"In a recent (Z: actually, I believe it was 1995) interview published in The Wall Street Journal, former Colonel Bui Tin who served on the general staff of the North Vietnamese Army and received the unconditional surrender of South Vietnam on April 30,1975, confirmed the American Tet 1968 military victory: "Our loses were staggering and a complete surprise. Giap later told me that Tet had been a military defeat, though we had gained the planned political advantages when Johnson agreed to negotiate and did not run for reelection. The second and third waves in May and September were, in retrospect, mistakes. Our forces in the South were nearly wiped out by all the fighting in 1968. It took us until 1971 to reestablish our presence, but we had to use North Vietnamese troops as local guerrillas. If the American forces had not begun to withdraw under Nixon in 1969, they could have punished us severely. We suffered badly in 1969 and 1970 as it was." On strategy: "If Johnson had granted Westmoreland's requests to enter Laos and block the Ho Chi Minh trail, Hanoi could not have won the war. It was the only way we could bring sufficient military power to bear on the fighting in the South. Building and maintaining the trail was a huge effort involving tens of thousands of soldiers, drivers, repair teams, medical stations, communication units, etc. Our operations were never compromised by attacks on the trail. At times, accurate B-52 strikes would cause real damage, but we put so much in at the top of the trail that enough men and weapons to prolong the war always came out the bottom. If all the bombing had been concentrated at one time, it would have hurt our efforts. But the bombing was expanded in slow stages under Johnson and it didn't worry us. We had plenty of time to prepare alternative routes and facilities. We always had stockpiles of rice ready to feed the people for months if a harvest was damaged. The Soviets bought rice from Thailand for us. And the left: "Support for the war from our rear was completely secure while the American rear was vulnerable. Every day our leadership would listen to world news over the radio at 9AM to follow the growth of the antiwar movement. Visits to Hanoi by Jane Fonda and former Attorney General Ramsey Clark and ministers gave us confidence that we should hold on in the face of battlefield reverses. We were elated when Jane Fonda, wearing a red Vietnamese dress, said at a press conference that she was ashamed of American actions in the war and would struggle along with us ... those people represented the conscience of America ....part of it's war-making capability, and we were turning that power in our favor."
Bui Tin went on to serve as the editor of the People's Daily, the Official newspaper of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Disillusioned with the reality of Vietnamese communism Bui Tin now lives in Paris. "
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
28 comments:
great point, Elbro. Exactly. The template for leftist America haters.....It's like they were waiting for something to set them off so they could release the venom.
My question is always "WHY?" NO country's done better for the world, NO country was humming along as well as ours was when people had integrity, went to church or synagogue, followed the Golden Rule, wouldn't have dreamed of embarassing their parents (remember THAT? I do), did lots of charity work, at least respected a president even if he wasn't their party, figure it was better to at least try to give a baby a two-parent start and would have died of embarassment if somebody knew you were sleeping with your boyfriend?.. Remember?
Where did this America HATRED come from? And, the more we give IN to secular, leftist,less than traditional, less lofty values, 'letting' everyone do what ever the hell they please "as long as it doesn't hurt anyone", the more the Left HATES AMERICA> They propogate the value-less culture, then hate it MORE AND MORE....seems strange to me.
It shouldn't seem that strange. It's all perfectly natural.
The Left doesn't hate America. Like any caged animal, they hate civilization (Freud, "Civilization and Its' Discontents") and believe that they have discovered the "cure" for it (Marcuse, "Eros and Civilization").
Nietzsche, GoM...
The man who because of a lack of external enemies and opposition was forced into an oppressive narrowness and regularity of custom impatiently tore himself apart, persecuted himself, gnawed away at himself, grew upset, and did himself damage — this animal which scraped itself raw against the bars of its cage, which people want to “tame,” this impoverished creature, consumed with longing for the wild, which had to create out of its own self an adventure, a torture chamber, an uncertain and dangerous wilderness — this fool, this yearning and puzzled prisoner, became the inventor of “bad conscience.” But with him was introduced the greatest and weirdest illness, from which humanity up to the present time has not recovered, the suffering of man from man, from himself, a consequence of the forcible separation from his animal past, a leap and, so to speak, a fall into new situations and living conditions, a declaration of war against the old instincts, on which, up to that point, his power, joy, and ability to inspire fear had been based.
