Everyone who is at all paying attention knows that Ho Chi Minh fought for independence against both the French and the Americans. All he wanted was to free his country from colonial and imperial rule. What the great majority of Americans, and probably most people still on the planet, don't know is that Uncle Ho turned to the Communists for help only after his 1946 letter US President Harry Truman asking for aid went unanswered; most likely because a US State Department underling stuck it in a file cabinet and the President never knew of it. Truman, by the way, was NOT blameless. He gave millions of dollars in covert military and financial aid to the French, and the French-backed regime in Saigon.
From the letter:
"It is with this firm conviction that we request of the United States as guardians and champions of World Justice to take a decisive step in support of our independence.
"What we ask has been graciously granted to the Philippines. Like the Philippines our goal is full independence and full cooperation with the UNITED STATES. We will do our best to make this independence and cooperation profitable to the whole world."
Born in 1953, I am of the generation sent by the US government to Vietnam to kill, torture, maim, murder, and otherwise harm the local population.
I came to Vietnam for the first time in 2013, moved here in 2014, and have lived here ever since. I often wonder what the world would be like had that State Department pendejo passed Uncle Ho's letter up the chain of command. How many of the 3,000,000+ Vietnamese and 58,000+ Americans who were killed as a direct result of American presence in Vietnam would've gone on to live happy, productive lives?
How many more people were never born because their fathers and/or mothers were killed?
How many people whose family members were killed or maimed would've had different, better lives?
How many people in Vietnam are still, today, getting killed by 40+-year-old unexploded ordinance or suffering from the effects of Agent Orange and other deadly chemicals dropped by the hundreds of tons?
Although I am only halfway through Nick Turse's book, I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the real story of the failed American attempt to stop the "domino" that was Vietnam.
Why have I yet to finish it? Because it is so upsetting that I can barely get through a full chapter before I have to put it down for a week or two and take a long, hot shower.
The good news is that the Vietnamese, thank Buddha, are a forgiving people; more so than any others I have met on five continents.
