From: jot@teak09.cray.com (Otto Tennant)
Subject: Re: Kremlin_Gate: Bill Clinton in Moscow during Viet Nam.
In-reply-to: mpolen@suntory.mti.sgi.com's message of 7 Oct 1992 20:47:19 GMT
Organization: Cray Research, Inc.
	<1992Oct6.003817.15753@pony.Ingres.COM>
	<1992Oct7.022045.19106@anasazi.com> <138338@lll-winken.LLNL.GOV>
	<ld6j6nINNk3@spim.mti.sgi.com>
Date: 7 Oct 92 23:10:18 CDT

In article <ld6j6nINNk3@spim.mti.sgi.com> mpolen@suntory.mti.sgi.com (Mike Polen) writes:
>From: mpolen@suntory.mti.sgi.com (Mike Polen)
>Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc
>Date: 7 Oct 1992 20:47:19 GMT
>Organization: Mips Technologies, Inc.
>Lines: 30
>Distribution: world
>References: <5OCT199219033406@utarlg.uta.edu> <1992Oct6.003817.15753@pony.Ingres.COM> <1992Oct7.022045.19106@anasazi.com> <138338@lll-winken.LLNL.GOV>
>Reply-To: mpolen@suntory.mti.sgi.com (Mike Polen)
>NNTP-Posting-Host: suntory.mti.sgi.com
>
>john@anasazi.com writes:
>> To conspire with an enemy country during war is an act of a traitor.
>> Bill Clinton may or may not have done this - he was more likely a
>> "willing dupe" - but for him to protest the war IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY,
>> and to travel to the capital of the main enemy, is, to say the
>> least, very suspect. As a veteran of that period, I find it
>> reprehensible and offensive.
>
>1.  Russia was not the enemy in the vietnam war.  North Vietnam and
>China were the "main enemies."

The monolithic Communist front was the "main enemy."  You can attempt
to subdivide "the enemy".  One may even recognize that Red China and
the USSR were not on the best of terms.  But, in the relevant period,
the USSR was supporting North Vietnam.

>
>2.  Russia was our enemy during the cold war, but Bush, Reagan, thier
>staffs, and our ambassadors all spent more time in Russia when
>they were the "main enemy" than Clinton did.
>

They had diplomatic passports.

>3.  When on vacation or going to school in England, your ideas go
>with you.  If they didn't, that would be suspect.

Well, that is sort of the point.  The present governor of a small
southern state, who promised he would serve out his term (but we all
know how to believe the promises of Democrats) took his ideas with him
on vacation.  They happened to take him to a communist country.

>4.  If Clinton was a member of the KGB, he is out of a job.

Just my opinion, but I don't think that the KGB, as incompetent and
paranoid as it appears to have been, would have taken on Clinton.

>5.  If Clinton, as a KGB agent, led Arkansas to the improvements
>seen over the last 12 years, maybe we should recruit more.

You want more fecal coliform bacteria in your water?

>6.  If Bush supporters actually think this is an issue, then
>Clinton, Perot, and Marrou (sp?) supporters are sure glad their 
>candidates have real issues to campaign on.
>
Actually, I don't know.  The Governor of a small southern state has
enough to answer for beyond a youthful visit to the USSR.

The issue is not so much whether or not he supported LBJ's war.

The issue is whether or not he understands basic thoughts like
"freedom" and "justice".  Visiting the USSR the year after the
invasion of Czechoslavikia is at best (using the word of the left-wing)
insensitive. 
>-- 
>These opinions are usually my own, sometimes my dog's,
>occasionaly my (grown) children's, never my employer's.


--
===============================================================================
J.Otto Tennant      Forsan et haec olim meminisse juvabit.         jot@cray.com
Cray Research, Inc.              Virgil                          (612) 683-5872
655 Lone Oak Drive                                                
Eagan, MN 55121
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