Vietnam's (meager) resources

[Michael Perelman]

I always toyed with the idea that we fought in Vietnam because we had so
little at stake.  If we were willing to fight so hard there, just imagine what
would happen to someone where we had strategic investments.

In the film, Burn, mentioned a few days ago, the British destroyed their "own"
island to prove a point.  In the same sense, Vietnam may have been a
"demonstration project" to prove our resolve to fight communism.

Doug Henwood wrote:


> Why is it so hard to believe that the U.S. really *was* fighting Communism
> in Vietnam? Why do we have to assume the war really was over some precious
> natural resource? The domino effect may have been ludicrous in strictly
> military terms, but if the U.S. hadn't spent the last 50 years destroying
> socialist and nationalist revolutions (and the USSR), the world would be a
> very different place.
>
> Doug

--
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929

Tel. 916-898-5321
E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu