-- On 21 Oct 2004 at 12:19, Tyler Durden wrote:
Basically the way I see it. I've felt for a long time that the US (even while pursuing it's questionable goals) should have jumped all over the chance to buddy-up with China after the Sino-Soviet split, and knowing Mao's practicality I'd bet he could have been pursuaded
But the US did try (enventually somewhat successfully) to buddy up with China after the Sino Soviet split.
But of course, we were still in the middle of McCarthy-ism, so way too ideologically blind to see the obvious
The Sino Soviet split occurred long, long, long after McCarthy-ism, and the McCarthyism you imagine never existed.
As a result we continued to mindlessly pursue ideology rather than practicality and so ended really making things worse in SE Asia, in a place where Marxism was really a useful but temporary veneer over local politics (again we were too blind to see that Marxism was a western transplant that wasn't going to do too well in Asia)
Marxism collapsed in IndoChina when the Soviet Union collapsed. --digsig James A. Donald 6YeGpsZR+nOTh/cGwvITnSR3TdzclVpR0+pr3YYQdkG tZmcZdj//R58tp4DiAG0IC4pOHohzacYZQvAALA8 4giYjxVqF5lKWmPpdSglZvGiAEMgB4qWZL08Rt4LN