Watching the PBS Vietnam
It's been a long time since I've thought about it, a lot of years spent being careful to not revisit it. So far the chronology and videos have been informative and have shown lots that I never knew.
My draft him lottery number was "8".
The series has filled in some gaps in my remembering the overall sequence of battles and escalations and politician lies. I'm wondering if the future episodes will spend much time on Cambodia and Laos where the US had a big presence before all was done.
The political right / libertarian side has critical comments about it, mainly that it is not a true history, (what do you expect from a relatively short TV series?), and that it does not identify the real problem being that the US is and always will be a war seeking aggressor:
http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/166994
My draft him lottery number was "8".
The series has filled in some gaps in my remembering the overall sequence of battles and escalations and politician lies. I'm wondering if the future episodes will spend much time on Cambodia and Laos where the US had a big presence before all was done.
The political right / libertarian side has critical comments about it, mainly that it is not a true history, (what do you expect from a relatively short TV series?), and that it does not identify the real problem being that the US is and always will be a war seeking aggressor:
http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/166994
1 - 3 of 3 Posts
Korea
I wonder if the USA's retreat from Vietnam (and refusal to re-enter the conflict in 1975 when the communists made their final invasion to take over the South) didn't greatly embolden North Korea to keep their stated goal to retake South Korea and unite the entire peninsula under communist dictatorship (lead by the Kim royal family)?
Keep in mind that in 1965 the Norks shot at one of our spy planes in international waters, and in 1969 they attacked another one and destroyed it with air-to-air missiles (killing 31 Sailors and Marines). In 1968 they fired on the U.S.S. Pueblo, captured it (after killing one Sailor and wounding several more), and never gave it back, although the service members were returned after several months in custody.
Why shouldn't the North Koreans think that it's entirely possible to "win" against the USA the way North Vietnam did?
BUT ON THE OTHER HAND, we can also cite the example of our last 30 years' of normalized relations with Vietnam as proof that the USA, today, can be friends with communist countries that we formerly fought against. We can point this out to North Korea and say that their propaganda about us invading them for the sake of democracy or capitalism is a bunch of B.S. The only reason we might ever invade them is over their nukes, or possibly their biological and chemical weapons if they were to start selling them to terrorist groups. But the idea of the USA helping South Korea invade the north to unite both countries under one Western-style democratic government is totally unrealistic.
If the Norks stop being the bad guys of the world, the international criminals and lunatics trying to position themselves to start and win another war, we could normalize relations with them , like we did Vietnam.
I wonder if the USA's retreat from Vietnam (and refusal to re-enter the conflict in 1975 when the communists made their final invasion to take over the South) didn't greatly embolden North Korea to keep their stated goal to retake South Korea and unite the entire peninsula under communist dictatorship (lead by the Kim royal family)?
Keep in mind that in 1965 the Norks shot at one of our spy planes in international waters, and in 1969 they attacked another one and destroyed it with air-to-air missiles (killing 31 Sailors and Marines). In 1968 they fired on the U.S.S. Pueblo, captured it (after killing one Sailor and wounding several more), and never gave it back, although the service members were returned after several months in custody.
Why shouldn't the North Koreans think that it's entirely possible to "win" against the USA the way North Vietnam did?
BUT ON THE OTHER HAND, we can also cite the example of our last 30 years' of normalized relations with Vietnam as proof that the USA, today, can be friends with communist countries that we formerly fought against. We can point this out to North Korea and say that their propaganda about us invading them for the sake of democracy or capitalism is a bunch of B.S. The only reason we might ever invade them is over their nukes, or possibly their biological and chemical weapons if they were to start selling them to terrorist groups. But the idea of the USA helping South Korea invade the north to unite both countries under one Western-style democratic government is totally unrealistic.
If the Norks stop being the bad guys of the world, the international criminals and lunatics trying to position themselves to start and win another war, we could normalize relations with them , like we did Vietnam.
1 - 3 of 3 Posts
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