Well, said. Politico's during that era and this one continue to misconstrue our intentions. When pigs want to fight, you have to be willing to get muddy.

This is just one of countless examples of why I say the American Mainstream Media is Public Enemy Number One. These hardcore Leftist journalists have done more damage to this country than any foreign invader could ever have hoped to do.

Yet it doesn't stop with the media. The entire entertainment industry pushes this propaganda as well, from Hanoi Jane 40 years ago to Michael Moore and thousands of others today.

And as if that wasn't bad enough, we've got our entire education system -- from preschool all the way up to post-graduate level university -- intentionally pumping hardcore Leftist propaganda into the minds of our kids. And for this, we get to pay billions upon billions of dollars out of our pockets annually.

Now, the radical Left is taking control of the workplace as well. Companies, in many cases as required by law, compel workers to attend spurious seminars on a range of topics, many of which SOUND plausible but turn out to be nothing more than blatant Leftist propaganda programs. We had one a couple of weeks ago that "taught" about harassment in the workplace, but it was chock full of politically correct nonsense and outright attacks on Conservative values. A vignette on gay rights included a PC woman chastising a Conservative coworker with, "while it's important for all of us to share our opinions at work, maybe it would be better of SOME of us kept our personal beliefs to ourselves." In other words, if your opinions jive with the approved Leftist talking points, then you get to talk. But if you're a Conservative, you'd better shut up or your job is on the line. Nice, huh?

The program ended with an astonishing push for Robert Fulghum's "Everything I Need to Know, I Learned in Kindergarten." I couldn't be my eyes. Here was a group of employees, most of whom were married and had kids of their own, being "reminded" of things like "flush the toilet," and "hold hands while crossing the street." I couldn't believe my eyes, that they were pushing one of the Leftist bibles -- Fulghum's book is loaded with Leftist platitudes and PC thinking -- openly right there in the workplace.

The Left will not be happy until they control everything. Including our private lives. When will we stand up to this?

Stalin famously said "It doesn't matter how many people vote, it matters who counts the votes." You can ask Al Franken about that one.

Islamism, facism, communism and socialism all have one thing in common and that is "One man, one vote, one time." No more choosing after that. Do what you are told. The State is paramount.

Recall what happened when the communists invaded the South of Vietnam in 1975 when we had all of our military forces out of the country. They broke their agreement, and then our own Congress broke the U.S. agreement with South Vietnam to intervene if the north attacked the South. The Paris Peace accords were a totally farce, and we should not have been there. I place blame squarely on LBJ, who micromanaged the war with the intent to retain some popularity here with voters, while trying weakly to discourage the communists. As expected, he achieved neither goal. Nixon should have taken Curtis Lemay's advice to LBJ--bomb Hanoi flat. We had the ability, but not the resolve. That entire fiasco has encouraged every two bit dictator to try us for the last 40 years. Quadaffi has recently begun flapping his mouth again encouraging the Palestinians. We need to take another shot at him and show the world we will not tolerate harassment from pissants.

MichaelSSEC-- political correctness has turned into speech police. Next to happen is some of us being tossed into jail for expressing opinions about politically or racially sensitive issues. It will happen here, as it has happened in Europe. Cops love to arrest people, and they need little excuse to do so.

I too share the opinion of Mr. Prager about the Vietnamese people - they are hard working, industrious and hold a unique love of life among them.

But I disagree with Mr. Prager's assessment that the whole "conflict" in Viet Nam was a ploy by the communists to devolve the country. While Ho was vilified and hated in this country as the evil dictator who would expand communism throughout SE Asia and send hords of Chinese/Asian communnists throughout the region, we should not forget the long struggle of Viet Nam to regain its' independence.

From before WW II, when the region was a French colony, to Japanese Occupation, to throwing off the French in the fifties, and then another two decades of strife to unify the country against a mis-guided and ill-conceived American foreign policy, in the end, the Vietnamese people wanted what everyone else wants. To be left alone in their own country, choose their own way of life and live in peace.

Was it necessary for a "communist" dictator to bring this fruition? Not necessarily, but the need was there and someone rose to the occassion.

Was there a bunch of useless suffering and death? No doubt. But was it caused by the Vietnamese themselves? No. It was caused by others external to the country and the people.

Now, if you ask, how do I sleep at night with the events of the SE Asian "conflict" as an American citzen, patriot, and former member of the military? I can say that we who served did so because we had chosen to support and defend . . . , and that includes following orders when necessary. If those orders are legal, but ill-conceived or for wrong purpose we must use our own systems to challenge them. And I'm all right with that.

