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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (188956)	6/9/2006 9:46:29 AM
From: Sam	Respond to of 281500

Get one thing straight. The US did not have the power to annul anything. Only the two respective governments of N. and S. Vietnam did. Diem chose not to engage in the elections. And we had no right to make him. It was Diem's decision to make, and since S. Vietnam was NOT a signator to the Geneva Accords, he didn't feel obligated to abide by it. This is my last post in this "debate." You're making up "facts." "The US did not have the power to annul anything. Only the two respective governments of N. and S. Vietnam did." No. There was no "N. and S. Vietnam." There were no "governments" that had the "power" (or the legal right) to do anything. They were fictions. There were supposed to be elections in 1956 in order to elect a government for Vietnam. Besides.. Diem was a Catholic, and close to a million fellow Catholic Vietnamese fled the Communist North into Cochin China (S. Vietnam). Diem, and the rest of these Catholics, knew full well that were the communists elected, they would not be permitted to maintain an opposition party, let alone their religion. Yes, Diem was a Catholic. But it is way way overstating the case to say that "they would not be permitted to maintain an opposition party, let alone their religion." Well, maybe they wouldn't be able to maintain an opposition party, that might well be true. But there were historical reasons for this--why do you think Ho was in exile for several decades? But as long as they recognized the primacy of the communist party, they would have been able to maintain and practice their religion. Aha, you say, see, the communists would have (did) suppress all political opposition. Yes, I'll accept that. Just as they were themselves suppressed. That isn't excusing anything, it is simply stating a fact. They were the harvest of colonialism, which gave favored status and wealth to the minority Catholics. One could also say that the Catholics began the violence by virtue of decades of corruption and ill treatment of non-Catholic Vietnamese. There was going to be a civil war, one way or the other, once the French left the country, because that imbalance of wealth and status was going to be adjusted. I know you love communism.. Actually, that is total BS. And one LOOK AT THE RESULTS, not the intentions, of both leaders. Diem held elections, even if they were imperfect and possibly even rigged in his favor. Ho NEVER held an election, rigged or not, in N. Vietnam. Yeah, look at the results. The fact is that most of the South was opposed not only to Diem, but to all of the govts that the US installed over the years. Why do you think they were unable to hold onto their power despite the assistance of half a million US troops? Because the bulk of the people were opposed to them. Sham elections are NOT better than no elections. No elections are better--IF (an important "if" here) the government really does have the support of the bulk of the people and is an accountable govt. Ho, who "NEVER held an election" also never faced an uprising. If he didn't have the support of the mass of his people, don't you think that they would have rebelled against him, especially when he was sending his military south? It would have been a perfect time for a revolution. But there wasn't one. The fact that that doesn't seem to tell you anything only means that you aren't listening. You only believe what you want to believe. Hence, you can have the last post on the subject, if you wish. I'm done.