As Col. Flagg said in a memorable episode of “MAS*H”, “If you take out the third, fifth, and sixth letters, it spells 'Red’s Digest”
The Spanish edition of Reader digest was a staple on many relatives homes in the old country, I read the thing when I was not ten yet. In one occasion, they published a condensation on a bio of a pilot that fought in Korea, how after a crash he struggled to survived and recuperated for several years and crediting God for his rehabilitation, a very uplifting history…
…Ruined when he described how he then became a pilot in Vietnam, and was now doing bombing raids there. The whole article then reeked of a propaganda piece where even God was appearing to approve of the Vietnam war (then why did he save me for, if not to bomb the gooks?), even then, I knew how stupid the war in Vietnam was, and that article also gave me doubts that God was just like the church described all those years. Paradoxically (considering how religious the Digest is) it actually caused me to then drift towards agnosticism even in that early age.
I virtually stopped reading the Digest then, I still remember some extreme leftists in Latin America where accusing publications like the Digest as being in league with black ops in Central America, interesting to know that they were closer to the truth.
Not a surprise, to someone who lives in the area, had close friends working there. Screwed up place.
Well, I figured out pretty young that the RD was a rightwing propaganda rag, but the details are pretty weird.
They were just thinking of the children.
Interesting article – I’ll keep an eye out for the book. Thanks, astro.
Just get the Reader’s Digest Condensed Version.
:smack:
