I just realized that you might have missed some essential statements I have made, considering my recent gaffe.
First, I am not arguing that the war in Vietnam was the right policy. I am arguing that it was reasonable, that only means that it was not an obvious mistake at the outset.
Second, My primary concern is to combat the Chomskyite view that our whole conduct of the Cold War was wrong, and that anti- Communism was just a shill for corporate hegemony. That does not mean that questions cannot be raised about various interventions, or that we were always right. It means accepting that the Soviet Union was a strategic threat, and that, in an interdependent world, we could not have afforded to be encircled, or to have access to essential commodities denied us. It means accepting that if a liberation group were either going to take over in the name of Communism, or to throw a country into chaos, that we had a reason to be concerned.
Third, I have been arguing to vindicate my idea that our actions reflect our values, not in the sense that we never do anything under necessity that we otherwise regret, but in the sense that we sincerely were working for the eventual triumph of democracy. |
