Posted on 11/03/2017 9:00:28 AM PDT by Perseverando
Yes - and look where it got us: Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Viet Nam, Libya, on and on.
LOL!
Whenever my wife was asked her religion, she said ‘none’!
It was poison to be an open Buddhist during Diem’s reign.
Now crawl back into your hole.
” and the Buddhists would have come around and realized that Catholics were less deadly to them than maniac Communists.”
Tell that to my wife’s classmates that ‘disappeared’ under Diem’s reign.
“The President and a third of the people were Catholic, because it had been a French colony, until the French left.”
LOL! Under Diem’s reign, if you wanted a government job or promotion in the military you ‘converted’ to Catholicism!
“...historian Geoffrey Shaw clarifies why Americans would do well to mourn the tragic loss of a man many deemed to be Vietnam’s best chance of defeating communism.” Those are the key words. Despite all the bloviating, many U.S. powers didn’t WANT communism defeated. After Nam fell, it wasn’t long until they clamored for “normalized” relations; with Juan McStain, of all people, right out front!
Re: “Never mind that behind the scenes he was one of the worst Catholics ever, with at least two or three adulterous affairs every day”.
I know reliable women still living in Texas who tell how LBJ bedded down women and hit on them at social events. So what was the difference with Diem?
What were her classmates and neighbors doing; what was the VC activity in her area doing? Look at all the Muslims that proclaim they never knew a terrorist in their midst was one; proclaiming in affect their own innocence. Maybe your wife (how old rhen??) did not really know everything that was going on in the area where she lived. Maybe she never knew what some families other than her own were secretly involved in. Being innocent when others around you are secretly not innocent can lead to false perceptions of events that seem implausible at the time.
Just sayin, under many conditions in Vietnam at the time, some things can represent a hiding of reality that seems very foreign, blunt and incomprehensible when suddenly that reality hits. The Viet Cong depended on that, by infiltrating all sorts of “nationalist”, Buddhist and secular protest groups and eventually controlling them. They were always someone’s neighbors.
This is the first I’ve heard that Diem was a political genius and would-be savior of South Vietnam.
South Vietnam was a mess. But the Catholics were certainly better than the Communists. Ask your wife how she would have done under Pol Pot. Or ask all our American soldiers who were killed by the Viet Cong whether they enjoyed it.
Not sure if I made myself clear. It was JFK who bedded an average of three women a day. Something the lying media preferred to cover up.
I have a thirst for knowledge and wish to be disabused of any erroneous notions I might have.
So please tell me - your wife, who is the authority for your demographic research - how old is she? And at what age did she leave VietNam?
“South Vietnam was a mess.”
Very True.
“But the Catholics were certainly better than the Communists.”
I don’t think all Catholics are evil murdering dictators like Diem.
“Ask your wife how she would have done under Pol Pot.”
She is Vietnamese, not Cambodian.
“Or ask all our American soldiers who were killed by the Viet Cong whether they enjoyed it.”
I had a short assignment to TAMC back in the days and assisted many of the wounded.
“So please tell me - your wife, who is the authority for your demographic research - how old is she? And at what age did she leave VietNam? “
LOL! Please tell me what YOUR expertise is?
Truth.
The Catholics were a small minority in Vietnam. Around 7%. They were deeply tied to French colonial rule.
And they thought they had a right to run things. It would have never worked in a nation where 90%+ of the nation was non Catholic.
Disliking communist north doesn’t mean Diem was any good. And remember, his starting place was avoiding an election because he knew he couldn’t win it.
We should have stayed out of it and offered only training and equipment. A land war in Asia is insanity. You only win with nukes to equal out the numerical imbalance.
Had Kennedy not screwed up the Bay of Pigs and got beat about the head like an addled school boy by Khrushchev at the 61 summit he could have politically let Vietnam make it’s own choices and saved the lives of 58K Americans in an utterly stupid war that wasn’t fought with a thought of victory, just managing the next problem or crisis.
I got a lot closer than Hawai'i.
“There would have been at least hundreds of thousands fewer Americans killed there if JFK hadn’t murdered our ally, and the Buddhists would have come around and realized that Catholics were less deadly to them than maniac Communists.”
OR.. the Catholics might have noticed that the Buddhists were less deadly to them than the maniac communists, and not insisted on running things and crushing the Buddhists.
“Agree. It is generally regarded that assassinating him was a ham-handed mistake at best and a disaster at worst, but I don’t think it would have changed history either way, although my opinion is that ultimately he would have probably been more helpful than not.”
The favor was returned in spades Nov. 22, 1963.
“South Vietnam was a mess. But the Catholics were certainly better than the Communists.”
And even better under the larger groups like Buddhists. Funny how Catholics imagine that the only choice for Vietnam was Catholicism, or Communism.
It’s like they truly believe that over 90% of the population that isn’t catholic should defer to them... the followers of the French colonial religion.
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