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I'm an open-minded guy. If you can prove that the Russians put a billion dollars into the antiwar effort during the VietNam era, I'd be very impressed and I'd have to change my whole perspective on that era. My hesitancy in easily changing my opinion is due to the fact that my personal experience was that a great many loyal Americans thought that the war in Vietnam was wrong. And these people weren't led to these feelings by propaganda, but by seeing the events which actually transpired and what they were doing to our country, to VietNam, Cambodia, and Laos. The Russians could have spent $0 on US antiwar propaganda and there still would have been enormous numbers of people protesting against the war.

Here's what I think of Col. Lunev: If what he says is true, it's a big bombshell. But I noticed a few odd things. When I looked up his book on Amazon, the majority of the reviewers were complaining about the lack of content in the book. How could it have a lack of content if he brings out stuff like this? Here's what Lunev said in a congressional hearing:

"It was a responsibility of my former agency. Of course, not mine, because in time of Vietnam war, I was in the regular military service and I had only one secondhand connection with this war when I was invited from regular military SPETSNAZ to special operation forces and with possibility to be sent to Vietnam.

So, I heard this information from my own sources inside GRU, and I was really surprised that it is unknown for American public because for us it was well known."

In other words Lunev has no first hand information on the antiwar funding so we must accept both his word and the word of the people he claims told him this. And if he knows a lot about it, why do all the reviewers complain about a lack of content in his book, why didn't he provide more details? This is a lot weaker than the type of hard information on Soviet spying that has been obtained by research in Soviet archives or by the Venona cables.

So while I find the very short statement of Col Lunev very interesting it's not very convincing and I'd like to see something a lot better. A billion dollars was a lot of money back in the 1960's. If Lunev's story is true, surely there must be some more concrete evidence.

Here's what would be really convincing to me:

1. You back up your previous assertion about the buses, etc., or
2. At least show some specific way in which known payments from the Soviets caused a large protest to occur that would not have happened otherwise, or
3. Show how specific actions of the KGB or GRU led Americans to have a view of the war that was fundamentally incorrect. And by the way, I know we won a lot of military victories there; I don't think that the military situation was the main reason that led people to protest.

The millions of Asians slaughtered by commnunism after YOUR KIND forced the US out of SE Asia curse your naivety.

Apparently you are talking about Cambodia. It's very bad that we did not do anything to prevent this. At the time, no one suggested that an imminent bloodbath in Cambodia was a reason for us to stay in Vietnam. It wasn't MY KIND as you say that forced the US out of Vietnam. It was the collective will of the majority of Americans combined with the fact that the Vietnamese didn't seem to have a strong enough inclination to be divided into two countries. BTW, maybe you can correct me on this but the minimum figure I have heard for Vietnamese casualties inflicted by the US is 2 million, about the same number killed in Cambodia by the Khmer Rouge. I agree that protestors are often naive. But they are not always 100% wrong. The right to protest in enshrined in our constitution. It's very American.

Today, YOUR KIND wants to force us out of Iraq, so that Saddam can once again begin filling the mass graves, torture centers, and human shredders.

I supported our entry into Iraq. I don't think we should leave yet. NO ONE, not even the current protestors, wants Saddam to come back.

The Russians could have spent $0 on US antiwar propaganda and there still would have been enormous numbers of people protesting against the war.

The Soviets always loved self-financing supporters, and sometimes they even made a profit (what would Marx think?), just ask the Spanish Communists or POUM from 1936 (although they're probably all dead).

Look, I did a google search that came up with dozens of citatinos on the first hit. I'd say the ball is now in your court to prove that the antiwar movement was NOT funded by the KGB. Or I can just put those dozens of links here for you.