From: Scott Chase (ecphoric@hotmail.com)
Date: Fri 05 Dec 2003 - 05:24:06 GMT
Although she makes my blood boil with her hard-core right wing slant on
everything under the sun, Ann Coulter has (in her recent book
_Treason_), inadvertently of course, gotten the gears of my mind working
on some thoughts which have been nascent, but gaining steam. She
highlights the supposed infiltration of Soviet agents into higher
echelons of the US gov't during the FDR and Truman years. There were the
HUAC hearings, the Rosenbergs and the case of the confrontation between
Whitaker Chambers and Alger Hiss. Within this dynamic emerged the
infamous Wisconsin Senator Joseph "Tailgunner Joe" McCarthy (spoofed as
a bumbling idiot in the movie _The Manchurian Candidate_ who looked at a
ketchup bottle to arrive at the number (ie- 57) of Soviet spies in the
US gov't). Was McCarthy a cause or a symptom of Red Scare hysteria?
There emerged a strong anti-communist sentiment during the 50's within
the United States, which affected foreign policy decisions. These
decisions had repercussions for the next couple decades as the US
involved itself in two significant wars to *contain* the threat of
communism. At about the same time the US was directly involved in Korea
it was helping the French forcibly regain "their" colonies in Indochina
against the "yellow peril" of the Viet Minh. France had controlled
Vietnam (Tonkin, Annam, and Cochinchina) since the late 1800's, but WWII
had put a damper on their ability to exploit the natives.
Ironically, in the midst of WWII a tiny little Vietnamese man, some
considered a patriot, hoped that the supposedly anti-colonial US would
help his long oppressed country gain its independence from the country
that had bowed to the Third Reich and its Japanese allies. The Viet Minh
aided downed Allied pilots in Indochina and presented a source of
intelligence against the Japanese. But, alas, this Ho Chi Minh fellow
was a (gulp) communist, so instead of helping to secure independence for
Ho Chi Minh and Vietnam after WWII, the US decided it was best to coddle
France as an ally against the Soviets in Europe. Uncle Ho was just a
part of the domino prroblem as perceived by the cold warriors in
Southeast Asia. He was given the cold shoulder by Washington, which
suited Paris just fine, at least until the sea change brought about by
Dien Bien Phu, at which point the US was bankrolling a major part of
France's attempt to regain its colony, mostly so Vietnam wouldn't fall
to communism and become part of a bamboo curtain in Asia. This simpistic
anti-communist mindset casually swept aside Vietnam's long standing fear
of foreign domination such as Chinese dominance of any stripe, a fear
that predated the United States by quite a few centuries. China, the
Mongol hordes, France, or the United States, it didn't matter who the
invaders were, the Viet Minh knew they had the stamina and the home
field advantage to withstand the attack. BTW, when the Vietnamese went
to battle with their communist compatriots behind the bamboo curtain,
the Khmer Rouge, didn't they have a little skirmish with their communist
comrades the Red Chinese? So much for dominos.
After the defeat of the US-backed French at Dien Bien Phu, Vietnam was
partitioned with the Viet Minh controlling the north and a US backed
regime controlling the south. Supposedly there were to be elections to
determine the fate of all of Vietnam. Put to a fair vote, would Ho Chi
Minh or Ngo Dinh Diem have become leader of unified Vietnam? We didn't
have to find out.
With help of advisors like Edward Lansdale (a model for characters in
the Graham Greene novel _The Quiet American_ and the William
Lederer/Eugene Burdick novel _The Ugly American_ (note 1)) the South
Vietnamese leader Ngo Dinh Diem gained steam in South Vietnam. Lansdale
was heavily into psychological warfare operations and had cut his teeth
helping Ramon Magsaysay in the post WII Phillipines against the
communist Huk rebellion. One is tempted to draw paralels between
Lansdale and Thomas Lawrence, in that they both excelled at being able
to blend into a foregn culture as an outsider and they both had a knack
for special operations and intelligence work. Lansdale gave much help to
Ngo Dinh Diem in getting him control over south Vietnam, especially
given the factional warfare between sects such as the Cao Dai, the Hoa
Hao, and the mafia-esque Binh Xuyen. If Ngo was primed to be "our man"
in Vietnam against the commies up north he sure lost his edge. After
incidents with the Buddhist protestors (one engaging in self-immolation
that suicidal act of rebellion that would shock Robert McNamara and the
US later as a Quaker set himself on fire outside the Pentagon- note 2)
and Madame Nhu's insensitive BBQ comment, Ngo was pretty much done for
as he and his brother were killed in a coup de etat. Thus ensued a
revolving door of leaders propped up by the US during our long battle
against communism in Vietnam, a war with major cultural consequences
which will resonate in our collective memory for years to come.
Yet, ironically, Ho Chi Minh wanted US help for his country's desire of
independence from the French colonial masters. Going back to the 1940's
we can wonder how the situation culminated in the North Vietnamese army
shooting down US pilots and taking them prisoner during the Vietnam war
instead of the Viet Minh helping US pilots during WWII. Vive la...
Did overbearing anti-communist sentiment blind us to the alternative
routes in SE Asia? Would ticking off France (and Britain? which had
holdings in the region too and played a role in France getting ger
Southeast Asian groove back after the Japanese surrendered) have been
that bad a choice considering giving Vietnam a fresh start after WWII
and averting a nasty war which merely delayed the eventual victory of
Hanoi?
Just some meandering thoughts that might be tidied up into something
more formal with ideological underpinnings better fleshed out.
Scott Chase
note 1- ironically the actual "ugly American" in the novel _The Ugly
American_ was not ugly in the same callous sense brandished liberally by
anti-American Europeans. This "ugly American" character named Homer
Atkins was physically ugly yet acted in a manner towards native
Sarkhanese that should be an example of how foreign service people
should act when amongst foreigners in their own land.
note 2- I wonder what connection exists between the acts of
self-immolation of the Buddhist in Vietnam protesting against the
oppression of the regime of Ngo Dinh Diem and that of the Quaker in the
US protesting against the Pentagon.
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