Replying to a message of Jeff Shultz to Adam Flinton:

 JSjeff{at}shultzinfosystems.com>

 JS> On Fri, 3 Jan 2003 10:17:29 -0000, "Adam Flinton"
 JSadam{at}NOSPAMsoftfab.com> wrote:

 >> 
 jeff{at}shultzinfosystems.com> wrote in message
 >> news:pnv91vg2lhpt0j55aifcdri5r6rvk6lsgb{at}4ax.com...
 >>> On Thu, 2 Jan 2003 21:31:10 -0000, "Adam Flinton"
 adam{at}NOSPAMsoftfab.com> wrote:
 >>> 
 >>>> You didn't, you just off loaded large tonnages of high
explosive onto
 >>>> it
 >> inc
 >>>> onto it's cities. Oddly enough my parents went on the
"B52 trail" (my
 >> name
 >>>> for it) just before Xmas ( Laos, Thailand, Vietnam &
Cambodia). Very
 >>>> much enjoyed it.  Oddly I got a Viet Cong scarf for Xmas as one of
 >>>> my pressies from them.  Adam 
 >>> They attacked an ally of the United States (South Vietnam). Anyone
 >>> have the dates of existence for SEATO?
 >> 
 >> Hohum. When the French pulled out of Vietnam (singular) the deal was
 >> that the North / South thing was temporary. It was the politicos&
 >> generals of the south who decided to break all the agreements because
 >> they knew everyone would vote for uncle Ho. 
 JS> Admittedly, if the colonial powers had paid attention to Uncle Ho when
 JS> he showed up in Paris in 1919 history might have been very different.

You don't have to go back that far.  Perhaps the biggest diplomatic blunder
this country made in the last century was Truman's 1946 refusal to
recognize Ho's *functioning government* in Hanoi.  Ho fought the Japanese
occupiers throughout WW II, and was supplied by us via the Chinese
government in K'unming (supplies flown 'over the hump' and later via the
Burma Road).  We even had OSS attaches with Ho's people, and they
recommended that we recognize his government after the Japanese collapsed
at the end of WW II.

France objected to any recognition of an independent state in Vietnam,
deGaulle wanted his colonies (Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia) back.  Truman
believed he needed deGaulle to help float his pet 'United Nations' project.

The French returned, Ho went back into the jungle.  In 1954 the French
decided to fortify a small hamlet in western Vietnam, Dien Bien Phu.  400
miles west of the main French support bases in the Red River delta, over a
narrow, winding dirt road.
See "Hell In A Very Small Place" by Bernard B. Fall, for a pretty
good description of events.

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