TrueTexan wrote: Sun Oct 01, 2023 11:23 am
CDFingers wrote: Sun Oct 01, 2023 9:58 am
As long a military aggression benefits the few wealthy profiteers who themselves never fight, we will continue to see wars. Vietnam keeps getting brought up. Easily we can identify those companies and networks who made pots of money but neither went themselves nor sent their kids. It keeps happening while people rant at the wrong things.
CDFingers
We have seen this for decades. A great example is Kellogg Brown & Root., AKA., KBR. During the time of our southeast asian fiasco known as Vietnam War almost all major bases the US used were built by KBR. Same goes for the Iraq War and Afghanistan. Back before and during the Vietnam War Herman Brown of KBR would sit in his suite in Houston's best hotel. This is where LBJ had been meeting with him for years as a senator and later as the President. It was well known that Brown was a major contributor to LBJ's campaign and the Democratic party along with being a major player in Texas politics.
Interesting side note. In 1954 the battle of Điện Biên Phủ was taking place in French Indo China AKA Vietnam. French President Charles de Gaulle asked the US government for help in relieving the French forces there. The US defense dept. had the Air force develop a plan that would have the B-36 Bombers to bomb the Viet Minh forces and allow the French to continue the war. The plan was called Operation Turkey Buzzard. My dad was part of the plan while he was stationed at Carswell AFB with the B-36s and had been briefed into the plan. All looked good to go, till LBJ speaking in the US Senate said, "Our Boys will not go and fight or get involved in a war in southeast Asia. Since he was the Senate Majority Leader and his good friend and fellow Texan, Sam Rayburn, was the speaker of the House. That killed the plans. deGaulle never forgave LBJ for that action. Had Kennedy/LBJ later followed that advice, just think how many US lives would still be with us today.
You've omitted some key facts and I disagree with your analysis. Let's start with the fact that the French had no justification for trying to take back control of Vietnam. As they had been conquered by Japan's ally, Nazi Germany, they weren't there to defend Vietnam from the Japanese invasion. No, it was the Viet Minh, with some US support, that threw out the Japanese. Ho Chi Minh has a long history of good reasons not to trust the US. As a young lawyer, he tried to get an interview with racist Woodrow Wilson at the Paris Peace Conference about self-determination but Wilson refused to have anything to do with him. Ho's three major fears were invasion by Japan (obviously), invasion by China (a concern to this very day) and the French re-establishing control of his nation. With the US unwilling to aid him, and China too close, he turned to the USSR and embraced Socialism. But he was first and foremost a Vietnamese patriot. With the anti-Communist stupidity in the USA after the War, our government was too blind to see that an independent Vietnam would be a GIANT thorn in China's side, not recognizing that monolithic Communism didn't exist. The Soviets and the PRC HATED each other, and Vietnam hated China as well.
Lives would have been saved if Ho Chih Minh had been recognized as the leader of Vietnam instead of setting up the puppet governments in the South. Vietnam was NOT Korea, and still isn't. Vietnam could have been Asia's Yugoslavia, which was a HUGE thorn in Russia's side under Tito--and we quietly worked with him.
"Even if the bee could explain to the fly why pollen is better than shit, the fly could never understand."
