Unusual Presidential Elections

[opebo]

I was just in Vietnam for a week in December, my second trip.  Whenever I visit that country the first thing that pops into my head is 'the wrong people won'.  The occupation of the South by the North has been just that - an imposed rule by outsiders.  Its a lot like the situation in the US immediately after the civil war.  And there's really no comparison between the old Southern dictatorships and the Communists - socialism is always more disruptive and misery-causing than any rightist dictator could be.

As to whether we could have won the war - of course we could have!  In fact the problem was we hardly fought it, as some have said here.  If the politicians hadn't limited the military, we could have thoroughly destroyed the North.  Equally important would have been raising the stakes with the Russians and Chinese.  I think if we had really scared them into thinking we'd broaden the conflict they would've withdrawn support.