Saturday, January 29, 2005
WHY DID AMERICA LOSE THE VIETNAM WAR?
ASIDE FROM THE OBVIOUS ANSWER THAT IT WAS JOHN KERRY'S FAULT ...
"... the Americans came to Vietnam without knowing anything about Vietnamese history, tradition, beliefs, and systems. They never tried to understand how the French lost the war."
"Our ancestors would not allow the Americans or any foreigners to win. The French, the Chinese, the Japanese, and then the Americans all thought they could win. What could the Americans do differently? Drop a nuclear bomb abd kill all the Vietnamese? But the Americans got tired because they fought without a cause. Do you know why they were really in Vietnam? Most of the Vietnamese believed it wasn't to win the war. The U.S. was in Vietnam to demonstrate the effectiveness of its latest weapons as a warning to the Russians and for economic reasons. Fifteen million tons of bombs and ammunition dropped on Vietnam created a lot of jobs for the people in the business of war."
"GIs beat fathers in front of their children. It was much easier to take a beating in a torture camp than to have their pride and inner feeling shamed. There was no way the villagers could express to the American GIs their feelings, their anger, and their hurt. They couldn't even cry. How could these villagers watch their wives raped in front of them, their husbands tortured, and their children killed or wounded? They had to deal with that day in and day out for many years. Some GIs were nice to the villagers and children, but most were racist, They hated us, not only because we were their enemy but also because we were different in color and size. Their insults and foul language were often directed as us as a race, not as an enemy."
Le Ly Hayslip, Vietnamese author of When Heaven and Earth Changed Places.
As a fifteen-year-old girl in South Vietnam, Le Ly Hayslip was a sentinel for the Viet Cong.
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"... the Americans came to Vietnam without knowing anything about Vietnamese history, tradition, beliefs, and systems. They never tried to understand how the French lost the war."
"Our ancestors would not allow the Americans or any foreigners to win. The French, the Chinese, the Japanese, and then the Americans all thought they could win. What could the Americans do differently? Drop a nuclear bomb abd kill all the Vietnamese? But the Americans got tired because they fought without a cause. Do you know why they were really in Vietnam? Most of the Vietnamese believed it wasn't to win the war. The U.S. was in Vietnam to demonstrate the effectiveness of its latest weapons as a warning to the Russians and for economic reasons. Fifteen million tons of bombs and ammunition dropped on Vietnam created a lot of jobs for the people in the business of war."
"GIs beat fathers in front of their children. It was much easier to take a beating in a torture camp than to have their pride and inner feeling shamed. There was no way the villagers could express to the American GIs their feelings, their anger, and their hurt. They couldn't even cry. How could these villagers watch their wives raped in front of them, their husbands tortured, and their children killed or wounded? They had to deal with that day in and day out for many years. Some GIs were nice to the villagers and children, but most were racist, They hated us, not only because we were their enemy but also because we were different in color and size. Their insults and foul language were often directed as us as a race, not as an enemy."
Le Ly Hayslip, Vietnamese author of When Heaven and Earth Changed Places.
As a fifteen-year-old girl in South Vietnam, Le Ly Hayslip was a sentinel for the Viet Cong.
Friday, January 28, 2005
TOM HAYDEN, GREAT AMERICAN
UNLESS YOUR DEFINITION OF "AMERICAN" IS SO SMALL THAT IT ONLY ENCOMPASSES RADICAL CONSERVATIVES AND THEIR RUINOUS BELIEFS
"They are on the defensive, they and their authority are being questioned and exposed by more people every day. How indeed can these characters explain themselves? They obviously cannot tell the truth about their intentions. What would they say? That blacks must suffer longer because whites are a superior race? That the Vietnamese should be slaughtered because the United States must control Asia? That rotten education should be perpetuated because the power structure needs a class of robots at its disposal? This power structure is bankrupt. Having no solutions to the pressing economic and social needs of people, they must think of an excuse."
Tom Hayden, "Rebellion and Repression," 1969
And for the record, MMC thinks Barbara Boxer is a great American as well.
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"They are on the defensive, they and their authority are being questioned and exposed by more people every day. How indeed can these characters explain themselves? They obviously cannot tell the truth about their intentions. What would they say? That blacks must suffer longer because whites are a superior race? That the Vietnamese should be slaughtered because the United States must control Asia? That rotten education should be perpetuated because the power structure needs a class of robots at its disposal? This power structure is bankrupt. Having no solutions to the pressing economic and social needs of people, they must think of an excuse."
Tom Hayden, "Rebellion and Repression," 1969
And for the record, MMC thinks Barbara Boxer is a great American as well.
