Well put, yes Vietnam was lost after WW1 when greedy big nations did not
want to let go of their stuff.
This is particularly disappointing insofar that France and the US are
both big champions of self rule and democracy.
Even after WW2 when France had a taste of what it is like to be occupied.
Unfortunately it was the little guy that ended up paying the price,
which brings up the problem in modern times. Once upon a time the guy
who decided to have a war was actually expected to go along and fight as
well, watched a doco on Frederick the great the other day and in one
battle he had two or three horses shot out from under him, nowadays the
'leaders' lead from the safety of their war rooms.
Can't remember which Greek said it but "only the dead have seen the end
of war"
Hendrik
who has been to Vietnam but never did find the plane in the lake
On 27/05/14 07:18, Peter Frederick wrote:
Viet Nam and Afghanistan share some some characteristics that should
make a thinking person hesitate to bite on them -- both of them have
broken many armies and many plans, and have never stayed occupied for
very long. Viet Nam was where the Chinese empire stopped, several
times, and both the Brits and the Russians broke their teeth
attempting to swallow Afghanistan.
Lack of knowledge of even elementary world history seems to have
gotten us into a number of expensive and fairly pointless conflicts.
Viet Nam was very easily avoided, although one has to go back a long
way to see how -- Ho Chi Minh when to France to become a colonial
administrator, and did not become a Communist until he was physically
thrown down the front steps of the League of Nations for daring to ask
when the Asian colonies would become independent. He remained an
advocate of self-ruling democracy until his death, and modeled the
Vietnamese constitution after the US one. He also FOUGHT the Japanese
during WWII, unlike most of our official Allies who simply sucked up
men, material, and money for their own purposes.
All that aside, the Viet Nam War Memorial is an awe inspiring thing.
Probably the very best way to begin to heal the wounds of that
irrational and bungled horror story in SE Asia. It is a nearly
overwhelming experience to go see it, and if you have not, or have not
seen the traveling version, I also suggest you do so.
Peter
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