My youngest son and his girlfriend are vacationing in Vietnam. Renting scooters and staying at a beach resort. It is cheap, fun and safe.
But it wasn't always.
In 64 South Vietnamese Commandos conducted a series of raids into the North...damaging piers, radar sites and bridges. And killing a lot of people. The CIA planned and funded these incursions, called OPLAN 34A. They provided money and planning, but got the South Vietnamese to do the dying.
On the day of one such raid, the USS Maddox, in the Tonkin Gulf, was attacked by Patrol boats from the North. Twice. Unprovoked. Even though North Vietnam had been repeatedly attacked, it was called unprovoked.
Documents declassified in 2005 show that the attacks were mostly fabricated. Mostly BS. Although the Captain of the Maddox tried to correct the incident report, admitting it was crap, President Johnson used the lies to go to war. The Tonkin Gulf Incident. 58,000 US boys died as a result. Maybe 2 million Asians, who knows?
Johnson wanted to stop the spread of Communism. The Domino Effect. The World would disintegrate if Vietnam fell. Communists would run over the World like lemmings. Senator J. William Fulbright sold this BS to the Senate and the American people. He was LBJ's agent. Only Sen Wayne Morse of Oregon had the balls to object, saying that the US would come to regret the decision. He was right. In later years, Fulbright apologized to both Congress and the American people for lying to them. He spent his last years trying to repair the harm he had done. He often spoke against "the arrogance of power". The "War Powers Act", limiting rogue Presidents, was the result. It didn't bring back the 58,000 boys.
Whether it was "remember the Maine" weapons of mass destruction, or the Tonkin Gulf, the false flags always fly, major news media beats the drum, and the American people fall for the propaganda. Again and again. Flush the chunks, they call it.
The US left Vietnam in March of 73. Saigon fell in 75, and the North and South reunited in 76. The World did not end. They have become major trading partners of the USA. So much for the Dominoes.
And my boy and Cybil drink umbrella drinks by the bay, in an area that I once knew very well.
Stay free. Think for yourself.......FWB
