HO CHI MINH

The Vietnam  War was the worst of times for the United States. The War was extremely unpopular in the United States. Sixty thousand Americans killed.

Riots and demonstrations everywhere against the War. Veterans returning home from the fighting not receiving a hero's welcome. In many instances, ill treated.

The United States involvement was from 1955 to 1975. It increased every year during that time. Kennedy had a minor build up. Johnson the biggest. Johnson wanted to be a President that won a big war. He wanted to be Roosevelt. He bombed the hell out of North Vietnam.

The War technically ended in 1973. However, as a practical matter it continued into 1975.

I admire and respect the men and women who fought for us in the War. However, as brave and as daring as they were, my impression is that the United States lost the War. This is best exemplified by the last two days the United States was formally in Vietnam.

The U.S. Embassy in Saigon was under siege. Only the Marines and a wall and metal gates kept the hordes of North Vietnamese from taking over the compound. 

We left with our tails between our legs. On April 29, 1975 and into the next day April 30, U.S. helicopters were landing on the Embassy roof removing American personnel and military. The roof was the only way out. Those Vietnamese who worked for the Americans tried to get out via the helicopters. There was no room. They were left to the mercy of the North Vietnamese. There was no mercy.

Chaos best describes the evacuation. I recall watching on television. It was a shame. A disgrace. Our people were minutes from capture and/or death as the last helicopters left. Removing the American flag from roof was an act of bravery by those who did it. A few minutes later, with no Marines guarding the walls and gates, the North Vietnamese gain access to the Embassy and its grounds. The whole scenario embarrassing.

Why were we in Vietnam in the first place? Immediately after World War II, the United States and Russia were enemies. I can remember the era clearly. We feared the Russians were going to drop an atomic bomb on us. It was a cold war, however, We all feared a hot war.

In the schools, we were taught to crouch under our desks or in a corridor with no windows if there was an attack. Washington recommended that shelters be built in backyards. For 30 plus years, there existed a current of uneasiness.

The draft was in operation. Many families were sending their sons to Canada to avoid the draft. The War was not popular.

We fought proxy wars. First in Korea, then Vietnam. 

It was really not the Koreans or Vietnamese we were fighting. It was the Russians and China. The theory on both sides was that it was better to fight a war against each other and with other peoples in a far off place rather than at home.

The North Vietnamese were tough. Just as our boys were. They fought us in the woods. They lived and operated from underground tunnels extending miles. It was guerrilla warfare at its best.

Their leader was Ho Chi Minh, aka Nguyen Ai Quoc. Difficult and unbending. He and his people were ready to fight forever to kick the Americans out. Sort of like 
Harrison Ford when he threw the bad guy off his plane while saying.....Get off my plane. The North Vietnamese were saying.....Get out on my country!

The purpose of this column is to share Ho Chi Minh's rise to the top. During the War, he served at various times as Prime Minister, President, and military leader. He is the one who inspired his people to fight on against the white devils. Surprisingly, a number of black Americans fought and died on behalf of the United States.

His first trip out of Vietnam was as a student in France in 1911. He got to France by working as a kitchen helper on a ship.

1912 and 1913 were spent in the United States. He lived in Harlem and Boston. Worked as a baker at the Parker House Hotel in Boston. When not a baker or pastry chef, he accepted any  menial job.

Fast tracking, he spent time in the United Kingdom working as a waiter and pastry chef. Later in Moscow as a university student. Followed by a trip to China. His time in China was spent organizing revolutionary people. While there, he met and married a young Chinese woman.

In 1927 and 1928, he helped defeat Chiang Kai-shek's anti-communist group.

Then it was back to traveling. He stayed a while in each place working and learning the habits of the people. His trips took him to Russia once again, followed by Germany, Switzerland, and Italy.

Minh spent World War II fighting the Vichy French and Japan in Vietnam. He was a recognized successful military leader.

American intelligence (OSS) had a team called Deer that parachuted into North Vietnam.  Minh was seriously sick. The team saved his life. In return, Minh agreed to provide intelligence and rescue downed American pilots. He wanted consideration for his efforts however in the form of ammunition, weapons and military training. He received everything he asked for.

By 1945, he was a popular Vietnamese Communist revolutionary leader. At that time, he helped establish the Communist ruled Democratic Party of Vietnam.

After World War II, Minh's people were fighting for independence from the French. Minh asked the World War II intelligence team to intercede for him. He wanted the United States to take a stand against France and support his group.

