Who were the bullies in Vietnam?
I’d vote for the Viet Cong.
It might have changed but the US policy at one point was that chemical or biological attacks on the US could justify a nuclear response. If that standard is in effect, provoked would be any attack with weapons of mass destruction.
I’d say in this hypothetical it’s the assholes who drop nukes on a tiny country, especially since apparently they give no fucks about the South Vietnamese in close range right next door who are supposedly the assholes’ allies, not to mention Cambodia, Laos and Thailand.
Jesus.
Backtrack a bit. They’d been fighting the French, then the Japanese, then the French again who wouldn’t back away from their colony and wouldn’t give them independence (despite having promised them to do so if they’d help fight the Japanese).
Then when kicked around enough the French agreed to fuck off and for the country to be reunited, provided there would be free elections and the US backed the deal. (VN actually had been divided by the US and UK after WW2, deliberately so that the French couldn’t move back and keep it by force).
Except when it looked like the results of said free elections would skew commie (because they were legitimately popular up north, and the other guys were very impopular and corrupt down south) the US backed out of the deal, backed the guy who cancelled the election and sent him “advisors”. Cue escalation and war. Again.
The NVA & VC wanted their country to not be somebody else’s chewtoy at long last. They were hardly the bullies of the story. Hell, they went on to fuck up the actual communist bullies next door, even !
I’m “complaining” about the confusion between the capital letter “O” and the numeral “0”, which are not the same thing.
And your strategy involves the US speaking the first word, not the last.
Hey the host who said it quoted an unnamed source who claimed he’d briefed Trump at a vague time “several months ago.” I loathe Trump but damn this is “Obama’s a secret muslim” weak.
So what? First, it’s totally believable given all the other verified statements we have about Trump. Second, I have no problem using Trump’s own tactics against him.
“A lot of people are saying that Trump asked three times why he can’t use Nuclear weapons. I mean, I don’t believe that, I’m not saying that, I’m just saying I heard a lot of smart people say that…”
Someone needs to ask Trump if he’s familiar with the MAD doctrine. Something tells me it’s another one of those things he’s never heard of before.
I’d reckon once it’s explained to him he’d insist anyone who follows it is “weak”.
“Alfred E. Neuman was my best friend when I was growing up. Terrific ears, really great.”
He seems to genuinely care about his children. I would hope that eventually the realisation would percolate into his flabby sponge of a brain that starting a Nuclear war means that all his children and grand children will die.
Joe Scarborough obviously has an agenda, but I’m not aware of any reason to think that he is unreliable as a reporter. I assume the source here did not wish, or was not asked, to be quoted by name.
In any case, it is entirely consistent with Trump’s recorded, uh,
thoughts in the field.
I could not help but to remember the classic Russians from Sting:
Nah–remember, the elections were canceled once it looked like they’d win.
So, if they went and dropped an H-Bomb or three on Hanoi and Haiphong
Then what?
They were in Vietnam, fighting for Vietnam (at least their version of what the country should be). So I’d say they weren’t the bullies.
If you follow Quartz’s posts, it’s clear he’s imaging the Soviets as the bullies. He refers to how they got involved in Korea and Cuba and needed to be driven out by America. But the equivalent in Vietnam would be us; we were the country getting involved in another country’s affairs.
And we were bullies in the traditional sense that we were the biggest guy around who was trying to impose his views by force.
So according to the Quartz Doctrine, somebody should have used a nuclear weapon against American forces in Vietnam. As bullies, we would have immediately backed down and withdrawn from the country. We wouldn’t have attempted to respond with our own nuclear attack.
In my opinion, this wouldn’t have been what happened.
We’d have deployed an I-Bomb and worked our way down the list?
He’d have his family in a magnificent military bunker with fabulous amenities - best fallout shelter ever! - and if other people’s families die in a nuclear war it’s because they’re losers who didn’t get elected President.