2009-10-16 17:15:42 +0000
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Dow Chemical, Ford Motor Company(McNamara) General Dynamics, Boeing, Colt firerams, Lyndon Johnsons kickbacks. Colin Powells cushy job so he could be a General. JFK idiotic mistake in supportin Diem.
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2009-10-16 17:03:37 +0000
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There was a dictatorship over there, people being slaughtered, so we went over there to try to turn it around and help let them have freedom. Unfortunately, the rebels were too much in numbers and we couldn't stop them. So we retreated and failed.
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2009-10-16 17:35:06 +0000
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There was this theory, called the "Domino Theory." According to this theory, if one country was ruled by the Communist Party, then surrounding countries would be more likely to elect Communist leaders, or be taken over by force by Communists. Viet Nam shares a border with mainland China, dominated by Communist dictator Mao Tse Tung. So, it was felt that the rise of Ho Chi Minh, the Communist leader in North Viet Nam, proved that Southeast Asia was on the verge of succumbing to Communist regimes, one country after the other. Since the United States political leadership at that time could hardly imagine a worse thing happening (although of course we have seen much worse since then), they began providing military advisors to the anti-Communists. Viet Nam became divided into North and South Viet Nams, each with its own capital city and political leadership. It is popularly understood that the leadership in the south was weak and corrupt, although of course there were honest and brave South Vietnamese. Nevertheless, as the South Vietnamese Army struggled, the United States provided more and more military assistance, until the "advisors" turned into fighting units and we were eventually involved in a war that was not supposed to be a war. There was no overriding military or economic reason, such as protecting American oil interests. There were not enough American soldiers to send overseas, so a draft was instituted, which took unwilling and often unsuitable young men and forced them into basic training, after which they were often immediately shipped to the war zone. There was, or course, a system of "deferrments", meaning that if you were in the Reserves, or your father was politically connected, you could do your service in the States, or often not at all. Women were not eligible for the draft. The war became hugely unpopular at home as it dragged on and more conscriptees died fighting in the jungles. Eventually, the sitting Democratic president, Johnson, decided not to run for re-election, largely due to voter unhappiness with the U.S. involvement. His vice-president, Hubert Humphrey, ran unsuccessfully against Republican nominee Richard Nixon. Nixon, contrary to expectation, began a program of negotiation and compromise with Communist regimes worldwide. When he personally flew to China for a conference with the Communist leadership in 1972, the turning point in U.S. policy was reached. Complete withdrawal of all American military troops was completed in 1973, leaving both pro- and anti-war sides feeling saddened and frustrated by the "unintentional" war that was not lost, but could not be won.
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