A year later, Minh personally pleaded with President Truman for help against the French. Truman turned him down on the basis that Minh'spolitics were looked upon with disfavor by the United States.

Minh's group defeated the French in 1954 and established in its place the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

The rest is the history outlined earlier.

Minh died in 1976.

He left his hand prints on Vietnamese and world history. He led his country in defeating France and the United States.

A soap box point. I believe one of the reasons we got beat in Korea and Vietnam is that the United States stopped fighting wars as they did during World War II. Back then, we fought to win. Since then, the battles are smaller. There is more bombing. We do not send overwhelming force any longer to defeat an enemy. We also must be careful of the people by not doing anything that would harm a civilian population.

Wars are not won that way. If the decision is made to fight, then the United States should go in and beat the hell out of the opposition. We are supposedly the strongest nation in the world. It has been a long time since we used that power. The result is that every two bit leader fears us not as he should..

MAKING OF A STAR

I want to introduce you to the real Tom Cotton. You met him ten days ago. He is the U.S. Senator who wrote the letter to Iran. The letter signed by 46 other Republican Senators. The letter sent in an attempt to dissuade the Iranians from entering into a nuclear agreement with the United States.

My initial reaction was.....Who the hell was this guy? Thirty seven years old, a Senator only 61 days. Was he being used as a front by more experienced Republican Senators? Was he looking for 15 seconds of notoriety?

He may be the new kid on the block Senate wise. Otherwise, he is a person on track by Republican conservatives to someday be President. He is unabashedly a neoconservative Republican with a tea party attitude. Groomed by the big guys and money men to lead.

One of my initial thoughts was that Cotton was an opportunist (in the ilk of his fellow Congress persons) who could be bought with contributions and perks. Anything to enhance his career. Not so. Cotton's danger is he believes everything he says.

His background says it all.

From Arkansas, he is 37, married and has two children. Harvard undergrad and Harvard law school. Served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Two tours at the front. He volunteered the second time.

He was elected to Congress in 2012. Served one term. In 2014, elected to the Senate. In a short time, he has become the most powerful man in Washington. Notice, not one of. Rather, THE. And we didn't know!

His Harvard senior thesis discussed our Founding Fathers and the Constitution. He claimed the Founding Fathers were wise not to put much faith in democracy because people are inherently selfish, narrow minded, and impulsive.

He defended the premise that the new country should be led by a class of intellectually superior office holders. Those whose ambitions set them apart from other men. He admitted his position might be elitist. Anyone who thought he was being an elitist was mushy headed and naive. 

While at Harvard, Cotton became impressed with one of his teachers. Professor Harvey Claflin Mansfield greatly influenced him.

William Kristol was another Harvard student impressed by the Professor's teachings. The William Kristol now Editor of the Standard Weekly and a frequent political commentator.

Kristol was a student of the Professor years before Cotton. Somewhere along the way, Kristol and Cotton met and bonded. The glue being that they thought the same way. Kristol became Cotton's advisor/mentor.

During his one term as Congressman, Cotton introduced a bill whose language would over turn the Constitution's  prohibition of attainder. Article I, sections 9 & 10, prohibit any legislature from declaring a person or group of persons guilty of a crime and punishing them without a judicial trial.

Kristol formed an Emergency Committee for Israel which was financially supported by those who opposed an Iran deal. The Committee gave Cotton close to $1 million in the closing weeks of his Senate campaign.

Another benefactor is Sheldon Gary Adelson.  A neoconservative opposed to any Iranian agreement. Adelson is the eighth richest man in the world,. His fortune estimated at $36.4 billion. A business magnate, he also owns the daily newspaper Israel Ha Yam.

Cotton is also supported by Floyd Abrams. Abrams is the leading American attorney with regard to issues involving First Amendment rights. A supporter of Citizens United. He interprets the Constitution being in favor of a government by the rich.

When the Hurricane Sandy relief bill was before Congress, Cotton voted against it. He said, "I don't think Arkansas needs to bail out the Northeast." 

Cotton's penning the Iran letter was his coming out party. A conservative superstar introduced to the world.

The frosting on the cake is that Cotton is a neocon. A neocon meteor. A uber hawk. It has been said he loves war a little too much.

Such thinking would make him a child of the military industrial complex. The rich, again. The corporations that need wars to sell their products.

