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From: mjk@tty3b.UUCP (Mike Kelly)
Newsgroups: net.politics,net.misc
Subject: Re: Communist Attrocities in Vietnam
Message-ID: <378@tty3b.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 11-Jun-84 18:04:43 EDT
Article-I.D.: tty3b.378
Posted: Mon Jun 11 18:04:43 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 12-Jun-84 01:30:12 EDT
References: <1008@ihuxm.UUCP> <671@ut-ngp.UUCP>, <325@ihuxu.UUCP>, <973@ihuxq.UUCP>, <378@teldata.UUCP>
Organization: Teletype Corp., Skokie, Ill
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>
>From: tac@teldata.UUCP ()
>
>  As a question that sticks in my mind, for any of those out there who might
>have an answer, try this:
>
>     If what the US did in Vietnam was so bad, why are there
>     so many Vietnamese boat people today?

Because "we" left Vietnam in such a bad state and have steadfastly refused
to do anything to change that, treaty obligations be damned.
Not only is the U.S. government content in not helping Vietnam,
but it has gone out of its way to make life very difficult for the new
government.  Imagine coming to power in a country devasted by twenty-five
years of war, with thousands of maimed and extremely ill people, huge sectors
of land ruined with defoliants and bomb craters, the national treasury bankrupt -
and have the most powerful nation in the world as your number one international
enemy.  That's the situation Vietnam faced in 1973.

The boat people are also a result of rather draconian "re-education" camps
established by the Vietnamese government (which are soon to be closed, by
the way.)  Certainly Vietnam deserves criticism for human rights violations.
But the U.S. government tends to take a very biased view of human rights,
as everyone probably knows.  In any event, there's always the question of
how to deal with human rights violations.  Personally, I think you give needed
economic aid and use the resulting leverage to argue for changes.  I don't
believe in military aid except under the most drastic circumstances (i.e. a
foreign attack on the territory of a nation.)

Mike Kelly