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Oliver Stone: on being 19 in war, and for a county addicted to it

Oliver Stone: on being 19 in war, and for a county addicted to it

The fabled director opens up on Vietnam, as well as the challenges of a free media and speech, today. (VIDEO)

Analysis | Video Section
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In his memoir "Chasing the Light," director Oliver Stone talks about America's angst over Vietnam:

"We were so proud, and then, when we couldn't achieve victory, we had to lie like we all do when we deny what we know is true — that we lost, and lost big-time, and all those technology-loving Pentagon warriors were at last revealed as failures, and those determined little Vietnamese had licked us."

Then why did we not try to avoid the same fate time and again?

In early December, the Quincy Institute, in concert with the Center for War and Society (San Diego State University), hosted Stone at the iconic USS Midway Museum to commemorate, in part, the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War. Gregory Daddis, director of the Center for War and Society and professor of military studies, got a chance to ask Stone not only about his own service as an Army infantryman (which later inspired his 1987 film "Platoon"), but about his own frustrations with the cyclical nature of American war-making, right up to Russia-gate, and today's current conflicts.

Watch below:



YouTube/ Quincy Institute

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Analysis | Video Section
Ukraine war
Recruits of the 65th Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces attend a military drill near a frontline, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine September 26, 2025. Andriy Andriyenko/Press Service of the 65th Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces/Handout via REUTERS

Ukraine's 'Busification' — forced conscription — is tip of the iceberg

Europe

Busification” is a well-understood term in Ukraine and refers to the process in which young men are detained against their will, often involving a violent struggle, and bundled into a vehicle — often a minibus — for onward transit to an army recruitment center.

Until recently, Ukraine’s army recruiters picked easy targets. Yet, on October 26, the British Sun newspaper’s defense editor, Jerome Starkey, wrote a harrowing report about a recent trip to the front line in Ukraine, during which he claimed his Ukrainian colleague was “forcibly press-ganged into his country’s armed services.”

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Nick Fuentes, Tucker Carlson, and the GOP’s reckoning on Israel
Top image credit, from left to right: Nick Fuentes appears on the Tucker Carlson show (screengrab via x.com); Kevin Roberts (Gage Skidmore/Flickr/Creative Commons); Tucker Carlson (Gage Skidmore/Flickr/Creative Commons)

Nick Fuentes, Tucker Carlson, and the GOP’s reckoning on Israel

Washington Politics

For years, a debate over Israel has been raging behind the scenes of Republican politics.

Then, last week, Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts thrust that battle into the open.

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pete hegset quantico
Top photo caption: Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth delivers remarks during an address at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va., Sept. 30, 2025. (photo by U.S. Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Aiko Bongolan)

Hegseth dropped big Venezuela easter egg into Quantico speech

Latin America

On September 30, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth summoned nearly 800 of America’s military generals, admirals, and senior enlisted officers to Quantico, Virginia on short notice. Though the unprecedented event was written off by many as a political stunt, a month later, it is clear the gathering was more important than many realized.

Of particular note were the speeches delivered by Hegseth and President Donald Trump which offer the clearest articulation yet of how the Trump administration thinks about and hopes to use military power. What’s more, taken together, the two sets of remarks appear to foreshadow both the current U.S. military build-up underway in the Caribbean and what might be on the horizon as U.S. operations there and elsewhere continue.

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