This, of course, makes him a good person. Same goes for Stalin, I s'pose.
We lied to keep the fight going and kill even more of them and us.
If only. If only we'd kept that fight going, and then won it decisively, in the process giving our troops the proper support. Then both we and they would have been better off.
Instead we hamstrung our own troops, and finally pulled out and gave the murderers a blank check.
We wouldn't let them be, because in all liklihood their people would have voted communist on their own,
Bull. The people of South Vietnam had already voted, with their feet, when the country was partitioned/invented in the first place. Had they wanted to live under communist rule, they could have - by going to the country which was placed under the dictatorship of Ho Chih Minh by Westerners. But in point of fact, they overwhelmingly chose to go south by a factor of 10-to-1.
Your asinine assertion that the South Vietnamese "would have voted communist" can only be true if you take into account the following: terrorist raids from the North against the South, murders of those who disagreed with communism, and a general fear inflicted on the population by the communist. Sure, under those conditions, maybe Minh could've gotten a 99.6% vote out of the South. Kinda like how the Iraqis are solidly behind Saddam right now, eh?
something they had a right to do
It is nonsensical to speak of the "rights" of South Vietnamese people if you ignore the terror and mass murder which was inflicted on them at the same time. Scenario: communists wipe out 90% of the males of a village, burn things, kill anyone who contributes to prosperity, make it known that a vote against the communists makes one an "enemy of the people" and fodder for slaughter. Then the shaking, quaking, terrorized, traumatized remaining peasants go up to the ballot with one name written on it (Minh) and you smile proudly, with glee declaring "they are exercising their rights! They have a right to vote for the communists you see. Isn't it beautiful?"
Who are you, Jimmy Carter?
We didn't give it our best shot and got even more of our folks killed. [...] And the commies took over anyway.
Exactly. Which is why we should have given it our best shot, instead. I'm glad we agree.