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Old 09-18-2010, 10:57 PM
obbop obbop is offline
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Join Date: Aug 2004
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Dig further into South Vietnamese society and note the many internal troubles. How a Roman Catholic elite class distributed wealth and power alienating large segments of the populace.

One could spend a multitude of hours obtaining the knowledge required just to make a feeble stab at guestimating the ins-and-outs of why what happened in South Vietnam came about.

I doubt if I was a typical South Vietnamese citizen that I would have donned a uniform and placed my life on the line fighting the "invader" from the north.

Heck, I may have viewed them as liberators and viewed the ruling junta in the south as more of an enemy than Uncle Ho!!!!!!

There was a LOT more going on within South Vietnam than the USA mass media ever made generally known to the US public who likely didn't care anyway.

We live in a society demanding easily-digestible 5-second sound bites.

Also, intellectualism is generally ridiculed and typically is 5th fiddle to what is on sale at the mall, what team is on TV and which burger is bigger and sold at the newest calorie-laden price.

Further afield but similar in some ways was the tumult in China between Mao and his minions and the various warlords and other political players wanting political power and the wealth that comes with it.

Compared to the evils of so many warlords I could see why Mao won the battle for the hearts and minds of the people.
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