>Yoshie wrote:
>
>>"Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" -- the most
>>memorable words from the Declaration of Independence --
>>are not patriotic goals; they are goals of possessive
>>individualism dedicated to accumulation of as much profits >as possible.
>
>>In contrast, the ideals of the French Revolution -- Liberté, >Egalité,
>Fraternité -- are patriotic.
>
>Declaration of Independence of the Democratic (later Socialist) Republic of
>Viet Nam, read out by President Ho Chi Minh in Hanoi on September 2 1945
>
>"All men are created equal. They are endowed by their Creator with certain
>inalienable rights, among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of
>Happiness" This immortal statement was made in the Declaration of
>Independence of the United States of America m 1776. In a broader sense,
>this means: All the peoples on the earth are equal from birth, all the
>peoples have a right to live, to be happy and free. The Declaration of the
>French Revolution made in 1791 on the Rights of Man and the Citizen also
>states: "All men are born free and with equal rights, and must always
>remain free and have equal rights." Those are undeniable truths.
Ho was sticking to the policy and rhetoric of the Popular Front (anti-fascist alliance between Communists, liberal democrats, etc. and patriotic revolution against colonial masters as a stage on the path toward socialism), banking on the US government to prevail upon the French to leave its colonies in Indochina (especially since Roosevelt suggested he might), but Communists evidently underestimated the depth of the US government's commitment to imperialism (forgetting Lenin's argument that capitalism has reached the stage that requires imperialism for its survival and that imperialism isn't a matter of "foreign policy" subject to change), which no alliance of convenience could override for long:
***** The Anti-War Movement We are Supposed to Forget
H. Bruce Franklin in the Chronicle of Higher Education
10-20-2000
...Those Americans who knew anything about Vietnam during World War II knew that the United States had been allied with the Viet Minh, the Vietnamese liberation movement led by Ho Chi Minh, and had actually provided some arms to their guerrilla forces, commanded by Vo Nguyen Giap. American fliers rescued by Giap's guerrillas testified to the rural population's enthusiasm for both the Viet Minh and the United States, which they saw as the champion of democracy, antifascism, and anti-imperialism. American officials and officers who had contact with Ho and the Viet Minh were virtually unanimous in their support and admiration. The admiration was mutual. In September 1945 the Viet Minh issued the Vietnamese Declaration of Independence, which began with a long quotation from the U.S. Declaration of Independence, proclaiming the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. The regional leaders of the O.S.S. (predecessor of the C.I.A.) and U.S. military forces joined in the celebration, with General Philip Gallagher, chief of the U.S. Military Advisory and Assistance Group, singing the Viet Minh's national anthem on Hanoi radio.
But in the following two months, the United States committed its first act of warfare against the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. At least 8 and possibly 12 U.S. troopships were diverted from their task of bringing American troops home from World War II and instead began transporting U.S.-armed French troops and Foreign Legionnaires from France to recolonize Vietnam. The enlisted crewmen of these ships, all members of the U.S. Merchant Marine, immediately began organized protests. On arriving in Vietnam, for example, the entire crews of four troopships met together in Saigon and drew up a resolution condemning the U.S. government for using American ships to transport troops "to subjugate the native population" of Vietnam.
The full-scale invasion of Vietnam by French forces, once again equipped and ferried by the United States, began in 1946. An American movement against the war started to coalesce as soon as significant numbers of Americans realized that Washington was supporting France's war against the Democratic Republic of Vietnam....
<http://www.geocities.com/elethinker/RG/forget.htm> *****
Vietnamese Communists, as well as American soldiers who participated in the first Anti-Vietnam War direct action, continued to believe in the Popular Front for some time, even after the US government began to ditch it in preparation for its post-war hegemony.
And not just in Vietnam. Communists in Japan were instructed not to resist but to cooperate with US occupiers. That's the real problem of Stalinism that LBO-talkers, including those who profess to hate Stalin, probably don't remember. -- Yoshie
* Calendar of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html> * Anti-War Activist Resources: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osu.edu/students/CJP/>