Nick Demos wrote:

> > Nick asks:
> >
> > > I couldn't avoid a little cynicism here:
> > >
> > >  Was Ho Chi Minh a nationalist first or a Communist first?
> >
> > There wasn't any difference between the two -- or any seeming
> alternative --
> > for many people around the world in the first half of the 20th Century. At
> > the heart of every great struggle lies the question of social justice, not
> > economics or a lust for power. Ho Chi Minh was primarily a nationalist;
> > Communism was the mechanism by which he believed he could achieve that end
> > for Viet Nam, but he was also very pro-American and he very much believed
> in
> > the ideals of Jefferson.
> >
> Is "social justice" at the point of a gun really justice?
>
> OK his alliance with the Soviets was only a means to an end.  But what was
> really his
> aim?  Again I refer you to the Cuba experience.  "Social justice" or
> socialism or
> whatever you want to call it is eventually stultifying.
>
> Our role in Viet Nam was obviously full of political and strategic blunders
> but that does
> not make Ho Chi Minh Mr. Goody Two Shoes anymore than what happened to the
> North (china) an example for a prosperous and civil society.
>
> Nick D.
>
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Nick,


Maybe Ho was not Mr. Goody, but the alternative was French imperialism. The
corruption was not good for the people at all.

Ho and his successor freed Viet Nam of its oppressors the French.

Later they successfully removed the Cambodian Kmer Rouge goverment. Have seen
(part of) Killing Feilds, then could you know that Viet Nam's socialism was not
at bad as Cambodians experiment.

I do not say that Viet Nam's socialism is at great, but it is a better
alternative to the people then keeping the French imperialistic government of
the 20th century.


Regards,


Jan Gerrit Kootstra

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