Bush involkes "tragedy of vietnam"

[foreigner]

"Whatever your position in that debate, one unmistakable legacy of Vietnam is that the price of America's withdrawal was paid by millions of innocent citizens, whose agonies would add to our vocabulary new terms like 'boat people,' 're-education camps' and 'killing fields,' " the president said.

 

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/08/22/bush.iraq.speech/?iref=mpstoryview

 

now that vietnam ran the colonialist out they seem to be doing better ..

the older vietnamese smoking cigarettes like an upper class & thoughtful frenchman were so 'comic book character like' to me.

 

the # of collateral innocents killed by kissenger's carpet bombing were not mentioned in bush's speech

nor were the monteyards & hmong warriors that were left to be slaughtered

nor the agent orange toll.

 

i'm having a hard time rationalizing pol pot's agenda .. but cheney was surely involved.

 

 

[OCgringo]

i'm having a hard time rationalizing pol pot's agenda .. but cheney was surely involved.

 

 

I know you hate the USA, but is this going a little far ?

 

OC

 

[samak]

i'm having a hard time rationalizing pol pot's agenda .. but cheney was surely involved.

Kissinger and his president (his name would not come to my mind at the moment) were also involved. they supported the weak Long Nol government and accused Sihanouk of collaboration with China, so the red khmer could evolve.

 

[foreigner]

i'm having a hard time rationalizing pol pot's agenda .. but cheney was surely involved.

 

I know you hate the USA, but is this going a little far ?

 

OC

 

you make me LOL! .. thanks!

was meant 100% as goofin' .. but I think cheney was actually in the nixon whitehouse w/ kissinger.

[chuckwoww]

Cheney turned 18 in '59. He left Yale in '62 after getting 5 draft deferrments. He worked as an intern for Congressman William A. Steiger during the Nixon Administration

[foreigner]

thanks.

he & rummy were together in the ford administration. Ford finished the Nixon term

 

the cheney / pol pot line was not serious

although I do see a cheney like persona in Pol Pot

(= 1/2 way joke)

[Fidel]

When the Vietnamese invaded to liberate the Cambodians from the Khmer Rouge, the US backed the Khmer Rouge.. armed them, funded them.. sick bastards.

[Bangkoktraveler]

I didn't know that. But didn't some other countries fund the Khmer Rouge also?

[Julian2]

I think Thailand, who possibly had better reasons than most to fear a Vietnamese invasion, looked upon Cambodia as a buffer country and supported any Government that weren't a Vietnamese puppet state like Lao.

Pol Pot sheltered in Thailand for years after the Viets evicted him with very little interference.

All water under the bridge now but it amused me that Bush is drawing comparisons between Iraq and Vietnam after denying there weren't any for years. A little bit of straw clutching maybe?

[longwoodguy74]

Bush's statements, as usual, show a lack of knowledge.

 

The 'Killing Fields' that he refers to as a result of US withdrawal from Vietnam - as has already been pointed out - occurred in Cambodia. They also began prior to the fall of Saigon. They were also perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge, who were 'indirectly' radicalized by the American carpet bombing of eastern cambodia. The Khmer Rouge, ironically, were overthrown by the Communist Vietnamese...and were then funded and supported by the US as they retreated to the thai borderlands.

 

The sheer ignorance of Bush's statement is astonishing.