Hap,
Frankly, that Gerlanter piece is idiotic. I note that he teaches computer science. If he taught history, he ought to be "drummed out," as you say, of the dept.
Yes, we are haunted by Vietnam, and God forbid we should ever again betray our friends to tyrant murderers. Or ever again walk out on a nation whose people are struggling merely to live and be let alone.
Actually, we already did this in Iraq, in '91-'92. I suspect we will never be forgiven for it either.
We are haunted by the consequences of allowing South Vietnam to collapse. Tens of thousands of executions (maybe 60,000), re-education camps where hundreds of thousands died, a million boat people.
If Gerlanter knew any of the history of that conflict, he would know that South Vietnam didn't even exist until we set it up in 1954-56, and didn't allow country-wide elections to occur in '56 (as had been previously agreed to), as we knew that Ho would win those elections. If he knew any of the history, he would know that what happened in the mid '70s was essentially what should have happened in the mid '50s, that is, they fought a civil war between the Vietnamese nationalists led by Ho and the remnants of the French backed elite who knew that their time was up, their possessions would be confiscated and, if they resisted, they would be killed. Our intervention made that inevitable civil worse than it should have been, and enormously stretched out the time and intensity of the violence.
The consequence of what we have done in Iraq is to allow a civil war to take place. The results will be bloody. Far bloodier than they have been so far. Whether that blood will include many Americans or not is the only question. Not whether torrents of blood will be shed.
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