>> 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.
Well here I say that it was clear that most Vietnamese could not have cared less what Marx or Lenin had written about the working class. They did care about and understood very well was that they were under occupation (pretty much a hand over from the French to Americans) and did not want it. Now if in fact there had been support for independent minded nationalist Vietnamese, then the nationalist groups would not have united under Ho's banner. But of course this would not sit well in Washington because they would not give in to every US demand. So I have to disagree that the war was the best alternative against communism.
>> 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.
I probably agree with you here. There were and are legitimate concerns. The problem is, that there is always some lobby group that convinces someone to go the extra mile while they are at it and not just remove direct threat, but also oppose the independent minded leaders. So yes, there were legitimate strategic concerns. Yes, some of the left wing groups we opposed were worse than the thugs we kept in power. But no, we did not limit ourselves to just keeping the main threats away and allowing other societies to mature.
>> 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.
Sorry, this I disagree with. And this is not because Americans are bad people. Quite to the contrary; Americans are some of the most generous and good natured people in the world. It is in fact this innate goodness of the Americans (the people I am talking about) that forces the government to work so hard at justifying its wrongful actions overseas. In the end, American foreign policy has always preferred control over benevolence, or as Kissinger would put it, "US policy favors stability over democracy"...and of course nobody can deliver "stability" like a harsh dictator. The "lesser evil" policy you are advocating boils down to "the ends justify the means".
ST
PS We also differ fundamentally in that I don't see Washington as being primarily concerned with the well being of the people in America, let alone the foreign inhabitants. |