Let us at once add that, on the other hand, the fact that there was on earth an animal soul turned against itself, taking sides against itself, meant there was something so new, profound, unheard of, enigmatic, contradictory, and full of the future, that with it the picture of the earth was fundamentally changed. In fact, it required divine spectators to appreciate the dramatic performance which then began and whose conclusion is by no means yet in sight — a spectacle too fine, too wonderful, too paradoxical, to be allowed to play itself out senselessly and unobserved on some ridiculous star or other! Since then man has been included among the most unexpected and most thrillingly lucky rolls of the dice in the game played by Heraclitus’ “great child,” whether he’s called Zeus or chance.* For himself he arouses a certain interest, a tension, a hope, almost a certainty, as if something is announcing itself with him, something is preparing itself, as if the human being were not the goal but only a way, an episode, a bridge, a great promise . . .
Herbert Marcuse IS the father of the New Left. They call themselves "Progressives"... but they are progressive only in the sense that movement in one direction or another about the perimeter of a circle constitutes progress.
They are the spinners of Ixion's Wheel... whose excessive love (not rational Apollonian thought) can but suspend it's movement but for a minute.
I know, I just don't get it either. I am so ashamed of my fellow baby boomers - those on the defeatist side. They were hellbent to make the Iraq war into Vietnam from the beginning. And, the likes of Teddy (the swimmer) Kennedy going to the Senate floor barely into the invasion into Baghdad and declaring we were mired in a quagmire, well, it spoke volumes. Their objective was failure and defeat from the beginning. Solely for political gain, anything to feed Bush Derangement syndrome, no matter the damage to our country.
Thanks for visiting, Z. You all are a great crowd.
The Left has been trying to turn Iraq into Vietnam for a long time now--but they've failed (so far).
What they're trying to do by characterizing the Iraq War as another Viwetnam War (the Vietnam War as they define it) is to recreate the same cultural conditions which (among other things) damaged both the Republican Party and the Military for a decade (before Reagan reversed the damage beginning in 1980).
Something happened to the Left with the assassinations of JFK, RFK, and MLK and the election of Nixon that unhinged them (not that they had all their marbles to begin with) and that is their reference point to everything.
Juxtapose their harangues against Republicans--particularly the Bush administration vis-a-vis the "Imperialistt," "Corporatist," "Militarist," and "Christo-fascist" accusations-- with Jim Gallery's closing appeal to the jury, as played by Kevin Costner in Oliver Stone's *JFK,* and you'll understand where they're coming from.
And they're still there.
The sun was shining on the sea,
Shining with all his might:
He did his very best to make
The billows smooth and bright--
And this was odd, because it was
The middle of the night.
The moon was shining sulkily,
Because she thought the sun
Had got no business to be there
After the day was done--
"It's very rude of him," she said,
"To come and spoil the fun!"
The sea was wet as wet could be,
The sands were dry as dry.
You could not see a cloud, because
No cloud was in the sky:
No birds were flying overhead--
There were no birds to fly.
The Walrus and the Carpenter
Were walking close at hand;
They wept like anything to see
Such quantities of sand:
"If this were only cleared away,"
They said, "it would be grand!"
"If seven maids with seven mops
Swept it for half a year.
Do you suppose," the Walrus said,
"That they could get it clear?"
"I doubt it," said the Carpenter,
And shed a bitter tear.
"O Oysters, come and walk with us!"
The Walrus did beseech.
"A pleasant walk, a pleasant talk,
Along the briny beach:
We cannot do with more than four,
To give a hand to each."
