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Modern Vietnam is proof U.S. might can't remake nations (Quagmire Alert)
San Jose Mercury News ^ | 8/3/2004 | Daniel Sneider

Posted on 08/03/2004 7:17:43 AM PDT by presidio9

Edited on 08/03/2004 7:31:38 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]

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To: sully777
they are steadily throwing off communism because communism is not their national character."

Also because the Hanoi Politburo became extremely jealous of those $$billions in Vietnamese-American remittances to families in the South, and realized that they'd never get a piece of the economic pie until they loosened up on the Marxist rhetoric.

Hanoi has increasingly come to realize that Marxism and Stalinst controls are incompatible with prosperity. So they send their kids now to the University of Sydney or UCLA (believe it or not, a popular form of kickback to Party members), and when the kids return to VN, they are completely cured of Marxist thought.

21 posted on 08/03/2004 8:14:22 AM PDT by angkor
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To: presidio9
The communists, like their cousins in China, cling to a monopoly on political power, buying time for their rule by opening the doors of economic freedom. Human rights are abused and dissidence often rewarded with repression.

This is the truth of this article. Go into any provisional hospital, even in the poorest sections of Issan, in Thailand and compare with the best that Vietnam has to offer and you can get a idea of where Vietnam could have been if not for our surrender there. Cambodia, Laos and Burma are monuments to the "wonders" of socialism as well. If you are using the quality of life for the individual, Vietnam is hardly the example to use for success. Hopefully, the future will bring better days to Vietnam, however, to go much beyond where they are today, the will have to throw off the "foreign" influence of communism.

22 posted on 08/03/2004 8:16:22 AM PDT by JimSEA ( "More Bush, Less Taxes.")
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To: JimSEA
the will have to throw off the "foreign" influence of communism.

Good point.

Ho Chi Minh, a co-founder of the French Communist Party in 1919, and who lived in Moscow for about a decade thereafter.

Hardly a homegrown Vietnamese social philosophy.

Just as Pol Pot and Ieng Sary got their dose of French Communism three decades later while studying at the Sorbonne (Ieng detailed the Khmer Rouge agricultural gulag in his Sorbonne doctoral thesis).

23 posted on 08/03/2004 8:24:19 AM PDT by angkor
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To: aruanan
Modern Vietnam is proof U.S. might can't remake nations

Yeah, I was wondering whether this clown was suggesting that Vietnam is in the process of bringing back its "indiginous" Nguyen Dynasty.

24 posted on 08/03/2004 8:29:59 AM PDT by angkor
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Comment #25 Removed by Moderator

To: Carry_Okie

Exactly....we simply quit and went home before the job was done....
Abandoning our friends...


26 posted on 08/03/2004 10:05:31 AM PDT by joesnuffy (Moderate Islam Is For Dilettantes)
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To: Darksheare

please dont forget europe, i think we had something to do about them as well, oh and russia!! they seem to be doing a bit better!! not to mention the satelite states and poland, but what do i know.


27 posted on 08/03/2004 10:29:14 AM PDT by Docbarleypop (Navy Doc)
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To: Docbarleypop

Yes.
Wasn't meaning to try an dbe comprehensive (my mid would break trying to track all info down) but as a general statement, it works.
Thanks!


28 posted on 08/03/2004 10:31:00 AM PDT by Darksheare (Tagline Abuse is an under-reported crime. Please help abused taglines today. Call 1-999-TAG-ABUZE.)
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To: presidio9

What a stupid article. Vietnam's not the only place that doesn't look so bad anymore, now that the SOVIET UNION HAS FALLEN. But what the hell did this author think the world was like when there were still Reds in Red Square?


29 posted on 08/03/2004 10:53:20 AM PDT by Timm
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To: presidio9

This article is so nonsensical at so many levels that it really only constitutes proof of nothing but the increasing senility of the pop-left. How can he know what Vietnam would be like if we, rather than his Stalinist friends, had won the Vietnam War? According to this author, Vietnam is a great success (which it isn't) without US help (which it does in fact receive) so it is therefore impossible for US assistance to achieve anything positive. The premise is a lie, and the conclusion would be a non-sequitur even if were true. By this logic, driving to work is impossible because someone else has successfully ridden a bike and we therefore don't need oil. Oh, wait a minute, that's an actual lefty claim too.


30 posted on 08/03/2004 11:05:13 AM PDT by atomic conspiracy (A few words for the media: Julius Streicher, follow his path, share his fate.)
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To: angkor
Pol Pot and Ieng Sary got their dose of French Communism three decades later while studying at the Sorbonne

Absolutly. Also you can go back to the end of WWII in Burma when the Labour Government in GB sold out their wartime allies, the Karen and Shan, giving the Communist Burmese all they wanted. Of course many of the problems of today have their genesis in that disgraceful sellout.

31 posted on 08/03/2004 1:22:36 PM PDT by JimSEA ( "More Bush, Less Taxes.")
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