Why shouldn't the Vietnamese people celebrate the long struggle they endured to reach what is now a vibrant and richer culture and country?

If Mr. Prager wants to see Vietnamese history rewritten then let him go there and lobby his cause.

to af1971, no you are not correct, at least not completly, the french brought the vietnamese out of the stone age and brought christianity instead of paginism.Your opinion that HO merely filled a vacume is nonsense, JFK knew we had to draw a line against a communist take over lest a murderous bloodbath spread across Asia and Central/Latin America. Ill conceived? hardley, always the right moves ? no, but it was new ground being broken and there probally was not a completly right or wrong direction, it just needed to be done with resolve and our communist loving congress made sure it was undermined.you talk like their better off under communism.

Especially annoying is the joyous claim by the Leftmedia and academia that the U.S. lost the war in Vietnam. The United States never lost a war in its history. The South Vietnamese lost that war. The U.S. had withdrawn. A withdrawal is not a loss.

To Dale,

So is it justifiable to "bring them out of the stone age with Christianity"? It was still external meddling which began their long treck. Are they living in a Christian society now? NO.

And the last line of your reply makes me think they are still living in a communist society. Evidence to the contrary, they are developing quite a capitalistic economy. Perhaps totalitarian, but not communist. There is a difference, as the people of Egypt have just demonstrated.

Almost, but not completely correct history----Ho Chi Minh actually worked for us during WWII, and had an emotional attachment to America and what it stood for. After the war, he came to us three times for support in getting the French out of his, repeat his, country. We turned him down each time because of a misplaced loyalty to the French. His last plea (1948?)was for help in achieving what we achieved from England, and he said that if we wouldn't help him, he would go to anyone who would. He turned to Vietnam's historical enemy, China, as a last resort. Mao agreed to help, but there was a price. The price was that they turn communist. Ho bit the bullet, and swallowed his pride. After driving the French out, he did base his government on the US constitution, which did not at all please Mao, who leaned on him pretty hard. Bottom line-- Had we adhered to our original principles in the first place, and told the French to give up a colony, that war probably wouldn't have happened. Having been a participant in the Southeast Asia Gunpowder Festival twice, I got to know quite a few Vietnamese. I wouldn't bet on communism long-term. P.S. Have you any idea how many North Vietnamese are Catholics?

Communisim has only killed 100 Million people; let's give it another chance!

AF1971Bob, the people of Vietnam may be living in a capitalistic economy, but it's of their own doing. Their government is still communist, complete with all the historical trappings of communism. The ink on the 1954 accords wasn't dry before Ho had his cadres releasing hate and mayhem on the farms and small villages of the South. All during the talks he had his people moving south and organizing locals to fight to "unify" their country. At the same time, more than 2 million Vietnamese living in the north packed up all they could carry and left their historical home lands, farms that had been in the families for centuries, to move south before they lost the opportunity.

For all intents and purposes, the north invaded the Sovereign country of South Vietnam, and as in Korea, only the US and a few others were around and willing to lift a finger to help them.

How ironic! During the Viet Nam War, Dennis avoided the draft while his daddy paid for him to go Brooklyn College. If he had any integrity he would have volunteered to go Viet Nam and serve in combat. Hypocrite!

I was a young man then. I fought to keep the south free as did most of the Americans that were there. I saw to much death and destruction wrought by the north I loved the country, it was beautiful, especially the central highlands, the beaches at Na Trang but I hated the Viet Cong and the NVA Regulars. 57,000 of us died trying to do something for those people that they did not want. We fought a war that our leaders had not the will to win. You meet and close with the enemy and kill them any damn way you can and all we heard was that this or that civilian was killed and we were monsters.

If we had had the will to win, we could have won. Why was there a list of targets that were sacrosanct? Why did so many of our men die. If we had used the same rules of engagement when we fought the second world war, General Lemay, MacArthur, Patton, Eisenhower and a host of other of our countries leaders would have been tried as

war criminals. You must take the enemies will to fight away, even if you have to kill them in ways that are not pretty. Dead is dead, no matter how you got that way. The civilian North Vietnanese grew food for their troops..end that by killing the farmers in any way that you can as well as factory works that were producing materials for the war. Russian ships hauling tanks, bullets, RPG's etc should have been sunk before they got to the ports, electric power plants should have been destroyed as should every building in the north as well as the people in them. You must take the enemies will to fight away. When a man is worried about his family being killed he will soon lose the desire to fight.

