General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsJune 8, 1972: "Too hot! Too hot!"
Published May 31, 2012
Associated Press
TRANG BANG, Vietnam In the picture, the girl will always be 9 years old and wailing "Too hot! Too hot!" as she runs down the road away from her burning Vietnamese village.
The little girl heard a roar overhead and twisted her neck to look up. As the South Vietnamese Skyraider plane grew fatter and louder, it swooped down toward her, dropping canisters like tumbling eggs flipping end over end.
Fire danced up Phuc's left arm. The threads of her cotton clothes evaporated on contact. Trees became angry torches. Searing pain bit through skin and muscle.
In shock, she sprinted down Highway 1 behind her older brother. She didn't see the foreign journalists gathered as she ran toward them, screaming. Then, she lost consciousness.
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/05/31/shocking-ap-napalm-girl-photo-turns-40/
rfranklin
(13,200 posts)We sure showed them Commies!
coalition_unwilling
(14,180 posts)episode was dropped by one of our puppets.
A small, technical distinction.
Now back to regular programming.
Zorra
(27,670 posts)Was it really just about making more profits for the 1%? I think that was the primary reason for the war.
Was there some population control that needed to be done?
What many don't know is that somewhere between 2,500,000 and 3.000,000 people were killed in that conflict.
The number of those maimed by the conflict was probably higher.
The psychological and emotional toll is inestimable, but in reality just as egregious.
WTF was it all about?
madokie
(51,076 posts)I and many of us was told that we had to stop the commies over there before they got over here.
I shit you not
Bigmack
(8,020 posts)The years and the wars change but the reasons for remains the same. Which is mostly American Hegemony. IMO
coalition_unwilling
(14,180 posts)their tickets. I mean, really, where would Colin Powell be without My Lai?
(in case it's needed)
Scuba
(53,475 posts)... and that Brown and Root was making a fortune building airstrips, naval ports and other crap in Viet Nam.
That was my last day as a gung ho SSgt.
scarletwoman
(31,893 posts)<snip>
The standard story in the United States about that war is that in our quest to guarantee peace and freedom for Vietnam, we misunderstood its history, politics and culture, leading to mistakes that doomed our effort. Some argue we should have gotten out sooner than we did; others suggest we should have fought harder. But the common ground in mainstream opinion is that our motives were noble.
But we never fought in Vietnam for democracy. After World War II, the United States supported and financed France's attempt to retake its former colony. After the Vietnamese defeated the French in 1954, the Geneva Conference called for free elections in 1956, which the United States and its South Vietnamese client regime blocked. In his memoirs, President Eisenhower explained why: In free elections, the communists would have won by an overwhelming margin. The United States is all for elections, so long as they turn out the way we want.
The central goal of U.S. policy-makers in Vietnam had nothing to do with freedom for the Vietnamese people, but instead was to make sure that an independent socialist course of development did not succeed. U.S. leaders invoked Cold War rhetoric about the threat of the communist monolith but really feared that a "virus" of independent development might infect the rest of Asia, perhaps even becoming a model for all the Third World.
To prevent the spread of the virus, we dropped 6.5 million tons of bombs and 400,000 tons of napalm on the people of Southeast Asia. Saturation bombing of civilian areas, counterterrorism programs and political assassination, routine killings of civilians and 11.2 million gallons of Agent Orange to destroy crops and ground cover -- all were part of the U.S. terror war in Vietnam, as well as Laos and Cambodia.
<snip>
Zorra
(27,670 posts)northoftheborder
(7,575 posts)dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)Remember Kissinger and his attitude to what he called "useless eaters"?
From Wiki...
.National Security Study Memorandum 200: Implications of Worldwide Population Growth for U.S. Security and Overseas Interests (NSSM200) was completed on December 10, 1974 by the United States National Security Council under the direction of Henry Kissinger.
It was adopted as official U.S. policy by President Gerald Ford in November 1975. It was originally classified, but was later declassified and obtained by researchers in the early 1990s.
Thirteen countries are named in the report as particularly problematic with respect to U.S. security interests: India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Turkey, Nigeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil. These countries are projected to create 47 percent of all world population growth.
Much more here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Security_Study_Memorandum_200
The entire Memorandum is downloadable as a pdf on the Wiki page.
bvar22
(39,909 posts)This is STILL our EXACT Foreign Policy in Latin America.
Colombia, which has one of the worst Right Wing Human Rights Violating governments in Latin America is the 3rd Largest recipient of US Foreign Aid.
The bi-partisan policy of the US Government is to DEMONIZE, CONDEMN, and ELIMINATE the transparent Populist Democracies that are emerging in Central & South America.
We should be helping these young Democracies instead of driving them into the arms of Iran, Russia, and China.
We WILL Reap the Whirlwind for our shortsighted Foreign Policy in Latin America.
You will know them by their WORKS,
not by their excuses.
[font size=5 color=green]Solidarity99![/font][font size=2 color=green]
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valerief
(53,235 posts)coalition_unwilling
(14,180 posts)a "noble cause". Yet another reason to revile his memory.
2on2u
(1,843 posts)YOU CANNOT HANDLE EXTREME EMOTIONALLY DISTURBING IMAGES.
99Forever
(14,524 posts).. deep down inside. Thank you for reminding me why I absolutely hate the War Machine and all of it's parts.
2on2u
(1,843 posts)way to the Baghdad airport. AGAIN GRAPHIC WARNING:
There have several cases in which white phosphorus (WP) has been used as an anti-personnel weapon in Iraq by the United States military. Although initially denied, its use by the US was later confirmed by a United States army general serving in Iraq. General Pace, then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff denied allegations that the weapon was used against civilians, maintaining that it was only targeted on insurgents.
coalition_unwilling
(14,180 posts)as a child.
(in case it's needed to head off the alert)