If you wish to play with me here's some desert for you:
In the 1950s, Greenspan, a member of Ayn Rand's "Collective," wrote a paper for Ho Chi Minh entitled, " The Historic Basis for Capitalism in Southeast Asia."
This paper so incensed the French that they pulled their Legion out of Vietnam. [Sacre Bleu!]
Eisenhower, seeing the power vacuum, sent military advisors into Vietnam under the auspices of conducting an economic survey. Led by the CIA, Greenspan was secretly spirited from New York for a late night Washington briefing and then whisked to Hanoi to conduct the secret economic summit.
When talks collapsed (Minh unreasonably demanded to talk with John Galt - despite the fact that no such man existed), Greenspan was called back to the U.S.
After the Kennedy assassination when LBJ took power, LBJ met with Greenspan, Nixon and Hubert Humphrey. Greenspan wanted to present new, radical ideas to Hanoi, but Johnson - in a fit of Texan rage - flatly turned down Greenspan's request.
Nixon consoled Greenspan with the promise that Greenspan would act as an economic advisor to the president in future Republican administrations. Nixon also assured Greenspan that if LBJ did not end the hostilities that he, Nixon, would, if he became president. Further, he gave assurances that he would open up the East by making trips to China and securing a base for future American economic expansion in Asia and Southeast Asia.
It was further agreed that Greenspan should work towards becoming the head of the Federal Reserve Bank. Once that was accomplished, Vietnam would then be more receptive to capitalism. It was projected that Vietnam would begin seeking to become capitalistic by the year 2000.
Greenspan readily agreed. And then they all had some doughnuts and coffee and the rest is history...
The End |
