[Dr. Frank fan]

It shouldn't have been our job to impose freedom on them. They wanted free of colonialism and they kicked the French out.

They also wanted to be free of the communists. That's why they didn't stay in the north, you see.

Of course you can ignore that by pretending that when communists slaughter dissidents and commit terror upon a population, and then take a vote, then the result means something. If you want, you can pretend all that.

But why would you want to?

[breakem]

I'm not pretending anything. When the CIA or state said the countrywide vote would go to Ho we decided we couldn't let that happen.

We took control of half of a little country because we believed in the dominos. I was there and heard the briefing. Some in DOD disagreed, but state won out.

We tried to take over a country that had showed it would not stop fighting outside powers because we thought USSR would get a foothold. We paid the price and destablized them and us. Idealistic, stupid and misguided.