A Reminder About Vietnam
From a book review in the Weekly Standard:
"A brilliant young scholar with a Cambridge doctorate who is currently teaching at the Marine Corps University in Quantico, Moyar is representative of a small but increasingly influential revisionist school that rejects the fundamental orthodox premise that America's involvement in Vietnam was wrongheaded and unjust."
This war of aggression, in which the United States murdered somewhere between 2 and 4 million innocent civilians, is too important an event to allow Conservative warmongers to get away with telling this sort of lie. Here are a few excerpts from the Final Declaration of the Geneva Conference of 1954, and its Agreement on the Cessation of Hostilities in Vietnam, from the same year.
"A provisional military demarcation line shall be fixed, on either side of which the forces of the two parties shall be regrouped after their withdrawal, the forces of the People's Army of Viet-Nam to the north of the line and the forces of the French Union to the south."
"...the military demarcation line should not in any way be interpreted as constituting a political or territorial boundary."
I.e. the United States claim that there existed two seperate countries, North Vietnam and South Vietnam, and that we were free to aid the latter to fight the former, was pure propaganda. These two supposed countries existed only in the minds of the American leaders and the dupes in this country who supported the war.
"In order to insure that sufficient progress in the restoration of peace has been made, and that all the necessary conditions obtain for free expression of the national will, general elections shall be held in July 1956..."
Elections which the United States prevented, because Eisenhower and Dulles knew that the Vietnamese were going to elect someone we didn't like. So much for democracy.
"With effect from the date of entry into force of the present Agreement, the introduction into Viet-Nam of any troop reinforcements and additional military personnel is prohibited.
With effect from the date of entry into force of the present Agreement, the introduction into Viet- Nam of any reinforcements in the form of all types of arms, munitions and other war material, such as combat aircraft, naval craft, pieces of ordnance jet engines and jet weapons and armoured vehicles, is prohibited.
With effect from the date of entry into force of the present Agreement, the establishment of new military bases is prohibited throughout Viet-Nam territory.
With effect from the date of entry into force of the present Agreement, no military base under the control of a foreign State may be established in the regrouping zone of either party; the two parties shall ensure that the zones assigned to them do not adhere to any military alliance and are not used for the resumption of hostilities or to further an aggressive policy.
The commanders of the Forces of the two parties shall ensure that persons under their respective commands who violate any of the provisions of the present Agreement are suitably punished."
Our presence in Vietnam during the ensuing twenty years represented a flagrant violation of all of the above.
In summation, the United States aggression against the people and country of Vietnam was an illegal act of war, involving extensive war crimes and wanton destruction. The result of all this wasted, and very malignant, effort is that by the end, our side controlled only a tiny part of the area of Vietnam, and much of that only during the day. It was an evil chapter in our history, with absolutely no redeeming elements. I, for one, am not content to allow that to be forgotten.
"A brilliant young scholar with a Cambridge doctorate who is currently teaching at the Marine Corps University in Quantico, Moyar is representative of a small but increasingly influential revisionist school that rejects the fundamental orthodox premise that America's involvement in Vietnam was wrongheaded and unjust."
This war of aggression, in which the United States murdered somewhere between 2 and 4 million innocent civilians, is too important an event to allow Conservative warmongers to get away with telling this sort of lie. Here are a few excerpts from the Final Declaration of the Geneva Conference of 1954, and its Agreement on the Cessation of Hostilities in Vietnam, from the same year.
"A provisional military demarcation line shall be fixed, on either side of which the forces of the two parties shall be regrouped after their withdrawal, the forces of the People's Army of Viet-Nam to the north of the line and the forces of the French Union to the south."
"...the military demarcation line should not in any way be interpreted as constituting a political or territorial boundary."
I.e. the United States claim that there existed two seperate countries, North Vietnam and South Vietnam, and that we were free to aid the latter to fight the former, was pure propaganda. These two supposed countries existed only in the minds of the American leaders and the dupes in this country who supported the war.
"In order to insure that sufficient progress in the restoration of peace has been made, and that all the necessary conditions obtain for free expression of the national will, general elections shall be held in July 1956..."
Elections which the United States prevented, because Eisenhower and Dulles knew that the Vietnamese were going to elect someone we didn't like. So much for democracy.
"With effect from the date of entry into force of the present Agreement, the introduction into Viet-Nam of any troop reinforcements and additional military personnel is prohibited.
With effect from the date of entry into force of the present Agreement, the introduction into Viet- Nam of any reinforcements in the form of all types of arms, munitions and other war material, such as combat aircraft, naval craft, pieces of ordnance jet engines and jet weapons and armoured vehicles, is prohibited.
With effect from the date of entry into force of the present Agreement, the establishment of new military bases is prohibited throughout Viet-Nam territory.
With effect from the date of entry into force of the present Agreement, no military base under the control of a foreign State may be established in the regrouping zone of either party; the two parties shall ensure that the zones assigned to them do not adhere to any military alliance and are not used for the resumption of hostilities or to further an aggressive policy.
The commanders of the Forces of the two parties shall ensure that persons under their respective commands who violate any of the provisions of the present Agreement are suitably punished."
Our presence in Vietnam during the ensuing twenty years represented a flagrant violation of all of the above.
In summation, the United States aggression against the people and country of Vietnam was an illegal act of war, involving extensive war crimes and wanton destruction. The result of all this wasted, and very malignant, effort is that by the end, our side controlled only a tiny part of the area of Vietnam, and much of that only during the day. It was an evil chapter in our history, with absolutely no redeeming elements. I, for one, am not content to allow that to be forgotten.
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