The eldest Oyster looked at him,
But never a word he said:
The eldest Oyster winked his eye,
And shook his heavy head--
Meaning to say he did not choose
To leave the oyster-bed.
But four young Oysters hurried up,
All eager for the treat:
Their coats were brushed, their faces washed,
Their shoes were clean and neat--
And this was odd, because, you know,
They hadn't any feet.
Four other Oysters followed them,
And yet another four;
And thick and fast they came at last,
And more, and more, and more--
All hopping through the frothy waves,
And scrambling to the shore.
The Walrus and the Carpenter
Walked on a mile or so,
And then they rested on a rock
Conveniently low:
And all the little Oysters stood
And waited in a row.
"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--
Of cabbages--and kings--
And why the sea is boiling hot--
And whether pigs have wings."
"But wait a bit," the Oysters cried,
"Before we have our chat;
For some of us are out of breath,
And all of us are fat!"
"No hurry!" said the Carpenter.
They thanked him much for that.
"A loaf of bread," the Walrus said,
"Is what we chiefly need:
Pepper and vinegar besides
Are very good indeed--
Now if you're ready, Oysters dear,
We can begin to feed."
"But not on us!" the Oysters cried,
Turning a little blue.
"After such kindness, that would be
A dismal thing to do!"
"The night is fine," the Walrus said.
"Do you admire the view?
"It was so kind of you to come!
And you are very nice!"
The Carpenter said nothing but
"Cut us another slice:
I wish you were not quite so deaf--
I've had to ask you twice!"
"It seems a shame," the Walrus said,
"To play them such a trick,
After we've brought them out so far,
And made them trot so quick!"
The Carpenter said nothing but
"The butter's spread too thick!"
"I weep for you," the Walrus said:
"I deeply sympathize."
With sobs and tears he sorted out
Those of the largest size,
Holding his pocket-handkerchief
Before his streaming eyes.
"O Oysters," said the Carpenter,
"You've had a pleasant run!
Shall we be trotting home again?'
But answer came there none--
And this was scarcely odd, because
They'd eaten every one.
coo coo kachoo...
you know, Beamish, I would love your interpretation of this Carroll poem because there are SO many....tell me why you posted it. To most, it's probably obvious, to Ms. Obtuse here, not so much, I'm ashamed to say!
John, I think you're right about the assassinations and losing to Nixon. Thanks for coming by, I hope you do again. You're right about this small corner of the blogosphere I"m happily associated with... a VERY great crowd.
See the thing about Vietnam...and I was there for 26 long months...is that "winning" the war would have been the worst thing that could have happened to us anyway. What were we going to do...just keep some stinking puppet dictator in power? Getting out was the biggest victory of all...soon, the Chinese were invading VN...they were fighting with the Russians on the border in huge battles...the whole Commie "monolith" came apart, and we were better shape than ever in that part of the world.
Please look up The Frankfurt School, Antonio Gramsci, and Sigmund Freud, if you want properly to understand how and why what-we-foolishly-have-called "liberalism" came into being, and got such a death grip on our nation.
Herbert Marcuse was only part of a larger web of evil, power-mad influences brought to bear on us.
The deliberate, ruthless scheme to undermine traditional American customs, mores and values, kill off Capitalism and destroy Christianity formally began in 1923, but really started with the birth of Karl Marx in the middle of the 19th century.
Some blame the savagery of the French Revolution and see that as the beginning of modern Leftist Thought. I don't see a direct connection there, myself. It's just as easy–––perhaps easier and more appropriate––– to blame The Industrial Revolution for bringing about the rise of a populist notion that the average working man was in reality the victim of an inherently wicked system that had all the cards stacked against virtually everyone but the Robber Barons.
It's a huge subject. Linda Kimball gives an excellent summary of the nefarious influences that brought us to our present pass in an article published more than a year ago in American Thinker entitled CULTURAL MARXISM.
Please do yourself a favor by Googling and then giving Cultural Marxism a thorough perusal.
