Here.e pluribus unum. This synopsis is consistent with the books I've read on the subject, minimizes, if anything, the role of the US. Ho studied in the US, and seems to be pro-Vietnam, period. He did look for help wherever he could get it

"The United States helped the French in Vietnam, President Truman doing so for the sake of the fight against communism in Europe and in Indochina. Much of France's efforts to overthrow Ho Chi Minh's government in Vietnam was being financed by the United States, and around 1950 the Viet Minh began to benefit from the coming to power of the communists in China. After North Korea invaded South Korea in 1950, Secretary of State Dean Acheson persuaded Truman to increase U.S. assistance to the French, and the United States recognized France's puppet king in Vietnam, Bao Dai. After Eisenhower took office in 1952, U.S. aid to the French effort in Vietnam increased, and by 1954, U.S. aid amounted to 80 percent of the costs of the French effort.

"In 1954 the French in Vietnam faced military defeat at Dienbienphu, and the French asked the U.S. to contribute air and naval power. The U.S. Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, conferred with congressional leaders, and Congress wished to help, but it wanted France to declare Indochina independent so that the United States would not appear to be fighting for colonialism. But France was fighting to preserve their power in Vietnam and not about to declare Indochina independent.

"A few Americans saw the issue in Vietnam as simply communism, and they were eager to drop atomic weapons on the Viet Minh forces or to send in U.S. troops rather than see a communist victory there. However, a new premier in France, Pierre Mendès-France, chose to negotiate an end to France's seven years of war in Vietnam. At Geneva Switzerland, in July 1954, the French and Viet Minh signed a settlement. Great Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, Communist China, and representatives from the two other Indochina nations, Laos and Cambodia, attended the conference. The settlement signed at Geneva was an agreement that Vietnam was to be temporarily divided at the seventeenth parallel. For two years the French were to be allowed to maintain their administration in the southern half of Vietnam. Then elections were to be held to reunite Vietnam."

By the way, your remark about Rush talking to the choir and saying what they wanted to say but couldn't has given me an interesting perspective. Thanks, thought about it a lot.

Arf