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Flame » in reply to re: Iran = China in the 70's?

re: Iran = China in the 70's?
ER — (archived)

Perhaps that is not a good example, Raoul. China and Vietnam always have been very suspicious of each other, and you'll recall they fought a brief but bloody war shortly after the end of the US incursion, and then the PRC did everything it could (with American help!) to cause trouble for the Vietnamese in Cambodia. The USSR was N Vietnam's major ally against the Americans, at a time when relations between the two great Communist powers were quite tense. China helped Ho Chi Minh, but nowhere near as much as the Russians.

There were other incidents that occurred earlier which are now starting to be realized by Western analysts. Both Russia and China opposed the Vietnamese war (against USA), they felt it was unwinnable and it might cause them to lose their foothold on N Vietnam, and they urged N Vietnam to not press the issue. From the Vietnamese point of view, they had been promised re-unification elections to end the partition, the South (with French and American help) had welshed on the deal, so they decided to fight.

America's greatest error was not in getting involved in Viet Nam. It was in backing the wrong side! I am convinced our WWII alliance with Ho could have been parlayed into a strong, anti-Chinese, pro-American, Communist ally in SE Asia. It was French intransigence and unwillingness to give up her empire, our desire to do anything to get the French to join NATO (Vietnam's continued colonial status was their price) and our pathological aversion to anything Communist that eventually led to the current situation. The Communist North won, and now they are eager to develop good relations and trade with the US. Asia did not fall to the Communists. The Domino Theory, like WMDs, was shown to be a total misreading of the situation, if not a deliberate fraud.

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