Posted on 09/27/2007 7:54:44 AM PDT by Interesting Times
President Bush’s use of the Vietnam-Iraq analogy in his speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars last month was accurate but lacking. Most of his critics, including those in Congress, know little about the history of the Vietnamese communists, and they choose to blindly ignore what is glaringly known about the intentions of al Qaeda and the radical Muslim jihadists in the Middle East. Where the President fell short in his analogy is he forgot to mention that while the communists in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos did not announce their genocidal intentions at the onset of the war, al Qaeda and the Muslim jihadists have – as demonstrated by 9/11 attacks and by numerous other acts of barbarism, such as the beheading of journalist Daniel Pearl.
George Santayana said, “Those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them." Karl Marx wrote, "History repeats itself, the first time as tragedy, the second as farce." Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos were tragedies, but if the defeatists in Congress get their way, the US withdrawal from Iraq will be both tragedy and farce.
Ho Chi Minh, cofounder of the French communist party, held a position of leadership in the international communist movement – the Comintern. Ho founded the Indo-China Communist Party in 1930, and was sent by the Comintern to Siam (Thailand), Malaya and Singapore to preside over the creation of communist parties in these countries. Moscow also put him in charge of creating communist parties in Cambodia and Laos. All were encouraged to contribute to the international proletarian revolution, and all of them reported to the Comintern’s Far Eastern Bureau headed by Ho.
After the Geneva Agreements in 1954, Ho Chi Minh saw to it that several hundred young Cambodians were taken north, indoctrinated in communism and given military training. They were later armed and sent back, where they became the basis of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia’s Eastern Zone. Knowing of Ho’s close ties to Moscow and his intent to emulate his hero, the butcher Joseph Stalin, by creating a Soviet-style Union of South East Asia, China began training and arming the Pol Pot faction of the Khmer Rouge as a counterbalance to Soviet influence. North Vietnam enabled the Khmer Rouge to take over Phnom Penh in 1975 by providing logistics, ammunition, artillery and backup by Vietnamese troops making them complicate in the genocide of at least one and one half million Cambodians.
Viewing the US as a paper tiger after its abandonment of South Vietnam, the Vietnamese communist party sent its mighty military force into Cambodia, not to liberate it from Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge, but to colonize that country to fulfill Ho Chi Minh’s dream of hegemony over Indochina. They never dreamed that the US would ally with communist China to drive them out. Unfortunately, the Hanoi’s Khmer Rouge remained intact and now controls Cambodia.
The Vietnamese communists continue their policy of neo-colonization, nibbling away at Cambodia by annexing sizable portions of its borders, coastlines, and islands through illegitimate treaties with their puppet regime in Phnom Penh. Their latest method is a “Development Triangle” scheme that involves flooding three northeastern provinces of Cambodia and the three southeastern provinces of Laos with Vietnamese settlers. The Vietnamese army has already established coffee, cashew and rubber plantations in the Laotian provinces -- the latter covering more than 7,000 hectares.
The similarity between the Vietnamese communists and the al Qaeda and the Muslim jihadists is that they are both fanatical true believers who see it as their divine right and destiny to establish hegemony over their respective regions, regardless of the cost in human life.
American involvement in Vietnam was justified in trying to prevent the “dominos” -- the Southeast Asian nations -- from falling victim to communism. Likewise, the US must stay involved in Iraq to keep radical Islam from spreading throughout the region, and to prevent the eventual take over of Iraq by Iran – another “domino effect.”
Another Vietnam-Iraq analogy is how the US treats its allies. Some observers thought that the Iraqis would welcome the Americans with garlands of flowers. However, the Shias viewed us as betrayers rather than liberators, because after arming and encouraging them to rebel against Saddam’s regime at the end of the First Gulf War, the coalition failed to enforce the Southern no-fly zone. This allowed Saddam’s forces to slaughter an estimated 100,000 Shia -- men, women and children -- with tanks, helicopter gunships and devastating artillery fire.
Now, about 10,000 Iraqis who worked for the US have been threatened by the terrorists who accuse them and their families of “collaborating” with the enemy – a death sentence. They have been referred by the United Nations for resettlement in the US, but even though many are translators who have already been vetted by the US armed forces, so far only about 100 have been admitted. One who called the US Embassy in Jordan for help was told, “You knew the risk when you helped the Army.” Recently, Ellen Sauerbrey, Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration, appeared on CBS’ “60 Minutes” and attempted to justify the snails pace of processing said that the problem is the “very thorough security checks” put in place after 9/11; however, only 2,000 to 3,000 Iraqis may be admitted this year.
