Posted on 08/17/2007 9:43:43 AM PDT by hardback
Giuliani believes that the [international] system is not functional and should be repaired: "A primary goal for our diplomacy - whether directed toward great powers, developing states or international institutions - must be to strengthen the international system, which most of the world has a direct interest in seeing function well. After all, the system helps keep the peace and provide prosperity".
The UN isn't the only establishment Giuliani doesn't trust: "Another step in rebuilding a strong diplomacy will be to make changes in the State Department and the Foreign Service. The time has come to refine the diplomats' mission down to their core purpose: presenting U.S. policy to the rest of the world," he writes.
And what about promoting democracy?
"Most of the problems in the world today arise from places where the state system is broken or has never functioned," writes Giuliani, "but democracy cannot be achieved rapidly or sustained unless it is built on sound legal, institutional, and cultural foundations
And the most controversial sentence in Giuliani's article: "America must remember one of the lessons of the Vietnam War. Then, as now, we fought a war with the wrong strategy for several years. And then, as now, we corrected course and began to show real progress.
Many historians today believe that by about 1972 we and our South Vietnamese partners had succeeded in defeating the Vietcong insurgency and in setting South Vietnam on a path to political self-sufficiency. But America then withdrew its support, allowing the communist North to conquer the South. The consequences were dire.
(Excerpt) Read more at haaretz.com ...
Rudy is an expert on VietNam, that is why he avoided the draft.
we did not lose one battle in Vietnam, and we would have steamrolled Ho Chi Minh City if our leaders had had any huevos.
We lost the war here at home.
Amen to that
Spoken like a true Freeper!
The first, the Indochina War, was fought by the French to retain control of Indochina, but was lost primarily after Dien Bien Phu in 1954.
The second, what we refer to as the Vietnam War, was fought from 1959-1973 and ended with an Allied victory after the Christmas bombing campaign forced North Vietnam to sign a peace treaty and end the fighting.
The third, which should be called the Second Vietnam War but it is usually just considered a continuation of the first, was fought in 1975 and was almost entirely a domestic conflict, as nearly all US forces had withdrawn from Vietnam at the time.
right, so to me, Rudy’s statement is acceptable. A much more absurd claim is that there was no slaughter of millions once we left, a claim made by the disgusting John Kerry.
I think that hand grenade in the bag of rice scrambled his brains, if he had any to begin with.
Two trips to Vietnam - in '68-69 then with my daughter in 2000 - convince me that this is true. Vietnam's economy and the explosive growth of Christianity there are thriving. It's aging communist leadership is increasingly being squeezed in the face of Vietnam's amazingly industrious populace.
Of course, if we don't win the WOT, all bets are off, because nothing will matter anymore anyway.
In the meantime however, if you think you must buy Chinese, consider the Vietnamese alternative first.
Thank you Uncle Walter.
And the drive-by media is doing it's level best to do to Iraq what they did to Vietnam . . . .
These are extremely refreshing remarks by Giuliani.
Yep; Our troops were there so long that the South was infected with the "Capitalism Virus", the counterinsurgency that keeps on counter-ing!
A couple of years back “The Nightly Business Report” on PBS had a
series on Asian basin countries that were emerging into real-world business.
After watching the one on Vietnam, I could just see some of the old
NVA generals sitting around in Hanoi saying to each other
“Remind me now, we did win the war. Didn’t we?!”
IIRC, a year or so ago Bill Gates made an appearance in Vietnam...
and some big wheels in their “government” dropped everything to
get their photo-op with Gates. There was one picture of Vietnamese student
with Gates...they looked like they’d met some sort of diety.
Myself, I just wish I had an exclusive franchise to sell single malt
Scotch whiskey in all those country clubs opening up in Vietnam!
Many of those who served in Vietnam never heard a shot fired in anger. Your point? IAC, I agree with him. Creighton Abrams won that war, but Nixon could not win the peace. Of course he had Halfbright and others hanging around his neck,
yes, they are refreshing. One of the relatively few views he holds that I agree with.
The dreamy-eyed, graying leftista, left over from the days when they drove us out of Vietnam, are trying for a repeat performance with Iraq today.
TC
Rudy knows he’s not going to win on the cross-over Dem vote. That selling point was always a pipe dream.
He needs a unified base desperately or he’s toast in the general.
I’m no fan of the guy, but it is refreshing to hear regardless.
Sorry, I don’t understand your post. Are you saying that Giuliani actually served during the Vietnam War? He didn’t.
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