Vietnam question/concern

[Deja Q]

It is to my understanding that it was China's monetary involvement in Vietnam and the push of "communism" (more like fascism) that had prompted John F Kennedy to respond by invading Vietnam. So, my question is, how accurate is this?

As for my concern:

Given how China was our enemy and certainly is no real friend today, why do we still offshore our jobs and infrastructure to them? And why did Nixon go to China anyway, apart from trying to ind other means to stop the war? (surely not by offshoring our industries, that's a bit too far-fetched, even for DU and I've seen some really bizarre stuff said by others, but I digress...)

Man, I wish reagan and his cronies were alive and coherent today. And especially on the day China plays its trump card we gave them. (Seems like Communism has won; the capitalists hoisted by our own petard. Oops.)

[bahrbearian]

1. We had to fight em' over there so we wouldn't have to fight em' here

[Deja Q]

4. That's the War on Terror. Not Vietnam.

:-)

[bahrbearian]

5. That phrase was used for Viet Nam 1st.

[merwin]

2. Reagan's cronies ARE alive and kicking and in our current admin.

[Deja Q]

3. Hmmm. When China declares victory, how will the cronies respond?

They told us communism is bad. Russia is bad. China is bad. Oooh, evil Red China (as we continued to ship 'em jobs and remained naive enough to think they wouldn't learn from what we were giving them...)

Aiding an enemy. Surely our corporate leaders are guilty of a little something called "treason"?

[RagingInMiami]

6. We knew that if we directly engaged in war with the soviets

It would lead to nuclear war, so we fought the war in a third-world country.

[BillZBubb]

7. Your history is a bit off.

Kennedy never invaded Vietnam. The Eisenhower administration supported the French in their attempt to hold Vietnam as a colony. The Vietnamese forces soundly defeated the French at Dien Bien Phu in 1954 and ended the French colonial presence.

As part of their withdrawal agreement, the country was divided into two parts, North and South. Elections were to be held to determine who would govern after the French left.

Both the US and the communists made sure the elections never happened. The government in the North was communist/nationalist. The government in the South was corrupt/despotic, but friendly to the US. The US supplied the South covertly through the CIA. In the early 1960's Kennedy authorized sending US military "advisors" to help the South.

The major US troop buildup occurred under Johnson and was based on the phony Gulf of Tonkin "incident".

[sasha031]

8. Kennedy was going to pull the troops out

I believe that is part of the reason he was killed.The military industrial complex had other plans.

[H2O Man]

11. Go back one further ....

Truman began the policies that brought the American involvement on the wrong side in Vietnam. Read "Vietnam: A History in Documents" for a fascinating history of errors on this country's part.

[enigma000]

9. Kennedy authorized the assassination of the president of South Vietnam

Kennedy authorized the assassination Ngo Dinh Diem, the president of South Vietnam in 1963. Diem died 3 weeks before Kennedy did.

[H2O Man]

10. He did not.

That is one of the great lies of the republican party. It's a theory that has been exposed and disgraced.

[many a good man]

12. Who lost China?

The "China market" had long been a fantasy to American businessmen (sell one billion cokes a day to a billion Chinamen!). After WWII China fell to the evil Communism and these businessmen's dreams were quashed. They then set out to invent the meme that Democrats are soft on... communism, defense, etc. After all, they lost China. Democrats felt obliged to react...in Vietnam.

Nixon built his career around this smear. That's why as president it was such a shock to the world that he of all people would make peace with a communist power. It was said "only a Nixon could go to China." That's because he would have smeared any democrat who tried.

Originally the idea was for America to make stuff, and sell it to the Chinese. But as it turns out they are making the stuff and selling it to us. We lose jobs but the intl businessmen still profit.