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From: ken@ihuxq.UUCP (ken perlow)
Newsgroups: net.politics,net.misc
Subject: Re: Communist Attrocities in Vietnam
Message-ID: <1007@ihuxq.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 16-Jun-84 02:55:10 EDT
Article-I.D.: ihuxq.1007
Posted: Sat Jun 16 02:55:10 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 22-Jun-84 03:23:11 EDT
References: <973@ihuxq.UUCP>  <272@cepu.UUCP> <994@ihuxq.UUCP>, <279@cepu.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL
Lines: 54

--
[>> > == my stuff; >> == Steve Woods's reply]

>> >How soon we forget--unless you're too young to remember.  See, back in
>> >'54 the French lost the Battle of Dien Bien Phu to the Viet Minh...

>> I'm more than old enough to remember, I served 2 tours in Vietnam, as a
>> rifleman in the Marines...

>> >But dream on if you wish, Steve.  If you're young enough, you might be
>> >lucky enough to be cannon fodder for America's next grand
>> >experiment at being cops of the world.  I'm too old to be drafted now,
>> >but I'll march again like I did then to get you home in one piece.

>> I'm rather too old now, being an infantryman is for younger, nimbler
>> folks than I.  BUT I'd much, much rather that I go and fight again
>> (old and fat as I am) elsewhere that to have my children or
>> grandchildren have to fight
>> in the streets of Los Angeles because we missed a clean shot at stopping
>> someone early on.  Remember what happened when Germany marched into
>> Austria, if France/GB had shown some gumption and called Hitlers bluff
>> (and bluff it was) he would have marched right back out again.  I don't
>> forget the lessons of history, tyranny must be met and fought at every
>> step along the way.  If that means that we must use lesser tyrants to
>> fight the greater, then so be it.  At some point in time the lesser
>> tyrants will be the next target.
>> -- 
>> Stephen C. Woods

Steve Woods mentioned that the government of South Vietnam seemed
to be popular, and that my allusions to starvation were ridiculous.
My picture of the corrupt and totalitarian regime in South Vietnam,
along with really abject squalor, came from friends who were over
there.  But then, the only thing they were fighting for was to save
their asses.  I guess there's a difference of perspective.

Ah, the "domino theory".  For you young 'uns, that's the notion that
if we don't fight 'em there (wherever "there" is), next thing you
know, they'll be at the Golden Gate, and good ol' Pleasantville, USA
will get overrun, and renamed "Stalinville", and the cute kid with
the lemonade stand will be able to sell only one kind--PINK!

Well, I don't buy it (the theory or the lemonade).  I do know about
Hitler, though.  When I told my draft board I thought I would have
fought in WW II, they denied me a CO.  But that's another story.
Anyway, I disagree with Steve on the correct answers to the lessons
of history, but the man has certainly paid his tuition.
-- 
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JE MAINTIENDRAI   ***** *****
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