Word: communistes
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...feudal warlords, carving out fiefdoms of their own. The staunchest antiCommunists, like Nguyen Cao Ky, might well fight on, backed primarily by French-trained senior army officers and Catholic refugees from the North. They could perhaps hold out for a time in scattered enclaves. In the end, though, the Communists would almost certainly gobble up the countryside piece by piece and destroy every last area of resistance. They could then reunite the country on their terms, although it is equally possible that they would allow a nominally independent but Communist-dominated South Viet Nam to exist for quite a while...
...weary Americans have reached the point where they are no longer troubled by the prospect of a neutralist regime in Saigon dominated by the Communists or even an all-Communist Viet Nam. Two major points remain troublesome, however: the fate of non-Communist Vietnamese who have relied on the U.S. and the repercussions elsewhere in Asia...
According to Sir Robert Thompson, who guided Britain's successful twelve-year war against the Communist guerrillas in Malaya, an immediate withdrawal by the U.S. would lead to "drastic realignments of policy, certainly in Southeast Asia, probably in Africa, and possibly even in Latin America." Among America's stauncher allies in the Far East, the Nationalist Chinese would be aghast, the South Koreans distressed and the Japanese politely uncomfortable; all three nations are eager to see the end, but a hasty retreat would give them cause to worry about the validity of U.S. promises. On the other hand...
...same time, a mood of disillusionment might overtake the country and prompt a "Fortress America" spirit of isolationism. That prospect worries the non-Communist nations of Asia more than lingering "domino" fears. It is a moot question whether discord and bitterness over withdrawal would be greater than over continued war?and what true presidential leadership could do to soften the inevitable shocks of either course...
Gradual withdrawal would occur against Asian perspectives that are by no means all bleak or pointing inevitably to Communism. Much of the rationale for making the stand in Viet Nam was to curb Communist Chinese expansion. Partly because of U.S. resistance, that expansion has been halted. China's influence on the rest of Asia has been decidedly weakened, though this is largely because of the disastrous internal paroxysms of the Cultural Revolution. Devout Communist that he is, North Korea's Kim II Sung takes no orders from China while he is perfectly willing to accept its material aid. There...