From: Tom Sweetnam (savamutt@trailnet.com)
Date: Fri Apr 28 2000 - 20:18:19 PDT
> The whole vietnam thing has been hot lately as far sas press coverage
goes. NPR >and the like have been having a field day going over such things
IMHO what seems >like a vain attempt to show that communism sucks (again).
Must read the article.
Actually, nearly every Vietnam veteran I maintain contact with has been back
over there, excepting myself, unfortunately, and I really think we've moved
way past trying to show up this worker's paradise for the miserable
ideological failure its been. This is a country with an average annual
income of $133 US, where masses of children still starve to death every
monsoon for lack of rice, and depending on the time of year, this is also a
country that hovers somewhere between #1 and #4 on the dubious chart of
'Five Poorest Nations on Earth'.
Most caring Vietnam veterans currently involved in promoting free and open
commerce in Vietnam are genuinely motivated by altruism. Understandably,
many Vietnam veterans are emotionally joined at the hip with this nation,
and are promoting business and free enterprise as the only viable solution
to alleviate the nation's deplorable poverty. Corruption amongst the old
Communist cadre in Hanoi is the firewall they encounter now. High profile
Vietnam veterans currently in the news, and the American press accompanying
them, are far less involved in beating capitalism' breast, or with an
ideological pissing contest if you like, than they are in sounding alarm
knells about a system teetering on the brink of collapse.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Apr 28 2000 - 20:20:59 PDT