Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for April 03, 2014

That’s right, Phred the Terrorist. Not to be confused with his cousin, Phrank the podiatrist.

I seem to recall in the 70’s it was the French that occupied before we did, but I was only a teen so I could be wrong.

True, They did. Then there was this little thing at a place called Dien Bien Phu.

Time to go back and (re-)read The Ugly American(1958), for several kinds of “Ugly”.

IIRC, Ðiên Biên Phú was in 1953-54, with some American involvement during, and almost immediate escalation afterward.

“Raze a hamlet in 30 seconds” with everybody in it? or does that include getting them to safety first?Of course, it’s a poor terrorist who doesn’t kill everybody he can..From:http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2004/10/global-us-troop-deployment-1950-2003.“the number of troops sent to Vietnam — from less than 1,000 personnel in 1961 to 537,000 in 1968, then quickly down to zero seven years later”.One would think the less than a thousand up to 1961 would not have forced too many to learn English. Half a million is another matter..Not that everybody shouldn’t learn English. I’m a gonna try it sometime, muhself.

@DavidHuieGreenOccupation doesn’t have to mean the military. There is also economic and cultural occupation. Signs for Coke and Chesterfields. American movies and music. After the French left, US became the dominant player in South Vietnam even before the mass influx of troops.

Ho Chi Minh wrote prez Harry Truman a letter asking for assistance and Truman didn’t give him the courtesy of a reply. Even though the aspirations of Vietnam was what we Americans admire, even though they believed in freedom and independence, their being labeled as “Communist” was the only thing needed to make them our enemies.

Did I miss the news? Did Gary retire and decide to rely on these old strips? Any idea if he’s coming back so I can start enjoying Doonesbury again?

New strips on Sundays. Garry is working on alpha house, a tv show on amazon for now.

Ho actually originally asked for US help in gaining independence after WWI; Wilson, being one of the most vile racists ever to sit in the Oval Office (and that’s a high bar) would have nothing to do with it. After WWII was his 2nd attempt, but Truman was also into maintaining the French in power. When the Vietnamese beat the French, we took over. Truman had put military observers with the ARVN in ‘50; Eisenhower converted them to “Combat Advisers” in ’56 or ’57, training ARVN units & Hmong & Montengard mercenaries & leading them in combat. By the time BD got there, we had, indeed, been occupying for 17 years, and fighting for 15 – with 3 more to go. Remember that the next time CNN calls our current mistake "America’s longest war". Well, that and the fact that pur Phillipine adventure lasted about 100.

The French ignored the fall of the British empire after WWII and had dreams of holding onto their colonial possessions. The Vietnamese drove them out and then the Algerians later in the ’50s. The U.S. backed the wrong horse in Vietnam, to the detriment of several nations (including ours).

What’s a “VC terrorist?”

I had always understood the “official” reason for denying Ho Chi Min was that France was our NATO ally and we did not want back a “war” against our ally

@DavidHuieGreenPeople have been killing others long before “Communism” was ever thought of. The U.S. Army killed thousands of native Americans in a near-genocidal effort. And for what? Just to make wealthy people wealthier.

I remember a piece of performance art in which one installation said “If you’d just been nice to people, you wouldn’t have to worry about the Commies.”.True or not, we still seem to have had a knack for provoking people to go to the side that promised them everything, and then delivered nothing. And many times, that provocation was in supporting the side that exploited or just flat-out killed the people.

@DHG (hope you don’t mind the abbreviation)Nothing wrong with Coke or Hollywood being popular, unless young Americans have to kill and die to protect the market share.

@DavidHueyGreenPeople will do what is necessary to make money or gain power and will fabricate any excuse to achieve their goals.

Ugh. Didn’t feel like reading the additional 19 comments. Ugh.

“Hey, Charlie, how’d you come to learn English.”.“Simple. I was born someplace other than the United States. It’s only in your country that learning a second language is considered to be on the same level as child molestation.”

Or, as they used to say:“If you know three languages, you’re trilingual; If you know two languages, you’re bilingual; If you know one language, you’re an American.”

Especially for those that know none other.

-I’m glad to see that a lot of people are aware of this history. My hope is that some people who study history finally get into a position in Washington DC where we can stop repeating the same mistakes over and over again….

-the US, conveniently forgetting their own history with the British, went in to save colonialism for the future-Actually, I always suspected that the US backing of France against Ho was more because the US remembered its debt to France from the days of the original American Revolution….

So it IS a competition?Time to warm up the nukes, we can still win this thing.

Remember it’s Phred, not Achmed.

@DHG (you told NH41, you don’t mind the abbreviation)Here is what Smedley Butler, who served in the USMC from 1898-1931 and rose to Major General, said about his time in the service:-I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.-

LameRandomName said:English has been the only language of consequence for well over a century.-It is that attitude that has lead to a poor diplomatic corpse and even a worse intelligence service.

This has been an interesting read. I thought most would start with comments about language and then get into the aspects of the war and politics. I was wrong. But I enjoyed some of the history imparted by others..As to languages – due to colonization and explorations by the Dutch, French, English and Portuguese – those languages spread and stayed around the world. (Spanish & Italian not withstanding). Not going to comment on Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese, etc.

I’m always patriotic.Unlike some, I can see my beloved America is flawed and still love it.(Unlike those who discover it is imperfect and react by deciding to fall in love with some other country which is FAR less perfect.)I’m not going to hate myself because some of my ancestors were bad to other ancestors: that would be silly. I’m a wonderful person, so I’m going to love me for me rather than be prejudiced against me because I have not always been wonderful or because previous generations included drunks, killers, thieves, tribal outcasts. I haven’t eaten sour grapes.

And the interesting part is he was a sous pastry chef in a very posh NY city restaurant and his speech had the first part of the Declaration of Independence.