• emizeko [they/them]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    What do Americans think of their soldiers being in Korea

    they don’t, it’s completely left out of most American education. if it’s there it is a brief one-sentence mention

    • Dudewitbow
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      1 year ago

      Yall got some sus education if you only had a single sentence about both the Korean and Vietnam war, and its not like I went to a rich school either (far from it)

      • emizeko [they/them]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        was only talking about Korea, at school (not university/college education). sure maybe it was enough to be a paragraph but I doubt it.

        • Dudewitbow
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          1 year ago

          Im talking in terms of high school, albeit I took AP history, but its not like they dont teach about Vietnam and Korea in school, at least in my own experience.

          • GarbageShoot [he/him]@hexbear.net
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            1 year ago

            I took AP US History and did pretty well in it and, well, the Korean war was mentioned but it was discussed almost not at all. Vietnam was mostly discussed in relation to the domestic reaction to it with the media coverage, as well as some discussion of “Domino Theory”. Even My Lai hardly got mentioned.

          • emizeko [they/them]@hexbear.net
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            1 year ago

            you’re probably right that I overstated my case and exaggerated a bit but what was taught a couple decades ago was thin and pretty dire

            • charlie [any, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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              1 year ago

              Nah, you’re exactly right. And I’m tired of people coming into these threads saying “my bare bones high school level ap course covered this because I recognize the topic you’re saying.”

              If you think that’s true, go read a bunch of actual history books and see how complete you think that education still is.

            • Dudewitbow
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              1 year ago

              If i had to say what they dont teach very much, it would be asian and african history before the 1500s for the most part, unless they had interacted with european settlers at some point in history.

              • boboblaw [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.net
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                1 year ago

                Ironically I went to a good high school and we did cover that, but when it came to relatively recent US history, the curriculum was spotty and superficial. I got the sense that teachers wanted to avoid controversial topics and debates.

                It’s like with ancient African/Asian/American empires, you have a certain psychological distance and can discuss it casually. With recent American history, especially when the history curriculum is necessarily half economics, it can get “controversial”. And I’m sure there was more one “gifted” kid aching to do the bit from Good Will Hunting…