10-17-2020, 09:40 AM
** 17-Oct-2020 World View: Ho Chi Minh and OSS
I'm not sure what you're complaining about, since what you're
describing is a fairly insignificant fact in a short summary of
three wars.
Nonetheless, the fact that the American OSS collaborated with Ho
Chi Minh to fight the Japanese in Vietnam is certainly amusing,
and I'll want to add that tale to my book.
And if the Americans made some promise to Ho Chi Minh, I doubt that he
was so credulous as to actually believe any such promise, and also I
assume he made many promises of his own that he had no intention of
keeping.
However, as I briefly checked out this American - Ho Chi Minh
connection this morning, I note that the following: "Her study also
hints that, had America continued to champion the anti-colonials and
their quest for independence, rather than caving in to the French, we
might have been spared our long and very lethal war in Vietnam."
This is pure silliness. It's not remotely possible we would have
done this, or that it would have made any difference if we had.
First, France was our ally after WW II. There was no way we would
abandon our ally in favor of Ho Chi Minh.
Second, the mood of the people, in America and Europe, would never
have permitted it. The people were exhausted and traumatized from
fighting two world wars, and they saw Communism on the march, in
Russia, in China, behind the Iron Curtain in eastern Europe, in Korea,
in Laos, and in North Vietnam. It is literally impossible that the
traumatized Western public would have tolerated simply walking away,
and allowing Communist North Vietnam to take over the Republic of
Vietnam, a democracy, without a struggle.
The controlling political philosophy at the time was the Truman
Doctrine, which said that it's better to fight a small war now
to prevent WW III later. Kennedy doubled down on the Truman Doctrine
with his "ask not" speech. So there was literally no choice but
to fight the Communists trying to take over South Vietnam.
Third, in the grand scheme of things, and from the point of view of a
Generational Dynamics analysis, and from the point of view of Vietnam
itself (and the book is about Vietnam, not the US), the most
significant part of the story was the series of massive genocides that
occurred in the region in 1975-1990. These genocides had been queued
up for centuries, and the only way that the French colonization and
the American intervention might have affected them might have been to
have postponed them. But they had to happen.
(10-17-2020, 06:31 AM)David Horn Wrote: > Even this sketchy overview is seriously flawed. Ignoring the Viet
> Minh as OSS clients during WW-II is particularly irritating, since
> we guaranteed them our support for decolonization after the war.
> Did you actually look into this, or just write your personal views
> in long form?
I'm not sure what you're complaining about, since what you're
describing is a fairly insignificant fact in a short summary of
three wars.
Nonetheless, the fact that the American OSS collaborated with Ho
Chi Minh to fight the Japanese in Vietnam is certainly amusing,
and I'll want to add that tale to my book.
And if the Americans made some promise to Ho Chi Minh, I doubt that he
was so credulous as to actually believe any such promise, and also I
assume he made many promises of his own that he had no intention of
keeping.
However, as I briefly checked out this American - Ho Chi Minh
connection this morning, I note that the following: "Her study also
hints that, had America continued to champion the anti-colonials and
their quest for independence, rather than caving in to the French, we
might have been spared our long and very lethal war in Vietnam."
This is pure silliness. It's not remotely possible we would have
done this, or that it would have made any difference if we had.
First, France was our ally after WW II. There was no way we would
abandon our ally in favor of Ho Chi Minh.
Second, the mood of the people, in America and Europe, would never
have permitted it. The people were exhausted and traumatized from
fighting two world wars, and they saw Communism on the march, in
Russia, in China, behind the Iron Curtain in eastern Europe, in Korea,
in Laos, and in North Vietnam. It is literally impossible that the
traumatized Western public would have tolerated simply walking away,
and allowing Communist North Vietnam to take over the Republic of
Vietnam, a democracy, without a struggle.
The controlling political philosophy at the time was the Truman
Doctrine, which said that it's better to fight a small war now
to prevent WW III later. Kennedy doubled down on the Truman Doctrine
with his "ask not" speech. So there was literally no choice but
to fight the Communists trying to take over South Vietnam.
Third, in the grand scheme of things, and from the point of view of a
Generational Dynamics analysis, and from the point of view of Vietnam
itself (and the book is about Vietnam, not the US), the most
significant part of the story was the series of massive genocides that
occurred in the region in 1975-1990. These genocides had been queued
up for centuries, and the only way that the French colonization and
the American intervention might have affected them might have been to
have postponed them. But they had to happen.
