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REPEATING THE 'MISTAKE' OF VIETNAM
What the US and the West did in Vietnam and across the globe were
not mistakes, but calculated actions of foreign policy which
included misleading the North American and Western population. The
same thing is happening now in Iraq. We are again being misguided
by our most powerful and trusted leaders, our media and academics
are again accepting or quietly acquiescing to the 'inevitability'
that the US, Britain and to-be-named-allies will just have to
attack Iraq.
By Grahame Russell
Third World Network Features
'Wouldn't have mattered very much,' said Henry Kissinger, US
National Security Advisor and head of the State Department during
the Nixon administration in the early 1970s, responding recently to
the question 'What if the US had allowed Vietnam to go communist
after World War II?' [Interview with Stephen Talbot, Toronto Star,
8 December 2002, first published in salon.com]
In the 1960s, 70s and 80s, nothing mattered more to the US and the
West. Across the planet, we supported atrocious regimes and
political movements and overthrew governments and political
movements, in the name of 'fighting communism'.
There were few speeches by Kissinger or other US leaders not based
on defending why it was imperative that the US and the West 'fight
communism' in every corner of the planet. Because this battle of
Good versus Evil mattered so much, the US killed over 1,000,000
Vietnamese. Most of the Western media and academics defended the US
war effort. Most history books found today in North American
schools defend and justify the West's fight against 'communism'.
And yet today, we are told by Kissinger that it 'wouldn't have
mattered very much' if the US had 'allowed Vietnam to go
communist'. Ho hum. Kissinger essentially admits, quite casually,
that the war justifications of the 1960s and 70s were lies. Given
his decision-making power at the time, one would think that
Kissinger's admission should be used as proof of criminal behaviour
leading up to and during the Vietnam War.
But the issue is much broader than the role and responsibility of
one man. What do other Western governments, the Western media and
academics - all long-time defenders of the American War in Vietnam
-- think now? How do they see their role?
The killing and destruction of the war in Vietnam happened in part
because of the overt support or quiet acquiescence of the majority
of US and Western citizens. It was not until American soldiers
'came home in body bags' that the media began to regularly present
the strong voices of opposition. And even then, the media coverage
was given to the opposition concerning the mounting American
casualties - not to why the US and West had attacked Vietnam in the
first place.
Kissinger, the foreign policy establishment, the media and academics
played a fundamental role in orchestrating and assuring overt
support or quiet acquiescence.
Why drag this up now? Ancient history? An ageing politician
admitting a few 'mistakes' from the past? What the US and the West
did in Vietnam and across the globe were not mistakes, but
calculated actions of foreign policy. Misleading the North American
and Western population was part of this.
And is this not happening right now in Iraq? Are we not again being
misguided by our most powerful
and trusted leaders? Are not our media and academics again accepting
or quietly acquiescing to the 'inevitability' that the US, Britain
and to-be-named-allies will just have to attack Iraq ... again? Is
it not again hundreds of thousands, if not millions of children and
elderly, men and women of another far-off nation that will be
killed and destroyed ... again?
Now is the time to use our knowledge of the deceptions of the
Vietnam War, to work harder to prevent today and tomorrow's killing
and destruction in Iraq, to be carried out in our name. - Third
World Network Features
-ends-
About the writer: Grahame Russell works with Rights Action.
www.rightsaction.org. [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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