At 11:13 pm 08/11/2005 -0500, Standing Bear wrote:
>We actually DID betray the French, in wartime, in Dien Bien Phu back >in the last century. The French were trying to hold onto their colony, >Viet-Nam, then called French Indo-China. Cute name for an ancient >country with a proud history of independance against Chinese aggression >for over a thousand years. They even beat Ghengis Khan three times >when they tried to invade them. The French thought they could do better. >It was said by a German politician that the French should have been able >to hold on to Viet-Nam as they 'had the best killers in Europe'. He was >referring to the inside joke among world politicians that the foreign legion, >heavily involved in the Viet-Nam campaign, was composed of very large >numbers of former Deutschen Schutzstaffeln on the run from the Nuremburg >Trials-----fugitive SS. Even Elie Wiesel looked the other way at the French >use of these. Elie probably hoped, and was later vindicated in this, that >southeast asia would become the graveyard of most of these psychopaths. >Point of fact the French were losing because the level of casualties even >among these people were becoming politically unacceptable to the French >citizenry. DeGaulle turned to 'Give 'em Hell Harry' Truman for help, and >ole' Harry came up with 'Operation Vulture' This was an Air Force plan to use >the big silver birds, B-36's and the new then secret B-47s to bomb Viet-Minh >army positions in the mountains around Dien Bien Phu in order to drive Mr. Ho >Chi Minh to the conference table. Sound familiar?! Well Mr. Ho and Gen Vo >(actually a cousin by marriage with my ex!!!!!! along with Madame Nhu) >stood pat knowing they had a winning hand if they could just hold the >People's Army together a little longer (not exactly a sure thing then). >Problem for the beleagured former SS men cowering in the valley of death >was that Truman did not run for re-election, preferring to go back to his >farm in Missouri. This left 'I Like Ike' Eisenhower to make the actual >decision to act on the warplan and gooood ole' smilin' >Ike, whose picture hung like an insipid dream over just about every civil >and uncivil servant's desk, decided to let the French hang out to dry. He >cancelled the plan and put out the disinformation that 'we knew nothing about >the plan' for public consumption. So Operation Vulture joined the UFO >presence in the government's world of blissful non-existance. This incensed >the French general staff, and one Gen DeGaulle in particular who saw it as >a personal betrayal by a former comrade in arms, Ike. That betrayal >rankles in French politics and colors its opinions and actions to this day. > >Standing Bear A very interesting history lesson, Standing Bear - Thanks. 8-) Frank
