Well, a lot of people helped to develop that mess [not sure 'to create' fits well in this case] .... washing dishes - i've done this, and found it not entirely unpleasant ... you get lots of contact with attractive young ladies, for one thing ... of course Escoffier likely lacked a coed staff, there is that
Uncle Ho was a lying scheming murderer of his own allies, the nationalists who had helped him beat off the japanese and the french, and then numerous political opponents in following years .... there was zero respect for freedom of expression under his regime, and there's been little improvement since .... in no way does this excuse the criminal stupidity of US administrations in aiding the french, barring the promised elections, and attempting to impose Rule By Napalm, but it remains useful to remember
A friend has made quite a study of indochinese history, going way back, three thousands years, with great detail of the 1918-1956 period, looking for the roots of why he was there in 1966-'68 .... he hasn't found any certified good guys, none ... not even those poor murdered nationalists, among whom were several budding warlord types, quite murderous in their own right
Time magazine - i learned english from it, and Punch, The Economist ... but especially Time - a relative subscribed, and would roll it up in brown grocery bag paper and send it to us about a week later, rarely if ever missed an issue ..... i remember Suez and Hungary in '56, also when Viet Nam got really rolling later i had a background in it, somewhat [which didn't mean a great deal until meeting guys who'd been there packing machine guns] ..... were they CIA assets, well sure, no doubt, we've heard that for years ..... but they didn't rot my mind, either
The truth is out there - way way out there .... it's not the johnbirchers' version of events, or the unclehoers', it's not somewhere between the two either, it's way off to the side i think, with only occasional relationship to any of the partisan bickerings |
