[lbo-talk] Chomsky and History

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

> [Chomsky has long argued that the US didn't really lose the Vietnam  
> War, as below.  That seems to me correct. --CGE]
>
> The US succeeded brilliantly in its major war aims, though it  
> didn't attain its maximal goal of conquering Vietnam. The major  
> goals throughout were to prevent the "virus" of "radical  
> nationalism" from "infecting" other reasons (to use the terminology  
> that appeals to high planners) by the demonstration effect of  
> successful development -- the rational version of the "domino  
> theory." That goal was achieved.
>
> Indochina was demolished, with maybe 5 million corpses and huge  
> destruction. The surrounding areas were "inoculated" with vicious  
> and murderous dictatorships. By the early '70s, the business press  
> recognized that the US had basically won the war (that was my view  
> then as well; wrote about it at the time). To call the war a  
> "failure" is to assume that anything less than achievement of  
> maximal goals is a failure. An interesting conception, and it's an  
> interesting sign of US ideological power that the left and peace  
> movement not only accept the standard view but regard it as  
> uncontroversial.
>

The way Chomsky reads history, Washington has never lost any war nor  
anything else for that matter.  :->  That's, of course, what the  
business press want you to think.  Apply Chomsky's standard the other  
way around, though, and what do you see?  The maximal goal of the  
Vietnamese people who fought against the French, Japanese, and  
Americans couldn't be achieved, but the goal of ending formal  
colonialism and the civil war was -- quite a victory which continues  
to elude some peoples (like Afghans, Congolese, Iraqis, Northern  
Irish, Palestinians, Somalis, etc.) on this planet.  In my view, the  
left and peace movement need to remember our victories, not just  
defeats.

Yoshie Furuhashi
<http://montages.blogspot.com>
<http://monthlyreview.org>
<http://mrzine.org>
* Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: <http://montages.blogspot.com/2005/07/mahmoud- 
ahmadinejads-face.html>;  <http://montages.blogspot.com/2005/07/chvez- 
congratulates-ahmadinejad.html>; <http://montages.blogspot.com/ 
2005/06/iranian-working-class-rejects.html>