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

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (239913)	8/26/2007 6:17:57 AM
From: Wharf Rat	Respond to of 281500

Ike wasn't as confident as you. July 21, 1954 - The Geneva Accords divide Vietnam in half at the 17th parallel, with Ho Chi Minh's Communists ceded the North, while Bao Dai's regime is granted the South. The accords also provide for elections to be held in all of Vietnam within two years to reunify the country. The U.S. opposes the unifying elections, fearing a likely victory by Ho Chi Minh. July 1956 - The deadline passes for the unifying elections set by the Geneva Conference. Diem, backed by the U.S., had refused to participate.

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (239913)	8/26/2007 9:45:21 PM
From: GST	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

<Southeast Asia went communist> The Vietnamese wanted to give French colonialism the boot -- not too hard to understand. For the most part, people do not like living under foreign occupation. We opposed Vietnamese independence and reunification -- an absurd and pointless thing to do. We could have supported Vietnam's nationalist sentiments, but we chose instead to stand in the way and set the stage for civil war -- a civil war that could have and should have been avoided, one that cost millions of lives. In the end we did more to institutionalize communism than the Soviets did. Now we have full diplomatic relations with Vietnam, We trade freely with Vietnam. Vietnam vets go on holidays in Vietnam -- perhaps you should go there someday if you have not already been. To argue that we should have stayed longer and killed more Vietnamese people while watching our own sons dying as well is beyond absurd, as if the millions who died was not already enough. We could have stayed longer, we could have killed them all -- but unless we were prepared to kill them all (tens of millions more), then the result would have been no different.