Rorty reviewed

[Brad De Long]

>On Mon, 1 Jun 1998, Brad De Long wrote:
>
>> >The harsh response to Rorty may have something to do with his
>> >penchant for gratuitous, con-baiting asides, such as the one in which he
>> >absurdly states that "we caused the death of a million Vietnamese out of
>> >sheer macho arrogance."
>>
>> But we did cause the death of a million Vietnamese out of sheer macho
>> arrogance...
>>
>WAsn't it the defense of the free world against the Red Menace?

But after 1956--when Krushchev denounces and Mao embraces Stalin--there are
*two* red menaces that fear and hate each other more than they fear and
hate "the west."

A Soviet-allied state to the South of China would have been just what the
geopolitical doctor ordered to try to "contain" Mao...

Yet somehow after 1975 we wind up supporting Chinese attempts to "keep
Vietnam a lesson" (and in the process helping create a safe place along the
Thai-Cambodian border for Pol Pot and his bunch of genocidal thugs) because
of the injury that the Vietnamese government inflicted on the U.S.'s sense
of power...

Brad DeLong