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Originally posted by Pathfinder
Enemy or friend? I spent three tours there as a US soldier.
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It's really not that simple.
The U.S. was supporting a fascist government while fighting the communists in Vietnam.
Both were police states, but the U.S. decided to put thousands of lives at stake by bringing in troops to fight communism because the armchair generals in the U.S. had this foolish theory about the "Red Scare". That if we don't stop the spread of communism in other countries, it will eventually spread to the U.S.
In reality, communism simply isn't economically feasible and will eventually fall apart or turns into a much softer form of socialism. No matter how you slice it though, communism takes away personal freedoms.....but back then there wasn't much of a choice.
Either go with Fascism or Communism. Both lead to a dictatorship and a police state.
Both the People's Republic of China and Vietnam claim they are Communist....but in reality it's softened up to hard socialism over true communism. Both countries started to open up and allow American and European businesses in to help support their economy. My theory is that eventually Communism will eventually completely die from both countries.
The only true "hardcore" communist countries are Cuba and North Korea. Both of these countries have people that are starving and a dying economy.
I'm not saying that everything is great in China and Vietnam, but it is a step above North Korea and Cuba which have the most extreme forms of communism you can get.