From: john@anasazi.com (John R. Moore)
Subject: Re: Stockdale is a Bumbling Idiot
Reply-To: john@anasazi.com
Organization: Anasazi Inc, Phoenix AZ USA
Date: Sun, 8 Nov 1992 04:55:57 GMT

Keywords: 

In article <22834@venera.isi.edu> allard@isi.edu (Dennis Allard) writes:
]
]> -Larry Watanabe
]
]Larry is right.
]
]It so pathetic to see young minds today expressing the view that
]the Vietnamese  would have stoppedfighting if the U.S. protestors
]stopped protesting.  By the way, these young minds keep talking
]about the North Vietnamese.  The problem with that is that the
]main 'enemy' was the Viet Cong, the revolutionaries in the South,
]who were being helped by the Vietnamese in the North.

No, the Viet Cong was destroyed as an effective fighting force
in the Tet Offensive of 1968. After that they we a minor part
of the problem. Furthermore, they were puppets of the North, as
was demonstrated by the fact that, once the war was over, they
were deposed by the NVA and many VC were sent to prison.

The North Vietnamese did stop fighting as soon as we started bombing
in earnest (Christmas Bombing, 1972). After years of refusing to
negotiate, they quickly gave in and reached agreement on a peace
treaty. It is likely that they would have abided by it if the US
Congress, under pressure from anti-war activists, and empowered by
Watergate, hadn't eliminated all capability of the US to enforce the
agreement (and to enforce the repatriation of POW's that were probably
held by the Pathet Lao and others). Even after the US cut off all air
support, and even witheld arms shipments already promised to South
Viet Nam, it took quite a while for the North to invade the South
and win. It also took a large conventional army with more armor
than General Patton had under his command in WW-II. If the North
had stayed north, all evidence indicates that the South Vietnamese
regime would have survived the futile attacks of the tatters of
the VC.

]
]Folks, the Vietnamese won the war.  We and the French and the
]corrupt president Thieu and his drug running vice president Ky
](who last I heard lived in Orange County, California), lost the
]war.

Folks, if we had kept the North at bay, SVN would probably have followed
the path of evolution that South Korea followed... starting with authoritarian
despots and generally evolving into an extremely prosperous economy
and a democracy.

]We cratered ten percent of the surface area of that country, killed
]one or two million people, and have consistently refused to trade
]with the Vietnamese since their victory.  And now I read in the
]World Almanac and book of 'Facts' that in the 70s, the Vietnamese
]invasion of Cambodia 'swelled the population and contributed to
]wide spread starvation in that devastated country'.  Is Dan Quayle

Hard to say. The Vietnamese are traditional enemies of the Khmer people,
so perhaps they did starve them a bit. On the other hand, they did
rescue them from another, even worse, communist regime - that of Pol Pot.
Out of the frying pan, into the fire...  I don't think there was
anything humanitarian about this, however. It was just Vietnamese
imperialism.

]yound minds are clueless.  Do they know WHY the Vietnamese invaded
]Cambodia?  Hell, we should have HELPED them invade it.  Have they ever
] heard of the Khmer Rouge?  The World Almanac conveniently forgets
]to mention the Khmer Rouge!  Unreal.  And we thought Russians were
]brain washed.

Does anyone remember the response of the US Left (you know, the anti-war
folks) to the Pol Pot takeover and massacres? They applauded the triumph
of communism in Cambodia, and then denied all reports of the genocide
that then took place. When Joan Baez protested that butchery, and
when Horowitz and Collier protested the savagery of the Vietnamese
Communists against their own people, they were all drummed out of the
leftist movement. Does anyone remember Jane Fonda admonishing Joan
Baez that it was wrong to admonish any socialist country, including
their Pol Pot comrades? Does anyone remember that Pol Pot took over
after the anti-war people forced the US out of the area? After the anti-war
people prevented the US from even sending military aid? Does anyone
remember that the original problem in Cambodia was that North Vietnam
invaded eastern Cambodia and held the territory there for many years
in order to have a sanctuary and supply line into South Vietnam?

Give credit where credit is due... it was the communists who committed
the butchery in Cambodia, and it was the North who butchered many in the
South after the takeover. More people were killed in southeast asia
after the communist takeover than in the entire war beforehand!


-- 
John Moore NJ7E, 7525 Clearwater Pkwy, Scottsdale, AZ 85253  (602-951-9326)
john@anasazi.com ncar!noao!asuvax!anasaz!john anasaz!john@asuvax.eas.asu.edu
- - "May you have the wealth of a Republican, and the sexual prowess - -
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