We have been systematically taught and conditioned to question and then reject everything we once held dear in favor of rampant libertinism, self-indulgence, self-destructive practices, institutionalized suspicion of, disrespect and disregard for the Family, the Church, Tradition, our cultural Talismans and Icons, our Founding Fathers, and our Constitutional Principles. All of this has been coupled with the rude rejection of traditional forms of Authority, which have been craftily redefined as "Oppressive," "Racist, "Sexist," "Paternalistic," "Chauvinistic," "Elitist," and anything else deemed undesirable.
Marxism is based on Envy, Spite, Malice and the Desire to Detroy Anyone and Anything that may be cleverly portrayed as CULPABLE.
MARXISM in all its many a varied forms teaches NEVER to look INWARD, never to look UPWARD, never to ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY for ONESELF, but ALWAYS, instead, to regard the MATERIAL CONDITIONS in which one finds oneself and those in AUTHORITY (parents, teachers, clergymen, employers, supervisors, executives, police, governmental institutions, the military, etc.) and advocates of Patriotism, Individualism, Independence, Self-Reliance, Religion, Self-Improvement, Modesty, Self-Abnegation, Cooperation, Obedience, Morality, Civility, Honesty, Loyalty, Altruism as EVILS to be CAST ASIDE in favor of STATISM of the most rigid and tyrannical kind.
~ Freethinke
Orwell's *Animal Farm* remains the best allegory I ever read that ingeniusly simplifies both the mindset and m.o. of that vile philosophy and its practitioners.
The language philosophers (important strands of that web) started messing around with words and changed the structure of logic by uprooting values once embedded in language and planting new values in their place to help them along.
Voila: A society of illiterates with a dearth of critical thinking abilities.
Damn, FT. You and I should go on tour... ;-)
Don't blame me, I'm just the eggman!
"It seems a shame," the Walrus said, "To play them such a trick,
After we've brought them out so far,
And made them trot so quick!"
Maybe Lennon had accepted his role as mother and egg-bearer for the new 1st estate... after all, no revolution can be immaculately conceived and executed, no matter how nonviolently and artistically it unfolds. Just so we never got fooled again...
After all the hypnotized never lie... do they?
FJ and FT...two peas in a classical pod.
I'd buy tickets
ABOUT LEWIS CARROLL'S OYSTER BED
WE are the oysters. Marx and Engels were original Walrus and Carpenter.
Those of us wise–––and fortunate–––enough to remain in the "oyster bed" (the bedrock of Western Civilization) have not been seduced, not been hypnotized, but instead have been properly repulsed and infuriated by the false amicability of "The Walrus and the Carpenter" who have been eating as many of us alive as they have been able to persuade to walk with them for the last hundred years.
What Dodson may actually have had in mind is anyone's guess, but it's certain his creation is no nonsense rhyme.
~ FreeThinke
PS: Being strictly grounded in classical music and madly in love with it since toddlerhood, I regret to say I have no ability to relate to the Beatles. I understand they did, indeed, make history and were instrumental in changing the culture, but I have never understood why they caught on, or why they are considered significant. - FT
John...terrific second paragraph there. SO true. thanks for coming by with such great thinking.
All these comments are nothing to sneeze at...Kookoo ACHOOOOO!
Well, I meant what FreeThinke said.
:)
And wow... FT is a fellow anti-Beatlemaniac as well...
beamish, I figured, but you never know. I read a lot of sites about it as it made me curious and there are lots of interpretations..but this is apt, that's for sure.
FT's great, isn't he?
and, Beamish, I think I represent FT properly when I say he likes pretty much nothing but classical music, but I could be wrong. I'll email him and ask him to weigh in .... he sure does know classical music.
I like most music and even some anti-music.
Oh... Lenin. Are you sure it wasn't Lennon?
John I'm not sure that it was the philosophers of language alone who were responsible for emergence of newspeak.
