>been in-country.
>
>Bill Palmer
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "victor steinbok" <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
>To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Sent: Tuesday, May 18, 2010 3:13 PM
>Subject: Vietnam
>
>
> >
> >
> > It's hard to escape last nights news of the flub in Connecticut, where
> > Richard Blumenthal got caught exaggerating his service record. Or did
> > he? There are three levels of claims, most appearing in the NYT, but
> > also piled on by FNC. 1) On exactly one occasion, Blumenthal stated
> > commented on "when he served in Vietnam"; 2) on several occasions one
> > may deduce that he implied that he served in Vietnam, although he did
> > not actually say it; 3) on one occasion he specifically stated "when
> > we came back", which can be generally taken as "when we came back from
> > Vietnam". Blumenthal's defense is that he misspoke. This apology, of
> > course, applies directly to (1). I am sure this is not relevant to the
> > political issue--or to FNC--but Blumental's defense on that point
> > hinges on whether it was /at any point/ common (particularly in the
> > Northeast) to refer to military service during the late 1960s and
> > early 1970s as "serving in Vietnam" rather than "serving in/during the
> > Vietnam War". I don't know it is true or not that such references were
> > at any point common. Perhaps someone who is more familiar with this
> > issue can enlighten me (and scores of journos). On the other hand, the
> > perception of (2) and (3) is entirely colored by the color of the
> > glasses one wears when looking at the remarks. Certainly, when one is
> > predisposed to see a fib, it's easy to recognize it as such. However,
> > this is hardly sufficient. When one is predisposed against
> > "constructivism", any appearance of geometric constructions or legal
> > constructs or constructive criticism will be viewed as incursions of
> > "constructivism". When one is predisposed against "socialism", every
> > mention of "society" or "social" or "welfare" will sound like
> > "socialism". The same could be said about "imperialism",
> > "environmentalism", "Big Business", etc. So I am more skeptical of
> > anything being made out of (2) and (3).
> >
> > As to (1), what say the linguists?
> >
> > VS-)
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>
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