Yahoo News ‘Secret Service is scrambling right now’: Obama drives Springsteen’s vintage Corvette during podcast recording
Bruce Springsteen remembers controversial Vietnam War with Barack Obama: ‘I felt that the country had lost its way’
(Spotify)Bruce Springsteen and Barack Obama went for a joy ride in the singer’s vintage Corvette on the latest episode of their Renegades podcast on Monday (8 March).
During their ride (”I know the Secret Service is scrambling right now,” POTUS joked), the two dug into Vietnam War history.
Recalling how he was drafted in 1969 but didn't end up having to enlist due to a brain concussion he suffered in a motorcycle accident, the “Born to Run” singer spoke about how he'd celebrated with a handful of others in New Jersey who had also been rejected from the Armed Services.
The former president, who grew up in the unpopular war’s aftermath, responded by sharing his memories around how Vietnam reverberated through history.
“By the time I became president, I think something very valuable had happened and I think this was a hard learned lesson from Vietnam,” Obama replied. “The American public had come to recognize and revere the service of our troops even those who were critical of certain aspects of US Military interventions.
"When you hear stories from the Vietnam era, you know as I’ve listened to you talking about the Draft and Vietnam and you losing friends and just the way the country was being torn apart around that war,” Obama continued, “I remember talking to friends who did go and come home and discover that they were called baby killers and spat on and they became somehow the objects of particularly young people’s rejection of that war when in fact they were kids who were expressing their patriotism, duty.”
“Soldiers at the time, I know a lot of the Vets, and they were ignored and mistreated for a long time as symbols of quote ‘The only war America has ever lost,’” Springsteen replied.
“In… in my remembered life that I felt the country had lost its way. Through the loss of my friends and my own experience, you know, ah it was… the loss of innocence.”
Renegades: Born To Run releases new episodes every Monday on Spotify.
