Re: Hanoi Jane

From: Chuck Ross
Date: 7/20/2005
Time: 4:56:16 PM
Remote Name: 24.205.110.143

Comments

You don't know what you are talking about.

She did not speak out against the war.

She went to Cambodia and North Vietnam and spoke against America's involvement in it. She did not have a high profile on this cause within the US, but was "activist" almost exclusively in other countries.

South Vietnam had elections. North Vietnam did not.

North Vietnam invaded South Vietnam, and paid to equip south Vietnamese to take up arms against their own government. We acted to assist the legally elected government of South Vietnam at their request. Gradually we assumed more and more of the combat roles, but it did not start out that way.

The government of south Vietnam might fairly be criticized for one thing or another. Most can.

You also need some historical perspective. The model for communist states at the time was still very much influenced by the Soviet Union, as it had become under Josef Stalin, only recently deceased. (most of the leaders had been his proteges) Stalin was without a doubt the worst person of the 20th century, having murdered four or five times as many people as Hitler. Communism at most times is just a silly idea that won't work, but from the end of WW II until about the time of Vietnam the Soviet Union and its political allies had virtually enslaved many countries and were showing signs of having an appetite for more.

Defending the people of South Vietnam from that fate was an honorable thing to do, even if people like you had no stomach for it.

Historical perspective. If you are old enough, you might also remember when we withdrew and Saigon finally fell, people actually waded out into the South China Sea with anything that would keep them afloat, and paddled away from land hoping a ship, any ship would pick them up. Pirates did pick up and rob most of them.

What were they fleeing? Democracy under north Vietnamese rule?