During a trip to Hanoi last February, Sauerbrey told persecuted Montagnard ethnic minorities that they should stay in the Central Highlands rather than fleeing to Cambodia to seek sanctuary. This came after the repressive Vietnamese communist regime told her that the Montagnards were free to travel and take their grievances to the US Embassy or consulate. The reality, however, is that embassy and consulate are heavily guarded by communist police who won’t let the Montagnards enter. Loyal allies of America during the Vietnam War, the Montagnards lost approximately half of their adult male population fighting the communists. When the US withdrew from Vietnam, about 1.5 million Montagnards remained. Now the Vietnamese regime gives their population at around 750,000 – evidence of the regime’s brutal and long-standing policy of ethnic cleansing.
After 9/11, some Americans took pleasure in vilifying the French, ridiculing them as afraid to fight and prone to flee from the battlefield. Some even went as far as to describe the French national flag as a white sheet signifying surrender. But if the defeatists in our own Congress succeed in raising the white flag over the US Capitol, America will once again have abandoning its allies -- and once again, terror and slaughter will follow.
Michael Benge spent 11 years in Vietnam as a Foreign Service Officer, including five years as a Prisoner of war-- 1968-73 and is a student of South East Asian Politics. He is very active in advocating for human rights and religious freedom and has written extensively on these subjects.
Ping.
North Vietnam and the VC kept their campaigns to South Korea. Muslim jihadists want to take over the world.
fyi
North Vietnam and the VC were proxies for the Soviet Union, which also wanted to take over the world. Shortly after the U.S. abandoned its allies in South Vietnam, the Soviets added a dozen or so more countries to their sphere of control. That trend ended in 1983 when Reagan reversed the communist takeover of Grenada.
Congress’ approval rating in handling the war is a mere 4 (four) percent. No wonder there is a white flag hanging over Congress
Thanks for the ping!
BTTT
I guess the conflict in Burma is part of what we were fighting to prevent during Vietnam.
free dixie,sw
BTTT
Thanks for the ping IT
Good article
Thanks for the ping. It was a good read. I certainly agree with the writer as it relates to the regional conflict and aftermath in Southeast Asia. As it applies to Iraq and our need to see this conflict through, I also agree. We cannot allow a Vietnam type failure to occur here. It would be terrible for Iraq, the region and the world at large, including us.
Where I do have some problems, is where he seems to suggest we take in more refugees. I recognize there are serious problems in other parts of the world. I realize some of those folks were our allies. What I also realize is what takes place when hundreds of thousands of these people enter our nation.
Humans being what they are, they like to be with others like themselves. And when refugees enter the U.S. they generally focus on a few locations, and concentrate their numbers in those locations.
I live in a community of about 200,000 residents. From 1980 through 2000, my community became the new home to around 130,000 refugees. I don’t know if our government gave them the money, or if they came with the money, all I know is that they started buying up property in my home town. This became more widespread increasing to the point that my home town is now about 65% the home of people born in one location in another part of the world, who came here as adults. That doesn’t even incluede those who live her from south of the border or from other parts of the world.
I would be very surprised of even 25% of the people living in my home town, are native born.
Many of these people are great people. No matter how great they are, they bring in their old customs, their old language, their old baggage, and we have to deal with it.
Let me tell you about the charming aspects of bringing in people from other nations. When is the last time you walked out to your trash cans to throw away trash, and found a dead cat that had been cooked? Folks, please give this some thought. It may be a casual subject to you, but when your kids have to deal with it, I guarantee you it won’t be so casual.
I’ve seen the ravaging effects of immigration and refugee relocation on my area. I would urge folks not to go down this road. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone else.
Thank you for posting this. Mike Benge knows precisely what he is talking about.
Now wasn't the ultimate goal to defeat US by communizing the masses of the world. Given the attempt by liberals to make the war against terrorists their symbolic Vietnam, are we still dealing with the same leopard and bear?
Sounds familiar. According to one of the documents dumped from Iraq, Russians told Saddam in private that California was already Mexican.
California is not alone, that illegal invasion has impacted the whole of the US.
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