I have no fixed opinion on whether or not we should have intervened in Vietnam, merely a conviction that the war was conducted so poorly that we should not have bothered. I think it is fatuous to invoke democracy in order to legitimize the installation of a totalitarian regime. Democracy consists not only of allowing the people to express their will at a given moment in history, but to review their decisions in the light of experience, and to reflect the ever- changing composition of "the people", as generations inexorably change. In addition, it is essential to democracy as we embrace it that there be civil liberties.
Thus, to prevent Vietnam from going Communist because Ho Chi Minh was a charismatic figure was not, in itself, an unworthy position. Additionally, in the real world, one has to choose among evils. As I support FDR's decision to ally with Stalin to crush Hitler, I have no problem with supporting authoritarian regimes to prevent Communist domination.
Just as China remains a semi- totalitarian political regime, however "marketized" its economy, there is no reason to think that Communism would have collapsed inevitably for many hundreds of years. I do not think the collapse of the Soviet Union was inevitable, I think it was due to political circumstances stimulated by economic problems.
No, Communism was not monolithic. However, when you have a bunch of regimes that are hostile to the West, it is not clear how much it matters. Besides, even Stalin and Hitler managed to ally for a time.
The United States, far from trying to resist the divestiture of empire, was partially responsible for it, pressuring Britain and France in the aftermath of the Second World War to allow devolution with all deliberate speed. In part, the UN was supposed to be a mechanism for smoothing the process of decolonization. The support of French claims in Vietnam was somewhat anomalous, and clearly had to do with the immediate danger of Communist partisans taking over.
In any war, a nation makes mistakes, and sometimes loses a battle. In the long run, we won the Cold War, and therefore were doing something right, in my book........ |
