No mother wants to see her son drafted but somebody's son has to go and fight the war and, possibly, come back in a coffin draped in a flag. That is why in a democracy people have not only the right but an obligation to voice their protest against the wars that kill and maim the country's sons, but whose purpose is murky. I don't know about Left and Right, at least, not in the rigid terms that you offer: the Vietnam War was started by Kennedy and wholly owned by LBJ (the very same President who declared the War on Poverty and instituted welfare as we know it). The war was ended by Nixon, a right-wing Republican. My (perhaps too brief) summary does not do the play justice: it is complex, it is sympathetic to Alsop, he is shown as a patriot and he is courageous. When KGB tried to blackmail him, he disclosed all first to the US Ambassador in Moscow, and then to the FBI, rendering the blackmail effort useless. The rumination about excessive access and fraternization with the power and, thus, fossilization of a journalist's worldview is my takeaway from the play. Auburn, I think, had more varied goals: wider acceptance of more nuanced understanding of homosexuality among them.
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momijizukamori
no subject
Date: 2017-03-04 05:54 pm (UTC)I don't know about Left and Right, at least, not in the rigid terms that you offer: the Vietnam War was started by Kennedy and wholly owned by LBJ (the very same President who declared the War on Poverty and instituted welfare as we know it). The war was ended by Nixon, a right-wing Republican.
My (perhaps too brief) summary does not do the play justice: it is complex, it is sympathetic to Alsop, he is shown as a patriot and he is courageous. When KGB tried to blackmail him, he disclosed all first to the US Ambassador in Moscow, and then to the FBI, rendering the blackmail effort useless.
The rumination about excessive access and fraternization with the power and, thus, fossilization of a journalist's worldview is my takeaway from the play. Auburn, I think, had more varied goals: wider acceptance of more nuanced understanding of homosexuality among them.