Our Vietnam

My wife Amy is currently enrolled in an American History course, which she needs for her masters, and every time she opens the book, she finds new little factoids that we were previously unaware of.  Last night she was just reading about the Kennedy/Johnson Vietnam era.  She was telling me last night that the whole Vietnam issue began at the end of WWII, when the country was split into North and South as provisions at the end of fighting.  Sometime later during the Eisenhower administration, when Ike got it in his head that if Vietnam, a country with extremely limited political or military power, fell to Communism, that the entire world would soon fall as well.  To solve this issue, he began throwing huge amounts of money at the country to attempt to stem the rise of Communism.  When Kennedy took office, he did the same thing, and then Johnson -- and let me know if this sounds familiar -- fabricated a missile strike on a US boat by Vietnamese forces, in order to convince Congress that there was a pressing need for military presence in Vietnam...once we got our troops there, and the Great Society that Johnson had envisioned died there in the fields of Pyong Yang, you know what happened and how many casualties we suffered...

Are we always doomed to repeat our mistakes?  Is that our way?  Please get us out of Iraq before our loss becomes catastrophic.

Currently listening: Friction, Baby By Better Than Ezra Release date: 13 August, 1996