Then there were the millions of South and North Vietnamese injured and killed during the war, followed by the "re-education" camp phase after the war ended.
I don't even want to think about the hundred of billions of dollars wasted on a needless neocon global war for someone else's democracy that never happened.
“Diem, the Ideal Vietnamese Leader “
My wife would not agree.
We have a long history of getting rid of foreign leaders who were successfully accomplishing the thing we wanted them to accomplish.
Diem
Shah of Iran
Ghadaffi
plenty of others.
The dude was corrupt as hell. Then he was a Catholic and determined to keep Buddhists in their place. Its retarded to think he could have changed the outcome of the war.
I remember those days and how Madam Nhu was considered to be the equivalent of a “Dragon Lady”.
When they were overthrown, the joke was..”No Nhus is good news.”
Yes. No one said anything at the time. It was all Camelot, Camelot, Camelot, and JFK was perfect. Sure, he may have made a few little mistakes in the Bay of Pigs, or the Cuban Missile Crisis, or, etc., etc., but he was still picture perfect!
I first learned about the assassination when I read the complete report on Tricky Dick’s Watergate scandal in the NY Times. There was a whole section of the paper, maybe 20 pages, that included every word. Buried in the middle was a short statement about how JFK sent the CIA to assassinate the Catholic President of South Vietnam, because the Buddhists were mad at him and a monk had committed suicide.
JFK was the first openly Catholic President, and he had a terrible time explaining that he wasn’t about to do whatever the Pope told him to. He leaned over backward to show that he wasn’t a Catholic. And he just HAD to murder his faithful ally in Vietnam because he didn’t want to be known as a CATHOLIC! Never mind that behind the scenes he was one of the worst Catholics ever, with at least two or three adulterous affairs every day.
So, he murdered our ally, who was brilliantly fighting the war with our minor help. With him gone, we either had to give up the whole area to the Communists, or we had to send in numberless troops to die in the jungles.
Every war JFK fought was just dreadful, and required the sacrifice of unprecedented numbers of drafted troops.
Interesting, November 2, 1963 Diem, 20 days later, Kennedy.
Wasn’t it Diem and his brother as well?
Bobby & JFK had that blood on their hands
Ping to an interesting article.
“...historian Geoffrey Shaw clarifies why Americans would do well to mourn the tragic loss of a man many deemed to be Vietnam’s best chance of defeating communism.” Those are the key words. Despite all the bloviating, many U.S. powers didn’t WANT communism defeated. After Nam fell, it wasn’t long until they clamored for “normalized” relations; with Juan McStain, of all people, right out front!
Truth.
It may take 100 years but eventually history will show that everything Kennedy touched was tainted or a complete failure.
Bookmark
A few weeks later Kennedy got the same treatment. Many thought his wife was behind it. Just like LBJ wanted.
Like the endless American Civil War....
I was Regular Army, and proud to serve with the 1/1 Armored Cavalry Regiment, Americal Division, I CORPS, 68-69.
Terrifying but beautiful country. I suspect all the South Vietnamese I knew were generally sweet and gracious by day and VC by night.
Went back there with my then grown daughter in 2000, and had a great time in the South where I suspected everyone thought she was an American movie star. In Hanoi everyone couldn’t have cared less...except the hawkers, always anxious to sell you something around Hoan Kim Lake.
Not so terrifying the second time around.
A very rich part of my cultural education. Sadly, one I would never have known but for all the death and destruction.
Always prayers for those killed and wounded therein, a few of whom I knew personally, including an idol of my youth.
Chou.
Bump