BTW, Vietnam did NOT 'win the war'. In the early 1990s I was listening on shortwave to a relatively rare and very weak signaled Voice of Vietnam broadcast in English (target nation unknown). Through the fade and static I was able to discern that the presentation in progress was an infomercial attempting to garner business for the recently rebuilt and de-mined port of Haiphong. They got the business alright. The destruction of Vietnam's infrastructure had the long term effect of driving them into the hands of their former enemies just to survive... Vietnam: From National Liberation to Trans-Pacific Vassal http://dissidentvoice.org/2015/10/vietnam-from-national-liberation-to-trans-... On 10/25/2015 10:38 AM, Steve Kinney wrote:
On 10/25/2015 12:21 PM, Razer wrote:
On 10/25/2015 08:58 AM, Steve Kinney wrote:
On 10/25/2015 11:32 AM, Razer wrote:
There were no "Purges" in Vietnam.
IIRC there were, though of course not on a scale to rival Pol Pot & Co. However, that's beside the point: I was talking about Amerikan politics, not Asian history.
:o)
I'm SURE the citizens of Vietnam took good care of their traitors... To the best of my knowledge there were never any government organized purges. What angry citizens might have done to Special Forces installed "Provincial Governments" and errant unfortunate ARVN soldiers does NOT qualify as a purge. What Amerika did to it's labor unionists in the early 1900s does though. America's politics DEPEND on the belief in "Righteous wars" and I'm here to say The US has NEVER fought one. It's a myth.
War is public murder for private profit. I don't know of any counter-examples. Again we are up against a collective psychosis, normalized by a long history of public acceptance and elaborate rationalizations. Sometimes one sees Bad Guys vs. Worse Guys, but whenever it's Guys vs. Guys the best that can be accomplished is some amount of damage control. Everyone who takes up arms to settle the disputes of their rulers and de facto owners is a traitor to the human race as a whole.
The "fog of war" has another name, propaganda, and all sides of every armed conflict write press releases to establish that their only motive is "necessary self defence," or the currently popular "responsibility to protect others." The other side of every armed conflict always started it, and the regular folks on the other side of that border deserve whatever happens to them because they failed to stop it.
Too much factual information about war results in large numbers of people banding together to have a go at kicking the war machine to pieces. So never mind that "ain't gonna study war no more" crap; study the fuck out of war and encourage others to do likewise.
:o/