Sounds like your colleague was being a bit trite with regards to dominoes. Indonesia fell into an authoritarian dictatorship under Suharto. Ho Chi Minh was a big fan of Abraham Lincoln and expected the US to support Vietnamese independence from France, but our kneejerk anti-communism was too strong (in both major parties). I think your colleagues domino excuse is a rationalization after the fact.
Nixon also undermined Johnson's attempt at an earlier peace with the Paris Peace Talks. Nixon took office in 1969 which led to another hot four years of death for both Americans and Vietnamese. Currently MAGA are screaming that Senator Van Hollen is breaking the law of the Logan Act which prohibits unauthorized private diplomacy with foreign governments. But he's a senator not a private citizen. Trump had Giuliani and Manafort courting foreign governments as private citizens. Reagan undermined Carter's attempt to free our hostages in Iran.
Trump ordained by God? Reminds me of a meme-an image of an elderly woman and Groucho Marx in which the woman says " I believe Trump was sent by God" to which Marx replies "why? did he run out of locusts?"
Trump is too narcissistic and transactional. Any discussion is all about what it can do for him, how it will make him look. His assertion he could end the war in Ukraine in one day?
His tariff policies will not return manufacturing or jobs back to the USA in any significant number. The tariffs are all about getting people to be obsequious, to come to him like he's a king and ask for favors or relief and which he will dispense from on high.
And I am, lastly, reminded of another meme in circulation- a photo of Donald Trump hugging Richard Nixon. The caption reads: Here is the most corrupt president in US history... and Richard Nixon"
But hats off to those awful Vietnamese communists for crushing Pol Pot and ending Cambodian genocide!
The president that lost Vietnam was Eisenhower when he allowed Dulles to undermine the 1954 Geneva Accords calling for unification elections.
Ho Chi Minh started off as a nationalist who tried to gain independence for Vietnam in the aftermath of WWI. When the allies refused to meet with the Vietnamese delegation, Ho went to the Russians. So, in that sense, you could say that Woodrow Wilson was responsible for the loss of Vietnam.
Rostow’s tired defense of the Domino Theory is pathetic. The attempt to use it as a substitute for George Kennan’s policy of containment was intellectually dishonest, even at the time. There were numerous contemporary criticisms which were ignored and no one but unregenerated cold warriors believes it today.
Nixon’s place as a cynical strategic thinker during the withdrawal from Vietnam is apt. It’s not far from Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan though Biden apparently actually believed the bad intelligence about the survivability of the Afghan government. In both cases, the United States got itself out of a losing position with dire consequences for our allies left behind.
This might be slightly off topic but I was reading something Brian eno said once about the Vietnam war, “the viet Cong leaders were raised playing “go” while American leaders were raised playing chess. That is why the USA lost in Vietnam.” Eno is not a military strategist and this might be an example of “arm-chair” foreign policy but do you think eno makes a valid argument?
I don't know enough about the strategy of go to comment knowledgeably. But I will say that the North Vietnamese were playing a longer game than the United States was. And their strategy worked.
I love the books of yours I've read and I don't see how you can defend this position H.W.B. I was with you until the end. There is value in a cool calculating operator, but the techne conflicts with the telos. 'The man who can do the most good can do the most harm.' Trump could have ridden this out but no he has to muck it up because he as in the Republic, 'the ignorant man tries to get over on the ignorant and the wise' Having a gang of technicians doing bad things toward an unjust end is unjust
Sounds like your colleague was being a bit trite with regards to dominoes. Indonesia fell into an authoritarian dictatorship under Suharto. Ho Chi Minh was a big fan of Abraham Lincoln and expected the US to support Vietnamese independence from France, but our kneejerk anti-communism was too strong (in both major parties). I think your colleagues domino excuse is a rationalization after the fact.
Nixon also undermined Johnson's attempt at an earlier peace with the Paris Peace Talks. Nixon took office in 1969 which led to another hot four years of death for both Americans and Vietnamese. Currently MAGA are screaming that Senator Van Hollen is breaking the law of the Logan Act which prohibits unauthorized private diplomacy with foreign governments. But he's a senator not a private citizen. Trump had Giuliani and Manafort courting foreign governments as private citizens. Reagan undermined Carter's attempt to free our hostages in Iran.
Trump ordained by God? Reminds me of a meme-an image of an elderly woman and Groucho Marx in which the woman says " I believe Trump was sent by God" to which Marx replies "why? did he run out of locusts?"
Trump is too narcissistic and transactional. Any discussion is all about what it can do for him, how it will make him look. His assertion he could end the war in Ukraine in one day?
His tariff policies will not return manufacturing or jobs back to the USA in any significant number. The tariffs are all about getting people to be obsequious, to come to him like he's a king and ask for favors or relief and which he will dispense from on high.
And I am, lastly, reminded of another meme in circulation- a photo of Donald Trump hugging Richard Nixon. The caption reads: Here is the most corrupt president in US history... and Richard Nixon"
But hats off to those awful Vietnamese communists for crushing Pol Pot and ending Cambodian genocide!
The president that lost Vietnam was Eisenhower when he allowed Dulles to undermine the 1954 Geneva Accords calling for unification elections.
Ho Chi Minh started off as a nationalist who tried to gain independence for Vietnam in the aftermath of WWI. When the allies refused to meet with the Vietnamese delegation, Ho went to the Russians. So, in that sense, you could say that Woodrow Wilson was responsible for the loss of Vietnam.
Rostow’s tired defense of the Domino Theory is pathetic. The attempt to use it as a substitute for George Kennan’s policy of containment was intellectually dishonest, even at the time. There were numerous contemporary criticisms which were ignored and no one but unregenerated cold warriors believes it today.
Nixon’s place as a cynical strategic thinker during the withdrawal from Vietnam is apt. It’s not far from Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan though Biden apparently actually believed the bad intelligence about the survivability of the Afghan government. In both cases, the United States got itself out of a losing position with dire consequences for our allies left behind.
This might be slightly off topic but I was reading something Brian eno said once about the Vietnam war, “the viet Cong leaders were raised playing “go” while American leaders were raised playing chess. That is why the USA lost in Vietnam.” Eno is not a military strategist and this might be an example of “arm-chair” foreign policy but do you think eno makes a valid argument?
I don't know enough about the strategy of go to comment knowledgeably. But I will say that the North Vietnamese were playing a longer game than the United States was. And their strategy worked.
I love the books of yours I've read and I don't see how you can defend this position H.W.B. I was with you until the end. There is value in a cool calculating operator, but the techne conflicts with the telos. 'The man who can do the most good can do the most harm.' Trump could have ridden this out but no he has to muck it up because he as in the Republic, 'the ignorant man tries to get over on the ignorant and the wise' Having a gang of technicians doing bad things toward an unjust end is unjust