Word: ulam
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Ulam fails to mention that 85 per cent of the estimated 900,000 refugees were Catholics. Often affluent and sympathetic to France, these Vietnamese might indeed have had qualms about Ho Chi Minh's regime, and preferred the Catholic Diem and his family. A devoted campaign by Northern priests strengthened any propensities to emigration. The U.S. played a role as well. According to Bernard Fall, "the mass flight was admittedly the result of an extremely intensive, well-conducted, and, in terms of its objective, very successful American psychological warfare campaign. Propaganda slogans and leaflets appealed to the devout Catholics with...
Confusing American propaganda with Vietnamese reality, Ulam bandies about words like "totalitarian." Radical war critics, he writes, demand "the sacrifice of 18 million people to a harsh totalitarian rule." In what ways is the North "totalitarian"--the word soon loses all meaning--compared to the police state of the South? At another point, Ulam writes, "A totalitarian regime, especially a Communist one, seldom has much difficulty in repressing a budding guerrilla movement....An authoritarian non-Communist regime can sometimes deal with an incipient revolt with the same massive retaliation technique....A democratic country simply cannot have recourse to such methods...
...digging no deeper than the level of official explanation, Ulam loses sight of the peculiar tension characteristic of American democracy. Policy is not created to realize quixotic ideals. No American President invaded Vietnam to preserve freedom. The reasons were partly economic, partly diplomatic, partly strategic. Perhaps even a bit idealistic. But surely altruism was not the motivating cause. Wide-eyed idealism and self-righteous fervor thrive amid official justifications and popular explanations. Among themselves, the professionals are somewhat less noble...
...Ulam doesn't forget these men. But he never stops to analyze their motives. He views their actions only as reactions: he judges their success by their ability to best the Soviet Union. And he confuses rationalizations with explanations. "Had the United Stated been ruled by a dictator or an oligarchy, or had the American people been permeated by a spirit of aggressive nationalism, there was little that it could not have accomplished without war and merely through diplomatic and economic pressure." Ulam writes. "But one cannot regret that the American people were not possessed by the passion to rule...
...short passage. Ulam fatuously implies that the masses of people are running this country. He dismisses the possibility of Americans being "aggressively nationalistic," leaving one to wonder about prowar rallies and dead gooks. And most important, he fails to see the distinction between the ability to rule the world American-style--through corporate domination--and the "pleasant life" which most Americans are able to lead...