In today’s Ghost of Christmas Past, comedian Bob Hope entertains the troops fighting in Vietnam. Among his entourage is Raquel Welch, which ought to make at least one of our regular readers happy.
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Through the Shattered Lens 
I couldn’t imagine ANYONE being made happy by an appearance from Raquel Welch…could you? I have absolutely no idea who this might be…
To be honest, I’ve never been comfortable with the idea of the military being entertained by those USO tours, with dancing girls and all that jazz–to me, it seems to trivialise warfare itself. I’m certain the entertainers went there with the best intentions, but it just seems rather incongruous–one day you’re listening to Bob Hope and his silly jokes, the next day you’re obliterating an entire village with Death From Above. Also, with Vietnam, there was a huge double standard. I mean, nobody has a problem with Bob Hope and his friggin’ golf clubs telling cute little jokes, or scantily-clad Raquel Welch dancing about on stage in front of hundreds of sex-starved US servicemen (although I must say, I would never even think of denying anybody the joy of witnessing Miss Welch perform live), but good heavens, Jane Fonda sings a few folk songs with soldiers from the Viet Cong and sits atop an anti-aircraft gun (sitting on it is not the same as firing it), and certain people still haven’t let her hear the end of it after more than 40 years.
(Hey, leave it to me to inject serious political comment at Christmas time!).
It may interest you to know that “The Bob Hope Christmas Special” is one of the highest-rating US television shows of all-time! Inexplicably, Raquel Welch’s own television special, “Raquel!”, didn’t draw similar figures (and before you ask, yes, Bob Hope was in that one, too).
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