Ed Wallis
“Try keeping the Communist North away from the free South. Try America any number of times trying to do the right thing.
The following is a timetable of the Vietnam War development:
http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1945.html
A few lines:
July 21, 1954 – The Geneva Accords divide Vietnam in half at the 17th parallel, with Ho Chi Minh’s Communists ceded the North, while Bao Dai’s regime is granted the South. The accords also provide for elections to be held in all of Vietnam within two years to reunify the country. The U.S. (one of the Jeneva Accords signitaries) opposes the unifying elections, fearing a likely victory by Ho Chi Minh.
note: Viet Minh, the heroes of the anti-colonial war were very popular, and could win fair and democratic elections. (me)
October 26, 1955 – The Republic of South Vietnam is proclaimed with Diem as its first president. In America, President Eisenhower pledges his support for the new government and offers military aid.
Diem assigns most high level government positions to close friends and family members including his younger brother Ngo Dinh Nhu who will be his chief advisor. Diem’s style of leadership, aloof and autocratic, will create future political problems for him despite the best efforts of his American advisors to popularize him via American-style political rallies and tours of the countryside.
President Diem rewards his Catholic supporters by giving them land seized from Buddhist peasants, arousing their anger and eroding his support among them. Diem also allows big land owners to retain their holdings, disappointing peasants hoping for land reform.
January 1956 – Diem launches a brutal crackdown against Viet Minh suspects in the countryside. Those arrested are denied counsel and hauled before “security committees” with many suspects tortured or executed under the guise of ‘shot while attempting escape.’
May 8-18 – Diem pays a state visit to Washington where President Eisenhower labels him the “miracle man” of Asia and reaffirms U.S. commitment. “The cost of defending freedom, of defending America, must be paid in many forms and in many places…military as well as economic help is currently needed in Vietnam,” Eisenhower states.
Diem’s government, however, with its main focus on security, spends little on schools, medical care or other badly needed social services in the countryside. Communist guerrillas and propagandists in the countryside capitalize on this by making simple promises of land reform and a better standard of living to gain popular support among peasants.
July 1956 – The deadline passes for the unifying elections set by the Geneva Conference. Diem, backed by the U.S., had refused to participate.
January 1957 – The Soviet Union proposes permanent division of Vietnam into North and South, with the two nations admitted separately to the United Nations. The U.S. rejects the proposal, unwilling to recognize Communist North Vietnam.
And you call this “free South” and the war- “American support for democracy”?
And how about this:
August 3, 1964 – The Maddox, joined by a second destroyer U.S.S. C. Turner Joy begin a series of vigorous zigzags in the Gulf of Tonkin sailing to within eight miles of North Vietnam’s coast, while at the same time, South Vietnamese commandos in speed boats harass North Vietnamese defenses along the coastline. By nightfall, thunderstorms roll in, affecting the accuracy of electronic instruments on the destroyers. Crew members reading their instruments believe they have come under torpedo attack from North Vietnamese patrol boats. Both destroyers open fire on numerous apparent targets but there are no actual sightings of any attacking boats.
August 4, 1964 – Although immediate doubts arise concerning the validity of the second attack, the Joint Chiefs of Staff strongly recommend a retaliatory bombing raid against North Vietnam.
Press reports in America greatly embellish the second attack with spectacular eyewitness accounts although no journalists had been on board the destroyers.
???
Is not this funny?
Well, if the USA, you think, was so concerned about democracy and freedom why did she go that far-10 000 miles away, why did not she tried to bring the freedom to the own “backyard”- Latin America, first? Let see, to François Duvalier’s Haiti for example?
