GwynO 16 Posted April 30, 2010 happend what? NVA captured Saigon. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+Piecemeal 450 Posted May 1, 2010 History buffs like myself will find this site very interesting, not to mention educational: http://www.fallofsaigon.org/ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Capitaine Vengeur 263 Posted May 3, 2010 A happy May 1 they then celebrated in Hanoi, for sure... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+Gepard 11,296 Posted May 3, 2010 It may painfull for americans to accept that it was the finest hour for the vietnamese people. After 30 years of war the vietnamese reunificated their country. Then they needed 15 years to accept that their socialist way was wrong, but now they are on a good path. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
FastCargo 412 Posted May 6, 2010 Yea...I have many Vietnamese friends here who would strongly disagree with that statement. For that matter, as an ethnic Korean, I will quite happily keep South Korea separate from North Korea if "their finest hour" is defined as the same thing. FC Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GwynO 16 Posted May 7, 2010 (edited) They never actually CAPTURED it, they just walked in and took it. That last chopper flew off the roof of the U.S. Embassy, and it was over As we know, sadly young American servicemen were killed even on the last day, by NVA rocket fire. I know the U.S.A. left and that decision was made by the politicians, but none the less it could hardly be described as an amicable truce. It's a shame to see so many missed opportunities left hanging in that conflict that could have resolved it much earlier. Even sadder is the hegemony of popular belief in the U.K. at least, that the U.S. were the big villains in the picture and that the poor old Vietnamese all just wanted to be communist and the Yanks wouldn't let it happen. That view infuriates me so much, not just because it is ignorant of the facts that the communists were prepared to kidnap, torture and mass murder whole swathes of the country if they even suspected them of not "voting" for them, or that the South were just as bad in many respects such as corruption and civil rights (e.g. banning Vesak flags in a majority Buddhist country) but the worst thing about most of those with strong feelings about that war in this country is how unwilling they are to even consider that there were any atrocities on the Vietnamese sides, or that there could have possibly been any other reason for Americans being there other than stamping their authority. The armchair critics with no connection to the country or conflict, who are so certain in their cynicism of any Western power exerting power would be totally opposed to the extreme persecution employed by those tyrannical regimes, yet somehow manage to be wilfully ignorant of any evidence from any source that paints "them" out in a bad light. By them, I mean any second or third world regime because the cynicism is reserved for the first world along with an assumption that "we" must be bad because "we" have a history of colonialism, slavery and general being baad; which according to their blinkered naivety means "they" must be good because no one who suffers from colonialism could ever be bad right? They as victims must be somehow saintly, pious defenders of the freedom and rights of their people. It just really irks me so much that the spirit of Enlightenment, of people challenging hegemony and thinking for themselves has diminished so much in self described "intellectual" circles that anyone even daring to breath a word in defence of U.S. intervention in Vietnam, or even intimates that anyone should for one minute go and look up the possibility that Vietnamese groups conducted activities that warranted intervention in the first place, must immediately recant and apologise as if they just spoke up for paedophilia. The very subject got me virtually pilloried for months after it came up in discussion with colleagues in the education sector, heaven forbid if a child asked the wrong question in a class room, no doubt my educational colleagues would seek to re educate the poor child until they too are in accord with hegemony, or at the least learn that "Good people can't have those opinions (or challenge the prescribed one)". In a similar way it is with regard to Israel in the U.K. education sector, as I found out much to my disadvantage when daring to challenge the dominant view in my workplace, that Hamas was a natural and forgiveable result of Israeli "persecution"!! Bearing in mind I was training to be a Religious Education specialist entrusted with the moral instruction of young people, I was castigated for not towing the line that suicide bombing was an understandable last resort and that "our" responsibility is to put pressure on Israel and seek "understanding" and to "work with" Hamas! Made me wonder if this is the reason I was terminated yet given a good reference, as if to say "You are a good teacher Mr. Owen, it's just your views are out of step with our dogma". Bloody hegemony. Edited May 7, 2010 by GwynO Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
