James, James...

[stoutfellow]

The geographical ignorance of USAns is often made much of in the press. James Lileks today presents more evidence.

We always hear how the Vietnam War divided the United States. Odd how few people mention the way the Vietnam War divided Vietnam. I wasn't aware that the war had divided THE WORLD; seems rather chauvinistic, but perhaps people in Namia and Guam and Tibet had bitter arguements over the subject.

Dear James: first, to the best of my knowledge there is no such country as Namia, nor was there one at the time of the Vietnam War. Perhaps you are thinking of Namibia - which was not generally known by that name at that time; it was officially "South West Africa". (I'm not sure when the name "Namibia" was coined.) Second, Guam is a US possession, with a large military presence; some people from there served in Vietnam. (If I'm not mistaken, my sister C, who was a Navy nurse, was stationed there during the war. I'm sure she'll correct me if I'm misremembering.) Tibet, I'll give you, but one out of three is not a good score, except when you're trying to hit a baseball.

Comments

[oilhistorian.livejournal.com]

The term Namibia was only used by those opposed to the apartheid regime (read the Soviet bloc) until South Africa finally renounced its claim to the League of Nations Mandate that gave it political control over once-German South West Africa. Namibia was finally officially "Namibia" in 1990 when it won its independence.

And he's ignorant of history as well since Vietnam's divisions predated what Amerricans generally term the Vietnam War.

Then there's the whole argument about "arguement" ....

[stoutfellow.livejournal.com]

I'd avoid that last argument, given the sixth word from the end of your preceding sentence...

I knew who used the word "Namibia"; I wasn't sure when that started. (The Britannica mentions a UN vote establishing the name in 1968.)

[oilhistorian.livejournal.com]

Well, there is a difference between keybounce and misspelling. It's kind of hard to argue adding an "e" to "argument" is a typo. But point taken. :-)

And the whole point of the Soviet bloc reference is just to point out the irony of a conservative like Lileks referring to Vietnam War-era South West Africa by the then-leftist name for the region.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

"Namia" for "Namibia" looks to me like a haplology (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplology), which would put it in the same class as your "keybounce". Unlike "arguement", it's not an error a spell-checker would necessarily catch.

[oilhistorian.livejournal.com]

I'm not arguing anything about "Namia." Just about "arguement."

[stoutfellow.livejournal.com]

By the way, I'd be curious as to your reaction to this thread (http://obsidianwings.blogs.com/obsidian_wings/2007/02/i_spent_some_ti.html) on Obsidian Wings - specifically, the comments there concerning Gaddis's latest book on the Cold War.

[oilhistorian.livejournal.com]

Given that he essentially reiterates what I say when I lecture about the origins of the COld War, I'd say he pretty much nails it. :-)

My one regret about grad school was that I chose AU over Ohio University (not Ohio State) for my master's. I could live at home for free at AU, so my MA was essentially cost-free. In fact, I even made money! At the time, Gaddis was at Ohio. I'd have loved to study under him. Unfortuately, when it came time to choose a PhD program, he had moved on to Yale -- and there was no way I could have afforded that, especially with a kid in tow.