Re: Why did the U.S. remain in Vietnam?

Mark Bunster (mbunster@saturn.vcu.edu)
Wed, 6 Nov 1996 08:39:09 -0500

>closely knit and organized native population that excelled at jungle warfare
>and had an almost ingrained hatred of Americans. True fact: in WWII, when
>American and British pilots were in training, they were warned about flying
>over Vietnam (then called Annam). If a pilot went down over Annam, he was
>urged to surrender to the Japanese before allowing himself to be taken by
>the hostile Vietnamese natives(technically our allies in that conflict).
>They just didn't like us over there.

>Fritz V. Wilson
>Northwestern University, Evanston, IL. USA
>f-wilson@nwu.edu

I have no hard facts to back this up, but even by 1975 it was clear that US
leadership had no clue about the Vietnamese mind; that anybody had an
accurate picture of them in WWII is even more doubtful. My perception is
that Vietnamese people had an understandably ingrained hatred of colonists
and invaders, be they Chinese, Japanese, French or American. The leap to
distrust of foreigners in general is not a large one.

I think, therefore, that "ingrained hatred" of Americans was probably not a
driving factor in the failure of our involvement...

M
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Mark Bunster * In such an ugly time
mbunster@saturn.vcu.edu * the true protest
Survey Research Lab * is beauty
Va. Commonwealth U. *
Richmond, VA 23284 * -Ochs