Essay: Acquired Plumage

"The boys of Viet Nam fought a terrible and vicious war . . . It was the unpampered boys of the working class who picked up the rifles and went on the march . . . They chose to believe and answer the call of duty."

-- President Reagan, Memorial Day, 1986

"I did not know in 1969 that I would be in this room today," said Dan Quayle last week about his decision two decades ago to pull strings and get into the National Guard rather than risk serving and dying in Viet Nam. It was the most accidentally revealing...

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