Howard Zinn didn't just teach history; he taught patriotism--not the flag-waving, Chicken-Hawk kind of patriotism that Rush Limbaugh and Fox News sells-- but a higher form of patriotism.
"The highest patriotism is not a blind acceptance of official policy, but a love of one's country deep enough to call her to a higher plain."--George McGovern, Democratic anti-war candidate for President, 1/18/71
"The peace and welfare of this and coming generations of Americans will be secure only as we cling to the watchword of true patriotism: 'Our country--when right to be kept right; when wrong to be put right'."--Carl Schurz (1829-1906), American statesman and Union Army General in the American Civil War
Zinn's anti-war sentiments began after his participation in WWII bombing missions in Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and France (where one of the first uses of military uses of napalm took place). That experience, along with Zinn's post-war academic research on Allied bombing missions, made him realize that we were not just killing "enemies" in the war; we were also knowingly and deliberately killing innocent civilians; and that was unacceptable to Zinn--no matter who was doing it or how they tried to justify it. (The following quotes are from Zinn's A Just Cause, Not a Just War in The Progressive, December 2001)
"Terrorism and war have something in common. They both involve the killing of innocent people to achieve what the killers believe is a good end. "They (the terrorists) deliberately kill innocent people; we (the war makers) aim at "military targets,' and civilians are killed by accident, as "collateral damage'."
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