The Vietnam War: A conversation with Ken Burns and Lynn Novick

...The "East v West" paranoia is exploited by the MIC for profit, and also by the leaders inside the proxy states to get money from Washington..."You must help us defeat communism, ignore the drug dealing and arms trafficking I do with the weapons you give us....".....

False Patriots shilling for Arms Merchants.

If you have an MIC Hammer, all the world is a nail, for profit.

There were two sorts of wars in the 20th century world:

1. The "East v West" war where morons cannot see the struggle through anything other than a shallow Capitalism v Communism lens. No matter what, the possibility of ceding "strategic" ground to the other side must be stopped, at the cost of millions of lives dying in the most savage way possible.

The "East v West" paranoia is exploited by the MIC for profit, and also by the leaders inside the proxy states to get money from Washington..."You must help us defeat communism, ignore the drug dealing, extortion rackets and arms trafficking I do with the weapons you give us...that's just my side hustle..."

Throw in a little (or a lot) racism, mix and stirred by opportunists.

2. The "North v South" wars which are really wars of National Liberation from Colonial Powers. These are wars of legitimacy and agency for a people to resist their slavers.

Vietnam was such a war of National Liberation, but internal factions exploited the E v W duality for their own ends, with predictable tragic results. Uncle Ho for military aid, Diem for the same. Both cost millions of lives.

Only Ghandhi had the right means to do it. Peaceful resistance and time. No colonial power can resist tens of millions of people in a foreign land forever.

Now we fight in Iraq for Oil. Yes, ISIS is fighting for Oil, despite their own propaganda and ours.

Now we fight in Afghanistan for Minerals (est $2-3 Trillion in Strategic Metals in the ground there). While the Afghans fight a war of National Liberation.

Guess who will win?

Hint: A couple of hundred thousands troops cannot defeat 35 Million Afghans regardless of firepower. All they have to do is keep having babies and wait.

A couple of hundred thousand troops cannot defeat 35 Million Afghans regardless of firepower.

tuolumne_tradster:
The Khmer Rouge, previously a marginalized guerrilla group, propagandized the bombing campaign to great effect; by the CIA's own intelligence estimates, the US bombing campaign was a key factor in the increase in popular support for the Khmer Rouge rebels. After their victory in 1975, the Khmer Rouge oversaw a period in which another one-to-two million Cambodians died from execution, hunger and forced labour.

Kissinger relayed these orders to his military assistant, Gen. Alexander Haig: “He wants a massive bombing campaign in Cambodia. He doesn’t want to hear anything. It’s an order, it’s to be done. Anything that flies on anything that moves.”

Khmer insurgent (KI) [Khmer Rouge] cadre have begun an intensified proselyting campaign among ethnic Cambodian residents . . . in an effort to recruit young men and women for KI military organizations. They are using damage caused by B-52 strikes as the main theme of their propaganda.

In November 1975 — seven months after KR forces seized control of Phnom Penh — Henry Kissinger said to Thailand’s foreign minister that he “should tell [the KR] that we bear no hostility towards them. We would like them to be independent as a counterweight to North Vietnam.” Kissinger added that he “should also tell the Cambodians that we will be friends with them. They are murderous thugs, but we won’t let that stand in our way. We are prepared to improve relations with them.”

As the New York Times reported, “the Carter administration helped arrange continued Chinese aid” to the KR guerillas. Zbigniew Brzezinski, Jimmy Carter’s national security advisor, explained that he “encourage[d] the Chinese to support Pol Pot.”

SteveA: . . . on occasion someone will say to me, "thank you for your service". I always reply that you need not thank me, since I don't think the war was justified.

I still thank you all for your service. There are no just wars.

I have not been able to watch the series, even though its quite watchable and I tried. Not a big Ken Burns fan but that's not it. I really can't put it to words. I can't stand seeing what my country did to Vietnam. It disgusts me.

Why any American deifies JFK is utterly beyond me. What a grade a sonofabitch. May he rot in a hell of your own choosing.

DMT