Cotton bothers me. The reason he bothers me is because he believes what he says. He is not the typical politician who speaks out of both sides of his mouth, rarely takes a stand. His beliefs are so far to the right, I worry. Cotton has the blessing and support of the oligarchy. With the money of the rich and his belief in the superiority of them, he can/will go a long way.

The political mood of the country is changing. Far to the right conservatives are being elected in larger numbers. Which says to me people must want what these candidates think and preach. I fear government for the people is slipping away.

MASS KILLINGS COMMON

ISIS has brought to our attention beh eadings, persons burned alive, persons buried alive, women and children sold into slavery, and mass killings otherwise. As a people, we are upset. We cannot understand these examples of man's inhumanity to man.

Surprise, beheadings, etc. are as old as civilization itself. What ISIS is doing is not new.

Look first in our own backyard.

The Pilgrims and Indians celebrated the first Thanksgiving in 1621.Two years later in 1623, Miles Standish decapitated an Indian chieftain. He then impaled the head on a spike outside Plymouth fort.

In 1637, 700 men, women and children of the Pequot Tribe were shot or clubbed to death. The next day, the Governor of Massachusetts  Colony declared a Day of Thanksgiving because the 700 had been killed.

Another Day of Thanksgiving was declared soon thereafter when members of the Pequot Tribe in what is now the Stamford, Connecticut area, had their heads hacked off. The heads were then kicked down the streets of Stamford like soccer balls.

Attacks continued. Many Pequot women and children over 14 were sold into slavery. Boats carrying as many as 500 regularly left New England ports for Europe.The slave trade in reverse.

Recall the Salem witch hunts. Supposed witches were burned alive at the stake.

A black revolution occurred in 1811 near New Orleans. Twenty one black slaves revolted. All were subsequently captured. Most were beheaded and their heads displayed on spikes and gates as a warning to other slaves to not even think of revolting.

Now to Europe and Asia.

The Bible tells us John the Baptist was beheaded.

Ancient Celts beheaded the enemy. They would hang the heads on their horses or nail them to the front door of their homes.

The Romans conquered the Celts. The Romans held the Celts in such disdain that they beheaded the Celts in return.

There was a Dracula. For real. He was Count Vlad. In the 1450s, he was ruler of what is now Romania. All were required to agree with him. Dissent was not tolerated. He killed people by impalement. Bent them over and pushed a long spike into one part of the body and out another.  Then left them hanging on the spikes. It is reported he killed 100,000 of his subjects during his reign. It is said he drank some of their blood with his meals.

He also skinned people alive. Especially unfaithful lovers.

Turkey was at war with Romania in 1459. Vlad captured 20,000 Turks. He had them all impaled on stakes.

Vlad was born in Transylvania. His father was Dracul. Translated meant Dragon or Devil. Ergo, Vlad was the son of the Devil. In addition to Vlad, he was also known as Dracula

The Catholic Church made its contribution to pain and suffering. The Inquisition. Basically, three. The Spanish, Portuguese and Roman. They started operating in the 1200s. Some were still in effect into the 1800s.

The Inquisition put its victims through extreme torture. If a person confessed, the torture ended. That person was then burned alive at the stake. Burning at the stake was considered humane.

Who can forget the French Revolution. Thousands were beheaded by means of the guillotine. What history has failed to publicize is that many of the heads were placed on spikes and the revolutionaries ran around the streets waving them.

Hitler has the distinction of having killed more persons than any other tyrant. We all know of the six million Jews. Few are aware however of the three million Russian soldiers and two million Poles he also ordered killed. The Russians and Poles were captives and most in concentration camps at the time. 

In the late 1970s, Cambodia suffered genocide on a large scale. The Khmer Rouge was responsible for 2 million deaths. Decapitations took place when the victims were alive and others when dead. The heads were strewn along the countryside.

Bosnia and Herzegovina were genocide sites from 1992-1995. Ritualistic beheadings of captive Serbs and Croats took place.

Saudi Arabia still beheads wrongdoing. 

There are more. History is replete with such killings.

These killings and the methods used tell us man must have an inner instinct/need to kill. It has happened too often and in too large numbers to be otherwise.

ISIS is merely the most recent perpetrator of such deeds. I suspect we are more upset re ISIS because of the Internet. ISIS has made sure the beheadings, burnings, etc. have been visually publicized world wide.

Man's inhumanity to man. It exists. If history is a teacher, it will never leave us no matter how civilized we become.