Neocon, think a little. When you say, " for all we know, the domino theory was correct, and the only reason that the whole of Southeast Asia did not fall is that we exhausted North Vietnam," you reveal a true ignorance of the aims of the North V, and worse yet, of the cause of the fall of communism.
The aim of the North Vietnamese and those that supported them in the south, was to unify the two Vietnams. An election had been promised but when it appeared as if the country would have voted for unification, the election promises were reneged. The north wasn't intent on making the whole of Southeast Asia communist; at least I've never heard any historian say that.
More troubling is your apparent failure to understand that communism hasn't failed as a result of our physical wars against communist countries. You should be knowledgeable enough to understand that communism has failed because it simply doesn't work. Their "business and social model" got eaten up in the Darwinian sense by a better, more efficient model that was better able to capture the spirit and production of its peoples. That's pretty obvious to most of us who aren't so panicky that we jump and shoot every time there's a shadow.
As far as your justification phrased as "for all we know," that's a basis for doing anything, anytime, in the name of whatever. Because HEY, you never KNOW, do you?
PS. JDN be careful of newly discovered wmd-like memos. The stakes are high and there are many who would steal an election, aren't there? I have a hard time believing that N. Vietnam would have "surrendered." Surrender wasn't in the cards; all they had to do was stop fighting in the South. |
