considering, for instance that it were North Vietnamese who  actually liberated  Cambodia from Khmer Rouge. Considering also that US during its occupation of South Vietnam  undermined  the South Vietnamese govt  ALL the time and one of the South Vietnamese rulers was assasinated  by the CIA- organized plot. Considering that racism, carpet- bombing and  tortures made even the most moderate Vietnamese the ultimate haters of the US. Considering that the war strategy was not to win but to eliminate and it backfired bigtime.  All of that considering the unfortunate perceptions of Mr.  Carey ( as usual) are to be treated with  a 'grain of salt' if not  with the ' rock of salt' if I may.  BTW, the famous Graham Green novel ' The Quite American' was written  BEFORE the carnage of the 60s and even there  one of the characters says ,'Vietnamese, they do not want other people to tell them what they want.' How true.

by Mark Sashine (72 articles, 19 quicklinks, 269 diaries, 4101 comments [131 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Wednesday, Apr 30, 2008 at 12:33:45 PM

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Mark: Shame on you.  The essay is discussing April 30, 1975 and onward.  Like a lawyer at a sentencing hearing that wants the judge to go re-try the case, you are so concerned about your own political agenda that you are blind to millions who suffered from April 30, 1975 and to this day.

Many liberals cannot see the refugees in Iraq because they are so torqued about the reason for the war there.  Grow up and help your fellow man: or at least hold your tongue and THINK about human suffering for a second....

My own wife was swept into the masses moving away from the communists and toward, they hoped, safety on April 30, 1975.  She was caught along with her brother Phong.  Phong went into the communist prison system and disappeared.  No member of the family has seen or heard from him since 1975.

My wife says she is "a lucky one."  She made it to the United States after an 18 year journey that included prison (torture, rape, use your imagination), 22 days at sea without food and water (four people died), and several years in detention.

We were apart 18 years....  I was in the cauldron too, my friend.  For your freedom and your right to free expression.  I had hope you would use it to a better purpose.

John E. Carey

by John E. Carey (208 articles, 0 quicklinks, 10 diaries, 107 comments) on Thursday, May 1, 2008 at 12:11:42 AM

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I hope I can call you that way; we kind off have a relationship:)

There was no 'essay' There was a  short note on the event with no past and no present  and even  with some innuendo about ' kiling fields'.  You surely understand that such events cannot be  discussed without past and present. The fate of your relatives and yours  is surely another thing and my message in no way denigrates their ordeal and your convictions. If you feel so personal about it maybe you  should  write a personal essay and I assure you-  I would be the first to praise it. Now, I would caution you from making   allegations about your role in  my freedom or any other freedoms for that matters. Freedom is in the eyes of the beholder, free expresssion too.  You did not  spend your life protecting my freedom: I owe you nothing.  This is America; you  participated in the agressive attack on  the far- away country, you participated in the carnage and they booted you out. They were not angels  but you  and others like you had nothing to do with their life.  I certainly was not there and you and your cronies have nothing to do with my destiny, my freedom and my decisions. Eat your checkers. Put your arrogance where it belongs.  My critiques of yours are sometimes caustic and even tough but not malicious and never arrogant. You, on the other hand, sorry, are full of it. You ooze it.  The whole world must  thank you all the time. Sorry, no deal.  You did not give  me the right to free expression; it was mine all along. I am the same as you  and we are equals.  BTW, we surely could be friends, I guess but on equal grounds.

I thus repeat: your personal story, John can be a topic of another essay if  you decide to share it the same as I have written a personal story Victoria Scacci about my refugee experience (you are welcome to read). But this one was not about  you. And I reacted as an equal. You better get used to it, my friend, if I may.

by Mark Sashine (72 articles, 19 quicklinks, 269 diaries, 4101 comments [131 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Thursday, May 1, 2008 at 8:32:05 AM

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"September 2nd 1945, Viet Nam's Independence Day, Ho Chi Minh borrowed the sentiments of Thomas Jefferson when he said 'We hold these truths to be self evident. That all men are created equal'. A Vietnamese band played the Star-Spangled Banner and American war planes flew overhead. US army officers were adjacent to the reviewing stand. Ho thought Viet Nam had a special friendship with the US"

Do look up the OSS Deer Team and then you will know who to blame for the events of the day you recall and all the deaths since that day.

I am sorry for your familial loss but put the blame where it belongs, those that guided Harry Truman following the tragic death of FDR, along with Winston Churchill.

by sliphoch (0 articles, 1 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 110 comments [2 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Thursday, May 1, 2008 at 7:07:22 PM

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your family endured, but by no means the article you wrote reflect what actually happened.

Why did the US military end up in a illegal incursion in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, since it was a illegal French occupied territory to begin with?

Your service to the military in Vietnam has nothing to do with my FREEDOM in the US today, or any of the wars for profit the US has fought.

The Pentagon is nothing but a racket who contrive its existence on patriotic duty of which the current self-appointed administration of chicken-hawks failed to heed its call 35 years ago.

by Stanimal (2 articles, 228 quicklinks, 38 diaries, 1259 comments [235 recommended, 2 rejected]) on Friday, May 2, 2008 at 1:57:34 AM

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