[lbo-talk] Democracy Now 5/26

[Luke Weiger]

It's possible, though to my mind unlikely, that the consequences of the
Vietnam war were (on balance) positive for the US ruling class.  But victory
in war=achieving strategic aims.  The war planners in the Kennedy and
Johnson administrations weren't worried by the thought that Uncle Ho might
end up creating a socialist utopia in Vietnam worthy of emulation.  Quite
simply, the thought never occurred to them.  Thus, preventing the
realization of utopia in Vietnam wasn't among the war planners' aims.

-- Luke

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Chip Berlet" <cberlet at igc.org>
To: <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org>
Sent: Friday, May 28, 2004 3:14 PM
Subject: RE: [lbo-talk] Democracy Now 5/26


> Hi,
>
> The idea of strategic victory through isolation and immiseration has
> real merit.  As Luke points out, it's not something to just be dismissed
> glibly.
>
> :-)
>
> Chip "Mr. Glib" Berlet
>
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Willy Greenfields [mailto:filthydirtyunwashed at yahoo.com]
> > Sent: Friday, May 28, 2004 2:05 PM
> > To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> > Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Democracy Now 5/26
> >
> >
> >
> > Luke Weiger <lweiger at umich.edu> wrote:
> >
> > > I know.  I mean, for example, Chomsky thinks the US
> > > _won_ the Vietnam war...
> >
> > I am inclined to agree with him. Countless/uncountable
> > numbers of dead Vietnamese/Lao/Cambodians vs some
> > 58,000 US fatalities. And consider the isolation and
> > immiseration which followed. Similarly, the US won the Cold
> > War, both by outlasting the USSR and by subsequently imposing
> > an incredibly punitive 'reform' regime under which many
> > million former Soviet citizens' lives ended unnecessarily early.
> >
> > In neither case did the empire get what it claimed it
> > wanted (free market democracies), but it sure beat the
> > shit out of the poor citizens constituting its
> > erstwhile opponent.
> >
> >
> >
> >
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