Vietnam

Wed May 19 14:12:02 UTC 2010

FWIW, I am absolutely unaware of the phrase "in Vietnam" ever being used to
mean "during the Vietnam War."  The simplest synonym for that phrase would
be, "during Vietnam."

I once taught a course on the American pop culture of the subject.

It is certainly possible that Blumenthal might accidentally have said
"served in" when he meant "served during," but my opinion is that he could
have and should have caught and corrected himself.  In that split second he
chose not to.

It would, of course, be far worse if - as some have done - he'd manufactured
a fake Vietnam service record.  Whether a politician's "mere" rhetorical
sleaze is enough to neutralize his actual accomplishements in office is, of
course, another issue.

Also of interest:  both Fox and CNN have been asserting in various ways that
Blumenthal's words meant that he was "a combat veteran."

Whatever he may have intended or was willing to suggest, that supposition
(based on a plain reading of what he said) would be entirely unwarranted.

JL

On Wed, May 19, 2010 at 9:23 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: Vietnam
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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-)
> > >
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