Freud believed the death instinct sometimes gets turned outward, and then we hurt and offend others and go to war (the opposite of suicide). Rochlin, another psychoanalyst, believes aggression is our way of recovering lost pride. Given the common human need to feel powerful and to think highly of ourselves, any threat to our self-esteem is taken as a hostile attack. When our pride is hurt, we often attempt to restore our status and self-esteem by hurting the person who offended us. Communism in its original meaning is a social theory and political movement for the direct and communal control of society towards the common benefits of all members. South Vietnam was fighting for its life against a brutal campaign of terror and armed attack inspired, directed, supplied, and controlled by the Communist regime in Hanoi. This flagrant aggression had been going on for years, but the pace has quickened and the threat had become acute.
Richard Milhous Nixon, 37th President of the Unite...
Propaganda leaflet urging the defection of NLF and...
English: From George L. MacGarrigle, The United St...The war in Vietnam was a new kind of war, a fact that was poorly understood in most parts of the world. Much of the confusion that prevailed in the thinking of many people, and even governments, stems from this basic misunderstanding. For in Vietnam a totally new brand of aggression had been loosed against an independent people who wanted to make their way in peace and freedom. Dodd, Stone, King, Johnson, and Nixon used these terms in speeches given during the time of the war. They don't necessarily change the meaning of these words (aggression and communism), but the context in which they are used is different among the speeches.
Dodd uses the term aggression with a negative connotation. He does not use the term against the United States. Instead he supports the US involvement in Vietnam. When he gave his speech to...