(OFF) Vietnam

[AerospaceAge Warrior]

I'm sure others will chime in.

The theory was that if one Asian country fell there would be a domino
effect with other countries as well.  This was a policy mostly framed by
Dulles.  He and his wonks felt that they would loose the whole of Asia to
communism if one country fell.

Also it was a slow creep in the early days. It was first in support of the
French fighting the insurgency.  Just advisors at first.  I do believe it
was Johnson that really upped the number of troops there and then Nixon who
went whole hog.

There is an amazing book called "Fire in the Lake" which does a great job
of proving the theory that culturally we never could have exported
democracy to the Vietnamese and Cambodian peoples.

Of course this concept is very important today with yet another Republican
Administration "bringing democracy" to peoples who frankly have no concept
as to what it is about.

I'm sure some will disagree and some have better points than I. I'm no
expert.

Mike

________________________________________________

An effective way to deal with predators is to taste terrible.

-- Unknown





::-----Original Message-----
::From: BOC/Hawkwind Discussion List
::[mailto:BOC-L at LISTSERV.ISPNETINC.NET]On Behalf Of Richard Lockwood
::Sent: Sunday, July 06, 2003 6:52 PM
::To: BOC-L at LISTSERV.ISPNETINC.NET
::Subject: (OFF) Vietnam
::
::
::Apologies for the completely off topic post - Can anyone tell me (this is
::the only mailing list I'm on that has a high proportion of
::American readers)
::why America went into Vietnam in the first place?  I know it's a
::"stopping
::the spread of communism" thing - but what were the political arguments?
::
::I could look this up on the web, sure, but I'd like some
::personal views from
::Americans...
::
::(In times gone by I would have just privately emailed this to
::Larry, but...)
::
::Cheers,
::
::Rich.
::