Common Denominators, Colonialization, Politics and the Military

There's a guy in New York State, or somewhere around D.C., and I recall reading some comments he made about reports surrounding the Vietnam War. The one that stuck with me the most focused on:  "Facts vs the Opinions given by the main stream media". I have to give him credit for these thoughts. Thanks to Bob Van Metter. With that in mind and to help summarize these last posts regarding WHO lost the war, I have the following points to make.

First of all, let's do a quick review of this idea about Colonies and the madness that surrounds the idea of Colonization. The Spanish lost theirs, the British lost theirs and so did the French. If one can classify Hitler as someone who had ideas of Colonization, it's clear that he lost his and so did the Japanese in 1945.

I realize that there's a lot of difference between the way the French, Spanish and British did theirs and the methods that Hitler and Tojo used to accomplish theirs but the end result was pretty much the same. All of them failed.

Now, as it relates to facts instead of opinions, let us say that the USA has never been a Country that had Colonization as part of their agenda. We bought our way through the Louisiana Purchase and pretty much did the same thing with Mexico when we paid both of those Countries to settle territorial issues that came with the thoughts of "undoing" foreign Colonial claims in America.

As I recall the details, I think 15 million dollars was the price for each of those deals. Having said that, let me simply say that the borders of the United States were established by a land purchase that specifically identified where the boundaries were.

Now onto the scene comes another issue. I have to give credit to some little 7th grade boy from Vivian, Louisiana who was asked if he knew what the Vietnam War was about. He answered that question with these words: "It was when the Communist North wanted the Capitalist South". I have to say that this is pretty cool for a 7th grader but I must also say that it is only part of the story.

If you asked Ho Chi Minh, Ho would say that they, the Vietnamese, had been fighting for independence for 1,000 years. I think that it's pretty clear that Ho was referring to the Chinese, the Japanese and the French but in any event, his idea was ONE Vietnam, not two.

Now onto the scene comes the United States. The main concern, at the beginning, was to prevent the spread of communism and allowing missile launching sites to be placed on the coast of the South China Sea. That's probably not the only reason but that's one of the reasons given in reports I've read of how all of it got started in the first place.

Having made these statements let me say that there can not be any doubt that it all started with the historically failed policies of Colonialism. Whether it was the Chinese, the French or the Japanese, really makes no difference. It was Vietnamese land and none of the above had any business being there. That's my opinion but there sure are a lot of facts that surround that claim.

Now comes the 93rd Congress. As I recall my studies of all this, I believe that it was this particular group that decided to veto Nixon's efforts to guarantee support to the South Vietnamese if the North Vietnamese broke the agreements in the Paris Peace Accords.

Now, with regard to Bob's wishes to see facts as facts and opinions as opinions, let me say that the way I see it, is as follows. First and foremost, the military did NOT lose the war. Second to that, let me say that the 93rd Congress made it impossible for the military to insure that the Paris Peace Accords were followed by both sides. Third and most importantly, when the North Vietnamese found out about the War Powers Act, they knew that there was nothing that could stop them.

In a nutshell, those are the facts. I conclude that the 93rd Congress was the single most influential body that allowed the North Vietnamese to take over South.

I'll stop now but I'm only finished with the fault part of this dissertation. There's a huge consequence on the horizon but I wanted to wait for a comment or two before I begin to connect those dots. Comments appreciated. TButler94@hotmail.com