It was a civil war Tim, it got brutal on all sides ... Diem had set the post-Geneva tone by torturing and murdering thousands he suspected of being political opponents, immediately, even before he became 'president' in that completely phony 'election' .... there was never effective freedom of expression anywhere in the country, and there had never been, at least since the french took full control in the 1850s, so judgments of 'public support' are going to be nebulous either way, largely speculative ... fact remains however, that more vietnamese were prepared to fight harder and more effectively for Ho Chi Minh's vision of the country than for that of Diem/Cao Ky/Thieu et al ..... q.e.d., invoking the basic underlying principle of the Bush Doctrine - Might Makes Right [although, in this case, it made Left]
In your response to my 'i hope you realise', you missed the core - that the war you brought up was very much a civil war .... it is not presented as such in US classrooms, rather as a conflict between locals and foreigners, and this is gross distortion, a continuation of the rebel propaganda of the time .... the best researched works on the time estimate that one-third of the population supported the rebel cause to some degree, one-third opposed it, and the remaining third were indifferent, and/or undecided, presumably .... one of the strongest motivations for being a rebel was that you got to rip off patriot loyalists with impunity, and this practise was very effective in stifling dissent in traitor-controlled areas, it became habitual as well, Canada having to defend herself against attack in 1812-14, hundreds of indian nations being wiped out, and then the mexicanos losing half their country ..... so you see there is the danger in getting carried away with civil wars, you run the risk of them becoming distinctly uncivil
'Is the US somehow not a real country' - mmm, it's too early to tell, maybe .... you seem to have good days, others not so great .... let me think about this, eh
' If England somehow acquired the power and the motivation to invade the US'
Oh no you don't, nice try but if you want re-admission to this Empire you've got some qualifying to do first ... please note all the fine print and footnotes to the 17,863 page entrance forms, fill them out fully in quintuplicate, and take care to meet your national debt sanity requirements before submitting, as your deposit will in no circumstance be refunded
...bursar@youmightconsidersupplicationtotheUNjustincase.empire.gov |
