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Human Events (07/27/2010)
Why Vietnam Truth Matters
By Phillip Jennings
"....Okay, for the record one more time—There was South Vietnam (a struggling democracy) and North Vietnam (a brutal communist government). We were allies with the South as they fought off the North trying to take them over. We beat the North in 1973. They signed a Peace Treaty. America came home. The communists launched a new attack and the U.S. Democrat controlled Congress abrogated the treaty and our obligations. North Vietnam overran South Vietnam so it became ONE communist, brutally ruled country to the death and miserable detriment of hundreds of thousands of our former allies.
....I heard Dr. David Kilcullen, current leading guru on counterinsurgency and former advisor to Generals Patraeus and McChrystal, speak at the World Affairs Council last Thursday evening. One point he made should resonate with all those who are NOT ignorant of the facts of the Vietnam War. And it should give us pause. Kilcullen said that the role of the U.S. military in Afghanistan is to prepare the U.S. for a negotiated settlement by putting us in the best possible position vis a vis our enemies there. We should remember that is exactly what the U.S. military gave us in Vietnam when we forced the North Vietnamese to the peace table. The military and Nixon had beaten the communists thoroughly on the battlefield and psychologically by bombing around Hanoi at will. The U.S. media and liberal congress then did their best to obviate completely that advantage gained with so much blood and tears by constantly undermining Nixon and Kissinger, passing resolutions cutting off military alternatives, and demanding settlement at any cost.
We cannot allow this to happen in Afghanistan.
Phil Jennings is the author to the Politically Incorrect Guide to the Vietnam War. Phillip Jennings served in Vietnam with the United States Marine Corps, flying helicopters, and in Laos as a pilot for Air America...”
(Air America was a known front for CIA covert operations - Bruce)
My response:
I recently read this article called "Why Vietnam Truth Matters", which I believe seriously distorts the real history of Viet Nam, and the true nature of the American War in Indochina.
Perhaps this is a consequence of the brainwashing the author received during his time with the US military ravaging Indochina, but other soldiers have been able to overcome that and find a more empowering enlightenment - obviously not Phillip Jennings.
What Phillip Jennings writes could misinform others and become part of the popular myth-making by militarists, so for the benefit of all this important history needs to be properly understood.
Actually, to be honest I believe he is a war criminal for what he did in Indochina, so he is presumably trying to justify the unjustifiable to save himself. That's not how to make amends for past crimes. Instead, he should follow the example of other military people who now work passionately for peace and overcoming the tragic consequences of past wars. I respect those vets immensely, but not the war mongers!
When did the American War against Viet Nam really begin?
Not in 1965 when 3,200 Marines landed at Danang – about 20,000 US military personnel were already in south Viet Nam by then, engaged in combat without Congressional approval, and facing imminent defeat. Not in 1954 when the French War officially ended with their surrender to the Viet Minh at Dien Bien Phu – the US had already been there for years, funding the French war up to 80%, and preventing peace talks. Not even in 1950 when the US officially began large-scale shipments of military equipment (tanks, transport planes, etc.) to the French and their puppet government in Viet Nam.
Actually, it began in 1945 – as a disgraceful double act of betrayal!
During World War 2, the US and Ho Chi Minh were close allies in the war against Japan. Yet, in August 1945 the US government secretly agreed to betray their Vietnamese allies, and militarily assist the French to reclaim their colonial power in Indochina instead. Then in September-October 1945, the Pentagon (and British) commandeered ships and planes to transport 13,000 French troops into Saigon, thus even betraying their own WW2 soldiers by delaying their return home to their families. The enlisted crews on these US troopships were outraged, and signed a petition to the Congress and the President denouncing these “imperialist policies” and the use of American ships “to subjugate the native population” of Viet Nam.
So began the American War in Viet Nam, and the public opposition to it, in 1945!
Therefore, the basic truth is that from the very start the American War against Indochina was a criminal, imperialist enterprise to control resources, which started with US support for the return of the hated French colonialists in 1945, and continued with supporting various corrupt Vietnamese military dictators in the south. (Official US government statements about access to various minerals, etc. were very blatant back in 1953!)
