by ubercynicmeister » Tue 24 Jan 2006, 19:22:46
LOL, as stated above, the US was in the 1940's, 50's & 60's the "Saudi Arabia to the World".
The Vietnam War actually occurred because the Vichy Government was told (by Adolf Hitler) to allow the Japanese to occupy Vietnam, then a French Colony. One of the main resistance fighters against Japanese occupation (the French were useless) - and heavily supplied by the CIA with arms & training - was one Uncle Ho Chi Minh, who wrote letters to the US president during the whole of the 1940's, trying to become a US ally. This was partly because Uncle Ho could see how the "war" in China was going to turn out - and he knew he'd need a big ally against China if push came to shove, and partly because he really admired the US Consitution.
In 1942, the Allies announced that any persons in the now-occupied colonies (ie: Vietnam) who rose up against the occupiers would get their freedom (ie: de-colonisation) if the Allies won the war. Uncle Ho took 'em at their word, and got hold of vast quantities of US arms and training to stage one of the most successful guerilla campaigns against the Japanese fought anywhere in Asia.
However, once the war ended, the French wanted the previous colonies back, and promptly forgot the 1942 promise. The escalation got worse & worse when a "peace agreement" was reached, which the French in Vietnam promptly broke, and they siezed the South of the country, presumably in a mighty huff. Dien Bein Phu (etc etc) followed, and given how easily the French had been beaten by the Germans, and how easily the Vietnamese had fought off the Japs, it's a wonder why they were so damn CLUELESS about how easy (or difficult) it would be to persuade Uncle Ho to give up his ideas of independance.
Once the French got thumped, the US couldn't give Uncle Ho the recognition he wanted, because the French were needed to keep Europe (and NATO) together, so the US had to declare that Uncle Ho was a dreadful Communist (he wasn't, then) and promptly they decided to get involved. On the FRENCH side.
Now if they'd have found a way to keep the French happy while allowing Uncle Ho to have what he wanted, the US would have had Vietnam (the whole of it) as their ally. No Vietnam War. Once again, the CIA failed to transmit the "intellegence" that Uncle Ho was really wanting to be on the US' side. This was about the same time as they failed to predict the building of the Berlin Wall, about the same time as they failed to predict various small wars right the way around the world, just like they failed to predict the collapse of the Berlin Wall, just like they failed to predict the collapse of the Soviet Union (gee, I thought that wuz what they wuz workin' towards), they failed to predict the attacks of Sept 11, 2001, (etc etc).
The CIA must rank as the world's greatest flop as an "intellegence" service.
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*Get up early;
*Work Hard;
*Strike Oil"
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