Here’s what I remember learning about the Korean war in high school:
The Soviets wanted to spread communism to Korea, so we helped the Koreans to fight them. In the end we decided to divide the country in half.
Here’s what I remember learning about the Vietnam war in high school:
The Soviets wanted to spread communism to Vietnam, so we went there to save the Vietnamese from having to be communists. They were really savage and crafty to fight and made all kinds of traps, and so we used Agent Orange to destroy the jungle they were hiding in. ᵃᵍᵉⁿᵗᵒʳᵃⁿᵍᵉᶜᵃᵘˢᵉˢᵇᶦʳᵗʰᵈᵉᶠᵉᶜᵗˢᵗᵒᵗʰᶦˢᵈᵃʸᶦⁿᵛᶦᵉᵗⁿᵃᵐ And then the war ended and we all went home.
And then Ronald Reagan made the Berlin Wall fall down and the Soviets were like well I guess we can’t do communism anymore :(
Here’s what I remember learning about the Gulf War in high school:
Saddam Hussein bad! Here’s some pictures of american tanks and soldiers in a desert wasteland. THAT’S IT! I’m not exaggerating or leaving nuance out. There’s NO nuance in US history as taught in schools here. You will NEVER find any admission of wrongdoing on the US’ part in any school material. Even including the nuclear bombs we dropped on Japan-- both of them. We weally had to dwop them :( :( or else Japan was going to destroy itself fighting us uwu
I wasn’t a bad student. In fact I paid attention the most in history classes, because I was interested in learning... well... history. But what I actually learned was how to catch on to bullshit and half-truths. I argued with my jingo teacher a lot. I don’t think I pwned him with facts and logic or anything, i was a teenager who didnt actually know anything, but I spoke up whenever I felt something wasn’t adding up or seemed just... not quite the whole truth. Anyway, the point of this post isn’t “heh i was so smart i knew so much as a kid,” it’s just some reflection on the shitty, shallow, half-truths and lies by omissions that history classes are full of in this country. Just in case any non-Americans were in disbelief.
