To: Elmer Flugum who wrote (5423 ) 9/27/2001 2:48:10 PM From: marcos Respond to It was once so considered ... by the english -g- ... US law and the law of all english-speaking countries as well as a number of other countries is based on principles of english common law, of course ... often considered to originate with the Magna Carta, but really its roots go well back beyond that, to attitudes toward the rights and responsibilities of the individual among the germanic and celtic tribes from which the english were generated ... rarely if ever manifested in pure form of course, but the attitudes existed from early days, chiefs chosen according to merit instead of heredity, by something very like election, for instance ... the sioux confederation on this continent had developed similar attitudes by the time of the european invasion, other tribes as well, for instance the haida on the west coast ... while the inca and azteca, like the maya before them, had no such illusions, rulers and priests had total power with zero accountability ... these differing effects were compounded when the spanish with their enslaving style of religious conversion took those areas, while english with their yeoman tradition and common law based on principle and precedent took areas to the northSunday, May 7, 1950 is the key date of the Vietnam War. As a 'ewhitton.com - actually part 1 of that is interesting as well, aussie viewpoint, blames Menzies as a warmonger of influence .... In another url i had last night there was mention of Ho Chi Minh's first pleading with the US to aid the vietnamese in their pursuit of independence, in 1919 ... he was present at the Versailles conference ... the one on display on the library of congress site is from 1946, to Truman ... following both wars he saw opportunity to shake off colonial dominance, he had perfect english and often quoted from the US constitution and works by people like Jefferson ..... must have believed those fine words of liberty and justice meant more than they did in reality at the time, eh ..... cheers