I personaly don't care a whit about the Vietnamese and any of the products that they currently produce for the world market. Let the communist purchase their products. I'm bitter and I'll go to my grave that way.

America is a fascinating study and provides a clear contrast for us Australians and others in the free world.

However, it is frigtening to see the world through your prism - and even more frightening to realise that you have some power left! However, if you keep pursuing your dreams and nightmares you will continue to drain your ecomomy and your power base so I guess there is some hope...

Cheers

David

"For all intents and purposes, the north invaded the Sovereign country of South Vietnam, and as in Korea, only the US and a few others were around and willing to lift a finger to help them."

Actually, according to the Pentagon Papers, South Vietnam was "essentially a creation of the United States." The U.S. refusal to recognize the '54 Peace Accords that provided for national elections led to the Vietnam War. IIRC, Ike predicted Ho Chi Minh would've garnered 80% of the vote if national elections had taken place.

As for us winning, the war devolved into one of attrition and we weren't even keeping up with the NV birth rate.

I am a Vietnamese-American. My family escaped the tyranny of communism before the fall on April 30, 1975. Ho Chi Minh is a mass murderer and the commies over there HAVE ALREADY re-written history but omitting so much form what they teach the next generation. How do I know? Many of my students now are new to American and I question them on what is being taught over there.

Though Mr. Prager's politics and mine are usually on opposite ends, I have to give him kudos for this article. Finally, someone who is stepping up to expose the truth and to say what everyone else is afraid to say.

Vietnam is a far better place today than it was when the U.S. finally abandoned our misguided military and economic quest and left behind -- for the Vietnamese to sort out for themselves -- the huge mayhem and destruction we had caused. They have not done a bad job of recovering. The Communist Party and the government do deserve some credit for adjusting to people's expectations and demands as the years of devastation and deprivation were replaced by an era of peace and rapid development, especially after the U.S. embargo was lifted. The party and the government have made mistakes and missed some opportunities, no question. They have violated some basic standards of human rights and due process, but so have we in the U.S., sad to say. Vietnam's record today is far less egregious than ours. Vietnamese citizens complain, of course, but they are mostly satisfied with the pace of reforms and they treasure -- most of all -- their hard-won peace, their freedom from foreign military and civil domination, and the stability and opportunities they are experiencing today. Vietnam has been cited in international surveys as the number ranked country in "citizen satisfaction with the direction in which the country is moving." And there's much more, regarding Ho Chi Minh's role, U.S. violation of the Geneva agreements (many times before Vietnam was even cited once), propping up an unpopular and unelected dictator in the south . . . But more urgent than rewriting history, which seems to be a fulltime passion for some, are the legacies that still remain today, and U.S. responsibilities: Agent Orange (both American and ARVN vets, and Vietnamese families and young children throughout the country, north and south) and the continuing loss of life and limb from unexploded ordnance.

Amen vapor6! If the politicians had let the generals fight the Nam war, it would have been over in less than a year. As for your enemys, kill em all and let God sort them out.

To all those who reckon "Vietnam is a far better place today", here is one of our many songs:

http://www.danchuca.org/22Kbps/CanYouAnswerMe.mp3 (dial-up)

"

Can You Answer Me?

Thanh, Van Nguyen

Forewords:

This song was written on the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s inauguration day (January 20th 1961). The two verses of this song are intended to remember two well-known Americans who were directly involved in and forever changed Vietnam to be what it is today.

Verses 1:

To remember President Kennedy, who, in his inauguration speech, said the famous words: “Don’t ask what your country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country”. In this same speech, he also proclaimed that Americans "shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty."

In 1963, President Kennedy played a vital role in the coup to overthrow then Vietnam’s first President elect Ngô Đình Diệm, who had maintained his stand of solving the conflicts between the free South and the communist North without direct involvement from the United States. President Diệm was killed in that coup. Since then, the Vietnam War changed its course tremendously with massive American troops build-up, at one time, close to 550,000 in 1969.

When I was young

Your words inspired me

I honestly believed

we had a friend.

And even now

Your words still live

But inside me

A sense of loss.

You’re not here to share with me

What has become of my country!

You did what you thought was “Right”.

And you left behind questions for me.

And nobody can answer me

Nobody answer me

I’ve never asked:

What my country can do for me?

But I don’t know:

What can I do

to take it back to me?

