>On Sun, 7 Apr 2002, Doug Henwood wrote:
>
>> Did the U.S. really lose the Vietnam war?
>
>Yes. How can you doubt it? Everything we feared happened. To put it
>differently: things could not possibly have worked out worse, and could
>well have worked out better, if we'd let them hold an election in 1954.
>Everything it cost us was in vain. How is that not losing?
>
>> The only revolution of consequence after the U.S. withdrawal was in
>> Nicaragua, and that didn't end very well.
>
>Yes, but what does one have to do with the other?
Because the U.S., despite having "lost" the war, left Vietnam such a wreck that it discouraged any rude experiments elsewhere.
Doesn't Chomsky make this argument? I think I first got the idea from him, and was persuaded.
Doug