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Kindle Notes & Highlights
That’s the way of the world. The rich and the powerful call the tune. If you can muster superior strength, you can impose your way of thinking on others — even if they don’t like what you do or the way you do it. If you’ve got bigger muscles and the will to use them, the others have to go along with you. Nothing’s ever going to change that.”
The Great Depression of 1929 sharpened the mood of rebellion when a catastrophic fall in the price of rice spread hardship and even starvation to many parts of Indochina.
Compared to COVID impact followed by 2020 social unrest
“You’ll probably never understand, Kim, but we came to Vietnam for noble motives. We were afraid Communism would swamp the world and change it beyond recognition if we didn’t act. The trouble was, we went on fighting long after it became clear we’d been wrong about that. But we’d never understood the complicated background to your war, and in our frustration we used terror and methods of mass destruction which betrayed all our own dearest principles. In the end we were trying to win just to satisfy our national vanity. That’s why the war has torn my country apart.”
In seeking to defend the ‘honor’ of the United States in Vietnam, successive presidents and other national leaders, I believe, have made similar mistakes and brought unprecedented tragedy down upon our nation. Only if we admit this and resolve never to make the same errors again, will all those Americans who died in Vietnam have made some worthwhile sacrifice.”
