Comments by "Donald MacKerer" (@donaldmackerer9032) on "How VIETNAM (and INDONESIA) plan NOT to end up like UKRAINE - VisualPolitik EN" video.

I remember walking into a store during the Vietnam War years and it was selling anti War posters and it had one about Vietnam that had a picture of Charles de Gaulle and the poster said would you buy a used War from this man?
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@earljohnson2113 a friend of mine who fought in that war and did two tours of Duty there says the same thing. In fact he said he wished he could go back and just visit Vietnam someday and talk to some of the Vietnamese. He said it was a beautiful country.
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@condorX2 that was interesting. You did a lot of research. Obviously you spend a lot of hard work and time on that. I would love to know some of your sources. I have a history degree. I respect the work you put into that.
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Yeah I've had those same thoughts.
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@CJ- I think we might at first called it a police action but then we realized it was a war and we called it that. When the American public realized that the government under the Johnson Administration wasn't telling us the whole truth it was referred to in the press as The credibility gap. Because the government had either lied at times or at least only told half the truth or tried to hide the truth from the public the public got angry and decided it was time to get out of the war because they could see it was going to be nothing but a quagmire. Furthermore we started debating on whether or not it was even right for us to go in there in the first place.
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@WarLordCol well we actually won most of the battles but we place the war because we didn't have the hearts of the people behind us. We learned our lesson. It is ironic because it one time during World War II Ho Chi Minh was an ally who used to rescue down American Pilots they were fighting the the Japanese. That was the first war America did not win.
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@josephsmith3908 I agree I have friends who fought in Vietnam and they said the Vietnamese were tough people. One of my best friends said he would love to go back and visit Vietnam and maybe even talk to some of the people he fought against and compare stories with them. He said he would like to know what the war was like from their side. Also he like the Vietnamese people.
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Vietnam has been conquered by Chinese dynasties in the past. Vietnamese are familiar with their history. Unfortunately America wasn't familiar with their history when we got involved in the war. We made some faulty assumptions and more acting on a worldview that was not accurate eventually the American people found out and wanted out of the war because we didn't think it was right anymore.
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@Michel V well from what I've heard from Vietnam veterans it look like Vietnam did adapt a lot from China. But overall you're right. There were many years where Vietnam was independent in between Chinese Conquest. I think it was about four times and only parts of Northern Vietnam were conquered. I could be wrong on that though. I do know like the conquest by the Ming Dynasty only lasted 20 years. Hardly enough time to influence much. It seems to me that for whatever reason Vietnam must have been very hard to conquer. The Vietnam vets that I have known and some were friends always said that the Vietnamese were tough little Fighters. They had nothing but respect for their combat abilities. Some even have said they would like to go back to visit one day and talk to some Vietnamese in a non-combat but peaceful situation. There could be a tourist industry there for the Vietnamese before all the Vietnam veterans get too old and start dying off. They all mentioned that they thought it was a beautiful country.
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That is a wise policy. The best way to live in peace is to make sure that you are strong enough to defend yourself.
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@Krasnoye158 well I think that's a little cynical but it's understandable I guess. And actually we we really don't want to be enemies with China but we just can't trust Xi Jinping and his current Administration. In an Ideal World we would not want to fight anybody but to be able to trade with everybody. That was our tradition before the two world wars in the 20th century.
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@mbr8167 I heard that you got that right
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That is a wise and admirable attitude. I think the more self-reliant one is the better their chances for happiness. Also the better their chances for remaining independent and strong. Americans traditionally valued self-reliance a lot. The global economy has tone that down somewhat and I think it's a shame. America's most famous philosopher wrote a book called self-reliance made it the basis of his philosophy. His name is William James. He started out as one of America's very first experimental psychologist and decided to go into philosophy because he liked it better.
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