Quote:
Originally Posted by bullseyebarb
You don't pay attention! I said millions died in SOUTHEAST ASIA. Laos, Viet Nam......and, apparently, you haven't heard of the Killing Fields of Cambodia. The aim over there was to stop the spread of Communism. South Viet Nam wanted to be free. Just as the majority of Iraqis wish to be free. Military action is only one part of the overall picture, which also includes diplomacy and economics.
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I "don't pay attention?" Utter nonsense, courtesy of bullseyebarb! I deliberately ignored your silly claim, just to see where you would go. Ignoring nonsensical, hyperbole-inflated claims is a common debating technique, as it allows - indeed, encourages - the person making those specious claims the opportunity to fully claim an indefensible position.
bullseyebarb, you are the very first person I have encountered who has arrived at the rather unique conclusion that the United States' decision to leave Vietnam somehow caused the Pol Pot regime outrages. If you want to provide some proof of this rather outrageous claim, go for it. While you are at it, why not blame the USA for Idi Amin, the Armenian genocide, and every other outrage committed in the 20th century?
South Vietnam wanted to be free? Correction - ALL of Vietnam wanted to be free. Free of the French, free of the Americans who came in after the French, free to be Vietnam. South Vietnam was an artificial concept, which existed only because of the French, the USA, a ton of money, and some very corrupt Vietnamese leaders who ran incompetent, unsustainable regimes for a short time. Ngo Dinh Diem refused the scheduled 1956 countrywide election to democratically choose a leader for all of Vietnam. Later, he was ousted, killed in a CIA-backed coup, and replaced with Nguyen Thieu. So much for US attempts to create democracy in Vietnam!
Essentially, all we managed to do in Vietnam was to spend billions, kill many thousands and prolong the Vietnamese war for independence - and to harm the name of the USA in a large part of the world! As in Iraq, we were the foreign invaders.