Trump’s Vietnam
Book Review
Vietnam: The
History of the War
Russell
Freedman
I’ve been on a
Russell Freedman kick lately. I love his histories filled with interesting
pictures. The books might be classified as picture books for young adults.
Indeed, his Lincoln: A Photobiography won the Newbery Award.
A few years
back I read his book on the Wright Brothers—probably because I’m from Dayton,
Ohio and as a schoolchild I visited many of the historic sites where the
brothers lived and practiced flying. (Though their bike shop is in Greenfield
Village, scooped up by Henry Ford and displaced to Dearborn, Michigan). Anyway,
it is somewhat a miracle that the Wright Brothers invented the airplane. Of course,
I always feel like that when boarding a plane. How does this work! What keep this thing from falling from the sky?!
Only one of the
brothers bothered finishing high school. They started first with the printing
press, selling broadsides etc. Then saw the rage for bicycling and moved on to
that. But by this time they were also curious about flying and contacted the
Smithsonian for information. They were very methodical in their research and what
looked like risk was, in fact, well calculated.
Just like
Freedman when preparing his picto-biographies.
Vietnam is his
latest contribution to non-fiction literature. Now there was an ill-thought-out
war. A perfect example of Anglo/Western hubris. It’s what happens when
countries invade other countries and think it’s going to be easy. Probably
every decision made in the US involvement in Vietnam turned out wrong—beginning
with the horse we choose to back: a corrupt Ngo Dinh Diem to head South Vietnam
a newly divided country. [Note to policy makers: partitions are not always the lasting
answer to internal conflict.]
So much of the
history of US involvement in Vietnam sounds familiar. But I also took away some
warning signs for the present.
From the book:
“But Diem’s
reputation as a miracle man rested on a shaky foundation. The massive American
aid that kept him in power was a substitute for his woeful lack of public
support. Members of Diem’s immediate family, devoted to their own
self-interest, held key positions in his regime.”
Does this sound
familiar? Recently Trump signed a law making it easier for investors to get
what is called a Golden Ticket. In exchange for investing a substantial sum of
money in a business and creating at least 10 permanent jobs for U.S. workers,
which benefits the economy and local communities, wealthy foreigners are
granted green cards by the government. The EB-5 visa. Congress just extended
the program until September 30th.
The U.S.
government program is again drawing scrutiny after Nicole Kushner Meyer, the
sister of White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, last weekend touted the
fast-track to legal status as part of a real estate pitch to Chinese investors
in which her family's company has a stake. Meyer reportedly was selling investments
in a New Jersey luxury apartment complex as part of an effort to raise $150
million in funding for the project.
Here is an
example of a corrupt government: where officials use policy to personally
benefit. And, why can’t a potential terrorist just buy a visa and enter the
States. Osama Bin Laden’s Saudi family owned a multi-billion dollar
construction company with international contracts including the US—today they
could buy a visa for Osama.
Furthermore,
now there’s this:
Now there’s a
black hole where already countless civilians and over 8,000 troops have been
killed and close to 500 billion sunk. The Soviets couldn’t occupy and neither
could the British (The First Anglo-Afghan War
also known as the great disaster was fought between British imperial
India and the Emirate of Afghanistan from 1839 to 1842. The war is famous for
the loss of 4,500 British and Indian soldiers, plus 12,000 of their camp
followers).
Does history
teach us nothing?
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