Lies My Teacher Told Me (Chapter 9&10)

Chapters 9 and 10 were discoveries of new American history for me as usual. However, as I was reading the first few paragraphs, I was not so confident if I can have a proper reaction since I did not know much about the Vietnam War (I should be ashamed). In the prior chapters, it was easier to react because I already knew how the topic is typically taught by textbooks used at school and I was able to see the difference by reading how it is SUPPOSED to be taught. But the way Loewen writes highlights both how it is taught and what actually happened so it was relatively easy to follow even without much prior knowledge. Still, I would not ever think that the combatants of the war in Vietnam were North and South Korea. I wonder how this knowledge twist occurred.

Chapter 9 elucidates an interesting phenomenon that how much information people know about the Vietnam War depends on their ages. Older they are, more accurate the information is. This is because authors of more recent textbooks are more likely to conceal some facts disgraceful to U.S. This chapter also introduces the significance of photos taken during the war. Pictures of the little girl running naked down Highway 1, fleeing a napalm attack or a Buddhist monk sitting at an intersection setting himself on fire to protest the South Vietnamese government clearly show how cruel and horrendous the war was. When people can see or recall these photos, none of them would think that the Vietnam War does not deserve to get much coverage on textbooks. This is why authors avoid these photos to be on textbooks. By now, I see a tendency; authors simply try their best to hide any facts disadvantageous to U.S. or its government. I was also shocked when I read the line "in Vietnam the United States dropped three times as many explosives as it dropped in all theaters of WWII, even including our nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.(248)" I knew how disastrous WWII was, but the Vietnam War was equally catastrophic or even worse. I also remembered the discussion we had last week that U.S. has demanded the Vietnamese for money it spent on supporting because U.S. army lost the war. I do not know if Loewen was not able to find this information, but textbooks obviously do not contain this fact.

Chapter 10 introduces an interesting division of humans: those alive on earth, the sasha, and the zamani. Apparently the borderline between the sasha and the zamani is relatively hard to locate because not all historical figures recalled by name are simply living dead. So far, most historical figures appeared in this book that we thought are the sasha, were actually the zamani since most of us had been deceived by textbook authors and we did not realize that we were being taught lies. It says "the less said about the recent past, the better. (260)" From authors' perspectives, it is easier to deceive us, current students, than elderly people since they have better knowledge about the past. The world of the sasha is controversial because readers with better knowledge may not agree with what is written on a textbook. Loewen also brings up 9/11 incident occurred in New York, U.S. For the first time, I slightly understood why textbook authors avoid answering "why" questions. President George W. Bush gave his answer to the question "why were we attacked?" by stating that they hate our freedoms and peace. This is nonsense and not only fails to calm us down but also even provokes us. We all know that there are some kinds of political and economical reasons behind the incident. It is better not to touch a bomb if they cannot defuse it. Authors are presumably having a hard time dealing with this issue since 9/11 is the sasha for most students who are learning history right now.

I liked the quote by William Faulkner, "The past is never dead, It's not even past." The past is living-dead. If authors determine to teach us what exactly happened few decades, centuries or millennia ago, three categories of humans or historical events will not be necessary.