One very minor qualm I have with Mike Malloy RE Vietnam.

UdoKier

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Fri Jan-28-05 12:09 PM
Original message

One very minor qualm I have with Mike Malloy RE Vietnam.

Edited on Fri Jan-28-05 12:09 PM by UdoKier

Whenever Mike talks about the 50K American kids and 2 million Vietnamese who were pointlessly slaughtered in that disgusting bloodbath, he consistently gives LBJ a pass and lays all the blame on Nixon, who, while certainly being culpable, at least eventually started getting us out of there.

Great Society or not, democrat or not, it's dishonest to pretend that Johnson wasn't mostly responsible for the crime that was Vietnam.

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wtmusic

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Fri Jan-28-05 12:12 PM
Response to Original message

1. agree

Malloy occasionally lets partisanship get the better of him.

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nothingshocksmeanymore

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Fri Jan-28-05 12:12 PM
Response to Original message

2. Actually Eisenhower was most responsible

Edited on Fri Jan-28-05 12:13 PM by nothingshocksmeanymo

he brought us there in the first place. Kennedy would most likely have gotten us out and Johnson followed the ill fated advice of his advisors.

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UdoKier

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Fri Jan-28-05 12:17 PM
Response to Reply #2

5. Yes and no.

I agree that Eisenhower set up the false scenario that there was a "democratic South Vietnam" that we were obliged to defend by not allowing the Vietnamese people the free elections they were promised, but it was LBJ who made the choice to ramp it up into a huge conflict, when we should have simply gotten the hell out.

Until this country adopts a doctrine of respecting sovereign states' right to self-determination, we will continue to get blowback after blowback after blowback.

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trotsky

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Fri Jan-28-05 12:15 PM
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3. Very true.

If we can't be honest with ourselves and our hero's flaws, we're no better than the Repukes. Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon - all share significant blame.

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Benhurst

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Fri Jan-28-05 12:15 PM
Response to Original message

4. I don't disagree with you about not giving LBJ a pass; but

Nixon with his nonexistent "Secret Plan" was responsible for even more deaths than LBJ -- and by 1968 everybody knew the war was a mistake.

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UdoKier

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Fri Jan-28-05 12:19 PM
Response to Reply #4

6. At least Malloy gives Nixon credit for being a better president than Bush.

Creation of the EPA, etc.

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