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Something In Common;

BigC(RAP);

You father and John McCain have a few things in common in addition to being POWs ( You still haven't said if your father was an officer, what camp he was in, or if the Germans wanted him to replace Lord Haw Haw).

1)They both went to aid an ally unwilling to fight for their own country. For McCain it was the Vietnamese. For your father, it was the French.

2) Both men fought an aggressor. Hitler started WWII in Europe. Ho started the war in South Vietnam.

2) Both men were proud to serve their countries (at least I hope your father was).

Bombing Defenseless Civilians?

You are confusing the US with your own country.

McCain flew fighter bombers with precision munitions. The rules of engagement over the North forbade bombing Hanoi and Haiphong. It was still an air war but Johnson interrupted it on more than one occasion to try and make peace.

Targeting defenseless civilians was a British specialty

British bombers couldn't drop bombs within five miles of a target in WWII. YOUR GOVERNMENT adopted a policy of mass bombing of German cities at night to break civilian morale. The US opted for daylight precision bombing of military targets. I don't recall Americans gaining nicknames like "Butcher Bomber" Harris.

"A Peasant People Gaining Their Independance"?

Sounds romantic, but it's nonsense.

Vietnam's peasants had no say in the war. The war was a power struggle on an international scale (North Vietnam, China, USSR vs. South Vietnam and the US). It was way past their understanding.

South Vietnam was a rural country and very poor. The average Vietnamese peasant cared more about his village than his country, or independance. They gained nothing from either side. They didn't like the Saigon government abusing them; but they didn't dance in the streets when the VC took food and men either.They were victimized as much by the VC as Saigon. Even the communists made no bones about indoctrination of the peasants.

As for peasant loyalty to one side or the other, more Vietnamese served with the ARVN than the Vietcong. Much of the VC was wiped out in 1968 during Tet.

Peasants Gaining Their Independance?

More romantic nonsense.

Vietnam was not "liberated" by a peasant uprising, in l975. It was conquered by a mechanized army from the north which rolled over an exhausted South like Hitler rolled over Poland. It was not an oxcart that broke down the gates of the presidential palace in Saigon. It was a T34.

Before, during and after "Independance" those Vietnamese who could flooded out of the country, many at the risk of their lives. I have met many of them in California. They felt anything but liberated. Just a few years ago they rioted when a shop owner tried to place a picture of Ho in his store.

I always sigh when people talk about "gaining indepence" with the fall of Saigon as if that was the end of the story. I wonder why they ignore the aftermath.

If "independance" under communism was so great, why have the Vietnamese been jumping with both feet into capitalism in the last decade? The youth of Vietnam don't care about the war. Veterans have become bitter.

Your posts are based more on hysteria than facts.