Forty years ago. Bill Astor was commissioned a second lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force. In this conversation with Dick Price, himself a Vietnam Veteran, the two military veterans reflect on two decades of military service and their participation in a system deeply embedded in America’s military-industrial complex. While Bill Astor never directly engaged in violence, he critically examines the paradoxes of serving in an institution that preaches peace through overwhelming firepower. Drawing on his experiences and historical scholarship, he critiques America's reliance on military force as a default solution to global problems—from Vietnam to Iraq to Gaza. Dick Price, on the other hand, is a combat veteran. He returned from Vietnam an anti-war protestor. The two veterans challenge the mythology of American exceptionalism and question whether the U.S. has become the very "evil empire" it once opposed, with an ever-expanding global military presence and an insatiable appetite for war cloaked in the language of defense and democracy.

This conversation was launched as a result of an essay written by William J. Astore and published by the LA Progressive titled, Too Much Bombing, Not Enough Brains.

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