Verses 2:

To remember Henry Kissinger, the US Secretary of State during the Vietnam War, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 for what was supposed to be his “efforts to bring peace to Vietnam”. In fact, more than 58,000 American soldiers were killed during the war to protect the free South Vietnam, along with millions of Vietnamese. After 1973, all military support from the United States to the free South was cut off. In 1975, the communist North, with full military support from China and Russia, attacked the free South Vietnam. With no intervention from the United States (a direct conflict with what President Kennedy proclaimed in his inauguration speech), the free South lost to the communist North in the last battle in April 1975. After the communist North took over, millions died in communist concentration camps and at sea trying to escape the country, millions of families were broken and displaced, millions more will never see their country again.

Wherever you are

Can you hear my song?

I’ve tried to find the wrongs

to make them right.

Our lessons learned!

Your plan has turned

Win or lose! You were the one

Who made the call.

Who lost the war, got the blame!

Your pain and mine, never the same!

You won the Prize* for playing your “game”.

We paid the price for trusting a friend.

And why can’t you answer me?

Can you answer me?

Why I’ve never asked:

What my country can do for me?

But I don’t know:

What can I do, to take it back to me?

You have done your “Right”!

Why did you take away mine?

Can you answer me? Can you answer me?

I’ve never asked:

What my country can do for me?

What can I do now to take it back to me?

* The Nobel Peace Prize

"

But, "Let tears and bitterness ruin what's left of our lives while VC laugh? NO WAY!!! NO WAY!!!" is the sincere message to vapor6

Back in 2007, 35 senior managers of 18 leading groups including Boeing, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, IBM, Time Warner, Abbott, Ford Motor, and General Electric will came to Hanoi to take part in the “Vietnam - a bright future for US businesses” forum, which was being co-organized by the US-ASEAN Trade Council and the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry. Many of these capitalist corporations now have industrial plants in Vietnam.

Perhaps Prager should read “The Political Consequences of Modernization”, by John H. Kautsky. His book provides the basis for the development of Democracy through the development capitalism in the third world.

yes, and look at China now.

what did "big" gold digger businesses turn China to? a country with democracy?

remember of Tiana Square in '89? if no 'gold diggers" of a West involved, China would be a free country now.

hahaa and finally Google decide to have enough of free money to earn.

there is no such thing call friend of the devil. dream on.

and to all outthere, don't speak the mind of the real people. just question your self this: "why there is only party in communist controlled countries and why people run away from those country?". communist is parasite.

if you want to learn, open your eyes wide.

yes VN is more far better than before: young female got naked and piled up in a room for foreigners to select for a position which so-called 'wife'. and south VN from a free country to a controlled country like a big prision. and gangters (communist affliated people) becomes richer and richer by feeding on a money of Vietnamese who live outside of VN since 1975, and from a pearle of SouthEast Asian now to poor country even billions of dollars was sent to VN every year from Vietnamese who live outside of VN. more more...

yes, let Vietnamese sort out for themselves. yes and that is why more and more freedom fighters stand up as each day passes though they are beaten to death or imprisioned.

want to learn and be better, open your eyes wide.

Thank you Prager for the courages to say what other people so afraid to say or accept.

To the 'tourists', VN is a richer and better country, but I am not so sure that is what the Vietnamese would agree at all.

Ask the VC for a true free election (overseen by the UN), they would say a big NO!

Is VN now an independent country? I think big boss Red China would prefer to hint that it's been an extended state of China for a while now!

It seems that Ho Chi Minh and his VC gang never intended to become independent, but a part of Red China along time ago.

The Viets will continue to struggle for true freedom, true liberty and true democracy by getting rid of VC once for all!

It is only a matter of time before we will all witness a true VN's people's uprising like what we have seen in Egypt and across the Middle East now ...

I long for this day to come sooner than later ... so VN can taste true freedom and be proud ...

chrs - ac

Dennis: Its seems then that the "real" enemy is right here at home; the American Liberal. Instead of fighting overseas, maybe we should "clean house" here first. Instead of liberating other countires, we should maybe liberate our colleges and universities, where the poison of liberalism is distilled and sold, at high cost to our nation and others who may rely on us.

I'm vietnamese.I love my country, but i hate communism.you're said the truth in vietnam. i've seen it everyday, heard it everyday. The goverment always lies vietnamese people.I'm so sad 'cause i was born in vietnam.In vietnam, no hope, no free, no future.

Communism IS A BIG LIE. Especially which's in VN which we hate and wish to free from it every second of living.