Plato, "Cratylus"
SOCRATES: By the dog of Egypt I have a not bad notion which came into my head only this moment: I believe that the primeval givers of names were undoubtedly like too many of our modern philosophers, who, in their search after the nature of things, are always getting dizzy from constantly going round and round, and then they imagine that the world is going round and round and moving in all directions; and this appearance, which arises out of their own internal condition, they suppose to be a reality of nature; they think that there is nothing stable or permanent, but only flux and motion, and that the world is always full of every sort of motion and change. The consideration of the names which I mentioned has led me into making this reflection.
HERMOGENES: How is that, Socrates?
SOCRATES: Perhaps you did not observe that in the names which have been just cited, the motion or flux or generation of things is most surely indicated.
HERMOGENES: No, indeed, I never thought of it.
SOCRATES: Take the first of those which you mentioned; clearly that is a name indicative of motion.
HERMOGENES: What was the name?
SOCRATES: Phronesis (wisdom), which may signify phoras kai rhou noesis (perception of motion and flux), or perhaps phoras onesis (the blessing of motion), but is at any rate connected with pheresthai (motion); gnome (judgment), again, certainly implies the ponderation or consideration (nomesis) of generation, for to ponder is the same as to consider; or, if you would rather, here is noesis, the very word just now mentioned, which is neou esis (the desire of the new); the word neos implies that the world is always in process of creation. The giver of the name wanted to express this longing of the soul, for the original name was neoesis, and not noesis; but eta took the place of a double epsilon. The word sophrosune is the salvation (soteria) of that wisdom (phronesis) which we were just now considering. Epioteme (knowledge) is akin to this, and indicates that the soul which is good for anything follows (epetai) the motion of things, neither anticipating them nor falling behind them; wherefore the word should rather be read as epistemene, inserting epsilon nu. Sunesis (understanding) may be regarded in like manner as a kind of conclusion; the word is derived from sunienai (to go along with), and, like epistasthai (to know), implies the progression of the soul in company with the nature of things. Sophia (wisdom) is very dark, and appears not to be of native growth; the meaning is, touching the motion or stream of things.
WE are the oysters.
I feel more like a mushroom...Most of the time I'm kept in the dark and *hit on...
Z pardon the vernacular
Elbro, sometimes we feel like oysters on a cold, hard halfshell, just waiting to have sour vinegar/shallot sauced poured on us!
UHOH..that sounds like the first paragraph of John's "Bad Writing Contest!" I LOVE IT!!
I prefer some tabasco...some like it hot
FYI: I am crazy about a lot of Jazz (not all–––like "classical" music it's a big field with tremendous variety).
I also enjoy "Operetta" and Musical Comedy from Johann Strauss's Die Fledermaus, Lehar's Merry Widow, through Victor Herbert, Jerome Kern, Gershwin, Cole Porter, Vincent Youmans, Noel Coward, Rogers and Hart, Rogers and Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim and Kandor and Ebb, et al.
I love old-fashioned "cocktail piano" (preserved largely in movies made in the 1940's) and also "cabaret" music like Bobby Short, Mabel Mercer, Karen Akers, Piaf (a little) as well as old-fashioned Broadway Revues.
I used to enjoy "Muzak" in restaurants before it went out of style, because it blended into the atmosphere like wallpaper and let you eat (and converse) in peace.
What I feel about "other" kinds of (Western) music I'd better not say, because I don't want to insult anyone's taste, hurt anyone's feelings or start a riot. ;-)
Suffice it to say the range of "classical" music is so enormous (it spans more than five-hundred years) it would be foolish to say I love all of it, but when I listen, it demands ALL of my attention, and I am––– when the performances are vital and truly expressive–––transported to another, far more delightful and understanding world than the one in which we must spend the bulk of our time.
~ FreeThinke
thanks, FT...interesting about the music you like. I like jazz piano very much and that kind of 'cocktail music' you mention. heck, that's mostly what I've always sung. Ella, Eydie...the best.
I need to tell you a BIG and VERY ugly secret about elmer's brother: sshshh!! he likes mariachi music.
Do NOT tell a soul.
Post a Comment