The next afternoon found the debate team in Mr. Cawdor's room. The old teacher flipped a quarter in the air and Steven called heads.
He removed his hand and revealed the eagle for everybody to see.
"We'll go second," Dana said, taking her place at one of the podiums.
Steven walked up to the opposite podium and began his speech. "In the early sixties, the Vietnam war began. In the beginning, it was a strictly regional affair, as France tried to keep control of its territory. However, the US was drawn into this conflict when it became a political affair, as the fight escalated and became a part of the ever-increasing policy of containment.
"Although many would call this war wasteful and a drain on an already taxed nation, the war for Vietnam was an important thing in the history of our country. It helped prove our commitment to stamping out Communism and our dedication to that cause. It showed the Communist world that we were not afraid of them and that we would fight them whenever it became necessary."
Steven did his trademark notecard shuffle and continued. "Without the Vietnam War, it is quite likely that the policy of containment would have been meaningless and the US would have become the laughing stock of the United Nations. Without the Vietnam war, the Soviet Union would have spread Communism to other places, and that would have been very grave indeed. The Soviet Union may have even gotten bold enough to attack the US directly. Face it, without the Vietnam war, our history would more than likely have been changed for the worse."
He gave a slight little smile to Dana and Rick and stepped back from the podium.
"Oh great," Dana said in front of him. "He got tricky on us. He did the exact opposite of what we were expecting."
Rick's palms ran with sweat, and he tightened his grip on his notecards. "I'll go first," he told her.
What? Had he just said that?
Dana gave him a smile. "Great, Rick. Just modify it a little bit to make it look like an opening, ok?"
Rick nodded as he took to the podium. "'And it's one, two, three, what are we fighting for?' That was a question asked by a famous singer during this period. And it's a question we can ask ourselves even now; what were we fighting for? Some fuzzy policy we didn't fully understand? Not really. Two overblown economical practices? That's more like it, but not the exact reason we were fighting."
Again, Rick swallowed and forced his hands to unclench.
"The reason we were fighting was for nothing more than schoolyard arguments. I'm right, and you're wrong. We wanted to prove we were right, and to prove that they were wrong. It really was nothing more than that, just a stupid squabble that no one could ever really remember why it started, only that someone had to come out on top."