∼ ∼ ∼ This article is part of a series — History Bites — which explores U.S. and world history, politics, pop culture, and the arts to illustrate how the past illuminates the present. ∼ ∼ ∼
“Soon his nerves get tense in an extraordinary way; an epileptic-like madness comes over him, during which he becomes unconscious and pronounces words which are interpreted by the older members of the group as having a prophetic meaning and to prove that the fetish has entered him.” — From a 1905 French report on the effects of Tabernanthe Iboga, a shrub indigenous to West Africa.
“Not much has been written about The Ibogaine Effect as a serious factor in the Presidential Campaign, but toward the end of the Wisconsin primary race — about a week before the vote — word leaked out that some of [Maine senator Edmund] Muskie’s top advisors had called in a Brazilian doctor who was said to be treating the candidate with “some kind of strange drug” that nobody in the press corps had ever heard of…. It is entirely conceivable — given the known effects of Ibogaine — that Muskie’s brain was almost paralyzed by hallucinations at the time; that he looked out at that crowd and saw gila monsters instead of people, and that his mind snapped completely when he felt something large and apparently vicious clawing at his legs….” — Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72
To paraphrase the Grateful Dead, what a long strange trip it continues to be. Ever since Donald Trump descended a gold-plated escalator to announce his bid for POTUS in 2015, he has caromed like a wrecking ball through American — and world — politics. Pity the youthful voter who knows little else about the national scene than the reality TV star and serial bankrupt who has lost the popular vote two out of three times but been elected commander in chief at the same clip. For comparison, imagine a boy born in 1926: By the time he was in first grade, Franklin Roosevelt was winning his first election. That same kid, graduating high school in 1944, was likely to be drafted into the military to help millions of other Americans who had been fighting Axis forces since late 1941 — under President Roosevelt’s direction.
Recently, in an address on April Fool’s Day, Trump asserted that direct American involvement in World War II lasted “three years, eight months and 25 days,” which is pretty close to the mark. This past Monday, he claimed on Truth Social that World War II had lasted “6 years and 1 day.” In both statements, Trump also pegged the Vietnam War at 19 years, 5 months, and 29 days, which is, perhaps, with his penchant for projection, how long he spent dodging it — Trump would have been 18 when the draft kicked into high gear following passage of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, in 1964. College deferments followed by the diagnosis of bone spurs in his heels from a doctor who rented office space from Trump’s father kept the future GOP standard-bearer out of the carnage in Southeast Asia. In considering the dangers of those days, Trump, in 1997, discussed with radio shock jock Howard Stern not the trauma of combat but the fear of contracting a sexually transmitted disease:
Trump: You know? I tell you, it’s amazing. I can’t even believe it. I’ve been so lucky, in terms of that whole world.
Stern: You’ve never gotten a social disease?
Trump: It is a dangerous world out there. It is scary. It’s like Vietnam, sort of like, you know, the Vietnam era.
Stern: It is. It is your personal Vietnam.
Trump: It is my personal Vietnam.
Stern: You’ve said that many times.
Trump: I feel like a great and very brave soldier.
Regardless, Trump seems to be padding the timelines of various American conflicts to make his war on Iran (abetted by Israel), which began on February 28, feel as short as possible, even as we enter week eight amid a shambolic cease-fire and Trump’s social media posts threatening to end civilization in Iran.
Setting aside Trump’s (or any of his family members’) lack of military service, the brutality of war has always hit U.S. veterans hard. Some return with traumatic brain injuries, post-traumatic stress disorder, or other damage to the psyche. Leaders of various organizations have, over the years, petitioned the government to explore the use of various drugs to help alleviate the suffering of vets. This past weekend, Trump signed an executive order “accelerating research and improving access to psychedelic drugs as promising treatments for serious mental illnesses”; during the signing ceremony, he noted that veterans would be a focus of the research. As American Legion National Commander Dan K. Wiley said at the gathering, “Thanks to the advancements of research, there is hope that these psychedelic drugs will serve as a pathway to and promise of a brighter future for our veterans and their loved ones.”
Sitting behind the Oval Office desk at the signing, Trump stated, “In [a] 2024 study from Stanford University, 30 special operation veterans with traumatic brain injuries underwent — it’s called ibogaine treatment — i-bo-gaine. Remember the name. Is that pronounced relatively properly, would you say?” [A few in the crowd answered affirmatively.] “I don’t want to get it wrong. Ibogaine.” He went on to discuss the very promising treatment numbers: “Ibogaine, because it’s so important — and experienced an 80 to 90% reduction in symptoms of depression and anxiety within one month. Can I have some please?” he asked, looking up from his papers, adding, “I’ll take whatever it takes.”
From his lips to God’s ear, for sure. Because this could be a great thing for veterans — but why stop with them and politicians? Perhaps the government can put a low dose of ibogaine in the water supply, like fluoride, so the entire nation will have a chance to recover from the instigated anxiety and free-floating depression of the past 11 years.
Oh — but wait. It was fluoridating the water that caused General Jack D. Ripper to set in motion the civilization-ending Doomsday Machine in Dr. Strangelove. As Sterling Hayden’s Ripper tells Peter Sellers’s group captain Lionel Mandrake, “Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous communist plot we have ever had to face?”
Which current U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. agrees with, having called the mineral that dentists and national health organizations have recommended to fight tooth decay since the 1940s an “industrial waste.”
Well, Russia’s not communist anymore, and, according to Trump, its attempt to influence the 2016 presidential election is a fantasy, just like the nuclear bombs gaily dropping at the end of Dr. Strangelove. ❖
