It was in the spring of 1965 that the first bombing raid on North Vietnam ("Rolling Thunder") took place, the first combat troops were deployed to Vietnam, the first conventional battle between American and Viet Cong troops was engaged in the Ia Drang valley, the first teach-ins happened on American college campuses, and a new national anti-war protest movement, led by the Students for a Democratic Society, first marched on Washington.  Yet not a word has appeared anywhere I know remarking on this important anniversary.

I say it is "surprising," but perhaps not.  After all, this country was pretty quick to forget about the war, why we had done it, how we waged it, and certainly how it ended.  With good reason. The war was a major miscalculation, we said we did it to stop a Communist domino effect that never was, our vicious  use of Agent Orange gas killed and maimed millions and proved ultimately futile, and it ended in a humiliating defeat for  the U.S., the first military loss in our history.