Lessons Needed
By Mitch Berg
The other day, I castigated the Strib’s editorial board for its dubious command of history.
What do you suppose the odds are that I’d have to do it again? This time the offender is Syl Jones, the man who combines Lori Sturdevant’s keen evenhandedness, Nick Coleman’s writing chops, and Aaron McGruder’s sharp-eyed rejection of racial cliches.
He’s just as good when it comes to history! This time, he’s comparing the President’s proposed “exit strategy” with our departure from Vietnam:
But there is something else afoot here. The folks who brought you “peace with honor” in Vietnam, officially proclaimed in January of 1973 by Republican President Richard Nixon, are also preparing to make a similar phony declaration in Iraq.
If you don’t remember that original declaration, all you need to understand is that our government’s goal during the war was to prevent the fall of Vietnam into Communist hands. Not only did we fail to do so but our 12-year presence there also inflamed a generation of Communists who subsequently slaughtered millions of their own people.
For starters, Syl, the Communists never needed to be “inflamed” to slaughter their own people. Or did you ever read about any of this?
While the United States may not be directly responsible for the atrocities committed after it departed, anyone except the most partisan observer would be forced to admit that the whole enterprise could be blamed on a form of faulty intelligence: the domino theory.
No, Syl. The fact that we got involved in a conventional land war in Asia could be blamed on the Domino Theory. The fact that we got into it with hundreds of thousands of conventional troops is blamed on John F. Kennedy’s need for an easy PR win after the debacle of the Bay of Pigs. But the Killing Fields? That happened because we left – and broke our promise to return if things got bad.
Speaking of “things getting bad”, how are Syl Jones’ thought processes working these days?
Developed primarily by President Eisenhower’s Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, the domino theory was a racist canard that stemmed directly from Dulles’ days as chairman of the Rockefeller Foundation. In that capacity, he traveled the world with John D. Rockefeller in an effort to convince his boss that the nonwhite populations of the world were growing too rapidly and must be contained.
Just re-read that graf a few times and let it sink in. Syl Jones thinks that containing communism meant containing non-white people.
(No. That would have been Margaret Sanger‘s thing).
But unlike Vietnam, where the Communists had little desire to kill Americans outside their borders, the militant Islamic insurgency is determined to end American hegemony everywhere. Peace with honor will therefore prove to be impossible in Iraq. To end this war, the American people will unfortunately be forced to face dishonor in the extreme, with little hope of ever finding peace.
That, or seeing this thing through.
So, Syl – you join me in rejecting the Democrats’ call for a fast, PR-slathered withdrawal?
November 22nd, 2006 at 11:42 am
Hey, Mitch, you should really refrain from the continual easy shots at people like poor Syl and Our Nick. The argument is something like: “A goofball is criticizing my friends. Therefore, all criticism of them is goofball, and everything they do is right and true and correct.” Or do you have another point?
regards,
bobbythehat
November 22nd, 2006 at 3:35 pm
The argument is something like: “A goofball is criticizing my friends. Therefore, all criticism of them is goofball,
Sorry, Bobby, that’s not true.
The argument is “Syl Jones is wrong and ignorant”.
It’s pretty simple.
November 22nd, 2006 at 9:27 pm
Why did the strib even print this thing? Syl Jones is described as a “journalist, playwright, and communications consultant”. He doesn’t claim to be an historian or an expert on indochina. The only ‘insight’ he claims to have is a bizarre paranoid theory about how Bush’s visit to Vietnam was meant get us used to the idea that defeat in Iraq wouldn’t be so bad.
“Vietnam is being hailed as a superstar in the making by the West . . . ” Who, exactly, in the west is saying this? Bush? I did find this quote from bizasia.com:
“The [Vietnamese] growth is the fastest in Southeast Asia but it still trails China, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand when they were at similar stages of development.”
The article goes on to state that leading the economic expansion are exports to the United States, which contradicts Jones’ claim that “Vietnam accomplished all its economic progress without the much-vaunted assistance of the West”. And who the heck ever said that the assistance of the West is necessary for economic expansion?
“. . . when the specter of Iraq clouds our vision?” Bad use of metaphor, especially since Jones claims to be “playwright” and “communications consultant”. Specters may frighten or haunt us but they don’t obscure things.
“Its leaders now openly embrace capitalism — not democracy, not voting, mind you, but capitalism — and are more than willing to allow companies like Intel and others to underpay their workers.” Jones seems to think that “capitalism” is the same as “underpaying their workers”. Wonder if he’s ever looked at the salaries of, say, Soviet era Siberian coal miners or cane harvesters in Cuba?
“The folks who brought you “peace with honor” in Vietnam, officially proclaimed in January of 1973 by Republican President Richard Nixon, are also preparing to make a similar phony declaration in Iraq.” Exactly which former architects of the 1973 cease fire agreement (that’s what it was called) are prepared to make this “phony declaration”? Kissenger? Really, this writing is atrocious.
“our 12-year presence there also inflamed a generation of Communists who subsequently slaughtered millions of their own people.” Weasel words. The implication is that the US presence caused the death of millions, but of course (as Mitch noted) it was in fact our absence that allowed the “inflamed” commies to kill millions.
Then you have the odd argument about how the Vietnam war was based on flawed intelligence, not about the Gulf of Tonkin incident, but about Dulles and the “domino theory”. Jones’ ignorance of history has to be deliberate for him to get something that has been so widely discussed so wrong.
November 23rd, 2006 at 9:41 am
Terry,
Syl is Black! The STrib gets extra credit for publishing his dreck, no matter how malodorous it’s content.
I bet they don’t even read it.