So, the ‘Vietnam War’ never had anything to do with "freedom and democracy" for the Vietnamese people! It was not a “noble cause” to resist “Aggression from the North”! It didn’t matter that ‘South Vietnam’ was not a democracy, and engaged in US-sponsored systematic torture and human rights abuses - just as long as they were “anti-communist”. Tyrants are fine, just as long as they remain ‘our’ tyrants!
Imperialist wars are never about the rights or interests of the ordinary people anywhere. They are always only about controlling strategic resources and making profits for the super-rich ruling class. Therefore, they are always sold to the public by lies and myths, hyping up false fears and cultural misunderstandings, and often by well-planned ‘false flag’ operations and economic or other provocations. The corporate-owned mass media plays a vital role in the selling of such improper wars.
All that was true in the case of Indochina, just as it is true today in Iraq (lies for oil, the petro-dollar, military bases, regime change, etc.) and Afghanistan (lies about 9/11 and "terrorists" for oil & gas pipelines, military bases, minerals, etc.) If Iran is attacked, it will be all about protecting Israel, controlling oil, minerals, strategic interests, corporate profits, regime change, etc. - nothing to do with an alleged nuclear weapons programme, for which no evidence exists, or the interests and welfare of the people of Iran.
Have we forgotten already the deliberate lies about "Weapons of Mass Destruction" in Iraq?!
Or, the fabricated “Tonkin Gulf attacks” and other US ‘psyops’ and false propaganda in Viet Nam?
For Phillip Jennings to write this way about Viet Nam he has to completely ignore the huge body of reputable history books on the subject, the revelations of deliberate lying exposed by the leaking of the ‘top secret’ official US government's "Pentagon Papers", and the US military hero Major-General Smedley Butler, who famously wrote all about why "War is a Racket" way back in 1935.
Phillip Jennings should also take the time to read the 1954 Geneva Agreement, and then he would know that it did not create two countries called 'North Vietnam' and 'South Vietnam'. There was only one country, temporarily divided in 1954 at the end of the French war, with two governments each claiming legitimacy over the whole country, from the Chinese border in the north to the southern tip of Mekong Delta.
The Geneva Agreement specifically stated that the division into two zones was "a temporary military demarcation line, not a territorial boundary", and it would dissolve after nationwide democratic elections in 1956, supervised by Canada, Poland and India.
The Democratic Republic of Viet Nam government headed by popular president Ho Chi Minh (northern zone) gained political legitimacy by massive popular support of the people, who claimed power throughout the whole country in the largely-peaceful August Revolution, and proudly declared national independence on September 2, 1945. At the time, Ho Chi Minh seriously wanted the friendship with the USA to continue.
Also, this government had political legitimacy bestowed on it by the last king, Bao Dai. On August 30, 1945, he formally handed over power, the royal sword and gold seal to the new republican government, declared he was now happier to be a private citizen in a free country rather than the king of an enslaved one, ended the feudal monarchy, and even served for a short time as an advisor to President Ho Chi Minh.
The other government (southern zone) was the State of Vietnam, established in 1949 by the French to oppose Ho Chi Minh, and headed by the ex-king Bao Dai who allowed himself to be used once again by the French as their puppet ruler. This government later had a name change to the Republic of Vietnam (commonly known as ‘South Vietnam’), and was headed by President Diem, an unpopular Vietnamese catholic from the US, who replaced Bao Dai. The minority of Vietnamese who had previously supported and benefited from the now-defeated French colonialists then supported this US-backed government.
So, who was expected to win the 1956 national democratic election?!
Even US President Eisenhower later wrote in his memoirs that if the election had been held at least 80% of the population would have voted for Ho Chi Minh. So the ‘southern’ side, with full US government backing, refused to hold the democratic nationwide elections. Not only that, but they even refused to begin the consultative process of setting up the internationally-supervised elections!
So, for the vast majority of the Vietnamese people, the victory that they should have won peacefully in the ballot box had to be won on the bloody battlefield instead, at a terrible cost in lives and property, the natural environment, and social and family infrastructure.
