In the 1960s, overtly communist agitators came up with an effective strategy for dividing Americans: they attacked veterans returning from the Vietnam War. They mercilessly targeted men who had the least power in society: those who lacked the resources to avoid the draft through political connections or college enrollment. Following Saul Alinsky’s hateful playbook, they targeted, isolated, and demonized young men coming home who had just been through the hell of war.
The strategy paid off in great whopping dividends of social division and discord. It also did nothing to convince ordinary Americans or elected officials of the need to stop the war: instead, it weakened the rest of the anti-war movement.