Myths and lies about the Vietnam War help to distort the current debate about the War in Iraq. Advocates of immediate US withdrawal tout the idea that our departure from Vietnam brought peace to that war-ravaged country but in truth the battles raged on for at least eight full years after US troops departed in 1973, along with genocide, concentration camps and desperate refugees in Vietnam and Cambodia. Moreover, the much heralded US “Peace Movement” didn’t end the war—and may have prolonged it by encouraging our enemies to keep fighting and actually building support for President Nixon’s war policies. Ordinary Americans felt hostility and resentment toward angry demonstrators and other radicals. The biggest demonstration of them all – the Mobilization Against the War on November 15, 1969 – brought 500,000 protestors to Washington, but pushed Nixon’s approval rating to an all-time high of 68 per cent. The President denounced the anti-war hordes in a memorable and effective televised speech, insisting that they didn’t speak for the nation’s “silent majority.” The surge of public support for that address, along with the widespread distaste for the demonstrators, actually encouraged a heavy majority of Democrats, who controlled both houses of Congress, to vote for resolutions backing the President. One can only hope that the excesses of Move On and other shrill anti-war militants will provoke a similar backlash in today’s debates.