Word: vietnamization
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...precise nature of Armitage's message to the Pakistanis in 2001 is open to question. A barrel-chested Vietnam vet who still lifts weights, Armitage - who left the State Department last year - can be intimidating in meetings. But diplomats don't as a rule threaten military action unless they've been authorized to do so, and Armitage, a seasoned envoy, insists he "never said it" because that was not his instruction from Washington. But he does admit to delivering a strong message to Musharraf's aide that Pakistan was either with the U.S. or against...
...certain profound ways I think the spooks didn't understand An any better than we journalists did later. He was, above all things - including journalism - a nationalist; he loved, above all things - including communism - Vietnam. He liked the French and the Americans he knew and spoke their languages well, but he didn't want to see his country Frenchified or Americanized. Or, for that matter, communized, which is probably why he was placed under house arrest and "re-educated" after the Vietnam War ended...
...those of us who worked closely with him, as I did for three years, Pham Xuan An was nothing more (or less) than a first-class journalist, with better sources in the South Vietnamese government and a better understanding of the war's historical and political meaning for Vietnam than we would ever have...
...wore. His little Renault, which had long since given up the ghost, is lying in state behind us, covered in years of grime. We had just spent the afternoon talking about the past - his as well as mine - and the present. Ever the reporter, An was deeply concerned about Vietnam's economy and the corruption that was making it worse. "If I had known during the war that we would just be trading the Americans for the Russians," he said, "I'd have stuck with the Americans." When his secret life came up, he said, "I always tried to tell...
...always said that the reason why communists had so much support in Vietnam was that they were the only force that had struggled effectively over the years against foreign occupation and influence: against the Japanese in World War II, against the French for a decade after that, and against U.S. - what? - "nation building," for lack of a better term, for two more decades. An grew to maturity in the immediate post-World War II years and eventually attracted the attention and sponsorship of Saigon spooks of all sorts - from the CIA's Edward Lansdale (who arranged for An to study...