Present and future generations still suffer from the horrible consequences of that criminal war, including from Agent Orange and other US chemical warfare toxins, an estimated 800,000 tonnes of unexploded bombs and mines still killing and maiming people today, and the “wandering souls” of about 300,000 Vietnamese soldiers still Missing-in-Action and their shattered families who mourn them still.
But, as Ho Chi Minh famously said: "Nothing is more precious than independence and freedom."
Put yourself in their position, and can anyone argue against that?!
Remarkably, the Vietnamese won the war that was forced upon them, despite arguments from Philip Jennings to the contrary.
This Vietnamese victory can be demonstrated by simply looking at the terms of the 1973 Paris Peace Agreement. It was essentially exactly the same as an agreement proposed by the Vietnamese on October 8, 1972, and agreed to by Nixon and Kissinger without even consulting their puppets in Saigon.
When Saigon found out they were furious, because the agreement involved the withdrawal of all foreign troops (i.e. the US and their allies), but northern People's Army forces supporting the southern Provisional Revolutionary Government would remain where they were in the south. This was perfectly reasonable, as the Geneva Agreement had acknowledged the territorial integrity of one Viet Nam, so they could hardly be "foreign troops" invading their own country!
During 12 days and nights of Christmas 1972, the US Air Force therefore launched the massive, brutal bombing of Hanoi and other cities and places in the north to try to force concessions, including the withdrawal of northern soldiers from the south. It failed.
The US Air Force was shocked when 81 planes were shot down, including 34 of their high-flying B52 bombers - they did not expect that! Public protest, and the loss of so many US planes and top pilots, forced an end to the bombing. In nearly 10 years of aerial bombing, the Vietnamese destroyed over 4000 US planes. The Pentagon still does not want to publicly admit to this devastating defeat for the US Air Force!
So, on January 27, 1973, the US signed the Paris Peace Agreement, under which northern troops were allowed to remain in the south! There were no more concessions. Vietnamese celebrate this victory every year as the “Dien Bien Phu of the Air".
This name reminds us of the historic Vietnamese military victory over the French at Dien Bien Phu in northern Viet Nam in 1954. Ironically, by 1954 the US taxpayers were paying 80% of the French colonialist war costs! How many even know this today?
The Paris Peace Agreement was a turning point, but not the end of the war. US military and economic support for Saigon continued, with many US troops ‘rebranded’ and remaining as “advisors” (just as in Iraq today!), and there were immediate violations from the desperate Saigon side. However, the historic ‘Ho Chi Minh Campaign’ was ultimately successful, and Saigon unconditionally surrendered on April 30, 1975.
National reunification was finally achieved, but it could have been won peacefully at the ballot box in 1956, if the US government had not made the wrong choice in 1945!
Instead of writers like Philip Jennings writing a distortion of history to justify the unjustifiable, they would do better to use their experience and talents to write against the criminal folly of war, and work to prevent the insanity of wars in the future.
The military people to respect are those who follow in the tradition of military heroes like US Major-General Smedley Butler who finally understood that he was nothing more than "a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism....a muscle-man for Wall Street".
Today’s real military heroes are those who stand up, become whistle-blowers against illegal wars and the lies used to sell them, go AWOL from criminal wars such as Iraq and Afghanistan, publish the truth and sabotage the imperialist war machine from within. Resistance within the military is growing - all power to it!
There are many reasons ‘Why Vietnam Truth Matters’, one of them being to correctly learn from that history in order to prevent future tragedies. Yes indeed, "War is a Racket", and falsely promoting it as something noble does not serve humanity well.
Bruce McPhie
September 12, 2010
This is a brief response to some of the claims made. More information can be found on my blog:
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Travel with Exotissimo Travel - Showing travelers Asia since 1993
In Saigon, former Swannies president/player and coach, Scotty Stacey makes a triumphant return - specifically to attend the Swannies AFL Grand Final Party. In the evening, Daniel Hogarth, a former Swannies player, and his premiership-winning Tarrawingee Bulldogs will arrive in Saigon from Melbourne (yes, just after the Grand Final has finished). These guys are part of the mounting evidence that seems to prove that, while you can leave Vietnam, you can't leave the Club.
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