Debate about the Vietnam War

[Eric the Green]

(06-07-2016, 11:16 AM)X_4AD_84 Wrote: Ahhhhh Vietnam.

So, it is true that the US supported a bad government. And yes there were atrocities and injustices from that side of the fence.

On the other hand, the North Vietnamese really were a satellite of the Communist Bloc. There is no doubt. They were not some Vietnamese versions of the US late 1700s patriots. So, we had to do something. Of course, that something ought to have been swifter and more aggressive - e.g. actual invasion and occupation of North Vietnam. Meanwhile, the North also had their atrocities and injustices up the yin yang.

War is a bad thing and hell and there are atrocities on both sides of any war.

Those of us who opposed the US invasion of Vietnam did not agree that North Vietnam was a satellite state. No, it was a state that had at first offered to be allies of the USA and adopt our constitution. When we backed the French instead, Ho turned to the commie countries for help. Once the French lost their colony, the Domino Theory was invented to justify the USA taking over from the French and colonizing Vietnam. But there were never any dominoes. Ho was not Hitler and the Vietnamese just wanted their own country. And so it has turned out. The USA needs to admit its mistake, and make friends. That's pretty much what it is doing now.

Quote:Oh, and then there was the 1000 year old animosity between the North and South that predated all modern geopolitics and domestic Vietnamese polity.

A classic mess.

Such north-south split doesn't exist today. Seems Vietnam has turned out pretty well. The US-Vietnam War was a mess of our own making. There's animosity between north and south in the USA, and it came to blows once. Should the Vietnamese take sides and come over here and fight for one of them, on the pretext that IF THEY DON'T, WE will invade THEM? (( as we once DID, in fact...))

Tar baby issue for boomers indeed. Why am I getting into this?