The President and a third of the people were Catholic, because it had been a French colony, until the French left.
The Buddhists wanted their freedom, and at first considered the Catholics as their primary enemies, to be revolted against. After some years, they learned better, especially after watching Pol Pot kill millions of Buddhists for no particular reason, except that he felt like it. Most of the South Vietnam Buddhists came to understand that Communists were their worst enemies, not French Catholics. But the stupid liberals in the press here in America thought it was an evil war, and that it would be better to turn the whole of Southeast Asia over to the Communists. Meanwhile, instead of being advisers to the Vietnamese, our troops became the primary fighters, and endless lives were lost in the process. There would have been at least hundreds of thousands fewer Americans killed there if JFK hadn’t murdered our ally, and the Buddhists would have come around and realized that Catholics were less deadly to them than maniac Communists.
” and the Buddhists would have come around and realized that Catholics were less deadly to them than maniac Communists.”
Tell that to my wife’s classmates that ‘disappeared’ under Diem’s reign.
“The President and a third of the people were Catholic, because it had been a French colony, until the French left.”
LOL! Under Diem’s reign, if you wanted a government job or promotion in the military you ‘converted’ to Catholicism!
“There would have been at least hundreds of thousands fewer Americans killed there if JFK hadn’t murdered our ally, and the Buddhists would have come around and realized that Catholics were less deadly to them than maniac Communists.”
OR.. the Catholics might have noticed that the Buddhists were less deadly to them than the maniac communists, and not insisted on running things and crushing the Buddhists.