"Thanks, Sis?"

I sent my liberal sis a copy of the installment, "What the Fork Was I Thinking?" this week. Thought she might want to read something by her brother. Was I waiting with baited breath [ overused pun ] for her to say she liked my foray into the infantile. Was I thinking she'd give it magnanimous reviews? Was I thinking she would even venture to make a comment?

The answer is HELL NO!

Instead, she sends me some liberal spin blaming the Republicans for the war in Vietnam. Yeah, right. Why not blame it on George Bush while you're at it. I didn't want a forking history lesson. Arggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

What prompted her to send me any communication? This passage from "WTForkWIT?" stoked her ire:

JFK had gotten us into this mess while the French packed up and left. We were there to stop the flow of communism. Or that seemed to be the logic. Domino effect, shmomino effect.

How dare I slander her hero. And what the fork do I know anyway? Camelot, shmamalot.

As [ my ] God is my witness, I will never send her anything that is penned by the catfish again. Kaput! Fini.' I've forking had enough!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Dating back to childhood when I was 6.25 years her junior. What the fork was I thinking?

I will include the beautiful reply from my sister, which I didn't bother to read, stopping abruptly when I read where Dwight Eisenhower got us into the war. Send your "talking points" to another moron besides me. Nary a word about the content, mind you. Just some more bullshit political rhetoric that makes me want to puke!

Farewell and adieu from Jimmy Shelter

P.S. I've been putting up with this horse bleep as long as I can remember.

P.S.S. Here it is: if the reader is nauseous before reading and needs to hurl, read the whole forking thing for instant gratification!

How and why did the Vietnam War start?

Dear v.c., Thought you may be interested in this. Olga


Daniel Foster contributed the first answer. The last improvement was made by
195.93.21.69.
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Answer

The Vietnam war started because American president Eissenhower did not want
communism to spread throughout the world and eventually to America.


Answer

Extremely complex question that I will only scratch the surface of:

After WWII, President Truman (& other western allies) perceived communism
(at the time in the form of Soviet Union) as the largest threat. IN asia,
the turning point came when the communists won the civil war there against
the nationalists in late 1949. At that point, the U.S. thought all of
Southeast Asia (Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand) might fall to communist
forces (i.e., the "domino theory"). So starting in 1950, the U.S. started to
send military aid to France in Vietnam in hopes of stemming the "spread" of
communism. This was basically our same rationale for stepping into the
French's shoes after they pulled-out of Vietnam in 1955-56.


Answer

The basic answer is that the U.S. was asked by France, via NATO, to keep the
communists from "taking over" the French Territory. We sent troops over only
to advise, and from there WE were in it and it just went "to hell in a
handbasket" to quote a friend of mine. We left over 58,000 Brothers and
Sisters there.

Hope this helps, if not, check your local veterans, VFW,or American Legion
Halls and ask really nice, you may find out more.


Answer

Complex answer that I will only scratch surface of:

After WWII, President Truman (and the other western allies) viewed Communism
(in the form of the Soviet Union) as the greatest post-war threat. The
turning point for Asia came in Dec. 1949 when Chinese communist forces won
the civil war in China. Now the U.S. feared all of Southeast Asia (Vietnam,
Laos, Cambodia, Thailand) might fall to communism.

France had attempted to regain control of its Southeast Asian colonies
(including Vietnam) after WWII in 1945. They were fighting Ho Chi Minh and
his communist rebels. Starting in 1950, the U.S. started to send military
aid to France to help in its effort against the Viet Minh (the communist
rebels). This was part of the U.S. goal of "containment" of the spread of
communism.

When France pulled-out of Vietnam in 1955-56, the U.S. basically felt it had
to fill the void in order to prevent Ho Chi Minh from unifying Vietnam under
communist rule (the 1956 peace accords with France had divided Vietnam in
half). So starting in 1955, the U.S. starting sending military advisors to
assist the South Vietnamese Army. The conflict continued to escalate as
communist rebels in the South gained more control of the countryside, which
required more & more U.S. military advisors & equipment to prop-up the South
Vietnamese army. Finally, in 1965, we sent combat troops to prop-up South
Vietnam.


Answer

your point of views are too close-minded. you thinking on a "we american"
views and it may not be all right. im vietnamese myself and im researching
on vietnam war and i think you should make your point of views on a more
open-minded ways. open for more research. not trying to offened you or
anything. just a thought. thanks


Answer

The US was part of "SEATO" south east asia treaty org. KEY WORD "treaty"


Answer

That is actually a very complicated question. But some of the salient facts
are as follows:

We strongly supported France's efforts to regain control of Vietnam (it's
former colony) after WWII. France had it's own "war" with communist rebels
from 1945-1954, until withdrawing. The SEATO treaty created a North and
South Vietnam. During the late 1950's, America started to send military
"advisors" to help the South Vietnamese gov't fight communist rebels in
South Vietnam (called Vietcong). During the early to nid 1960's, America
started to greatly increase the number of troops and equipment to support
the South Vietnamese gov't. AT the time, America was very concerned about
the spread of communism throughout Asia.


Answer

Vietnam had been a French colony (French Indo-China) before the World Wars,
and the French weren't about to let go gracefully.

As noted by the poster above, the French lost control about the time the US
was fighting Communism in Korea, in the 1950's. The country was partitioned
into Communist North and DEmocratic South, with China was actively
supporting the Communist government of the North.

The US saw Vietnam as Korea all over again, and feared that the entire
Southeast of Asia would be lost to the Communist block, much as Eastern
Europe had.

However, as Korea hadn't been a screaming sucess for the US, there was a
great deal of reluctance to start up a new military action immediately after
the armstice of the Korean War. Eisenhower's plan was to train and equip the
South with military advisors, but over time (and subsequent
administrations), predictably, this led to active involvement with lots and
lots of US troops.

But surprisingly, no actual declaration of war. It was a "police action".


Answer


Vietnam was a French colony until after WW2. That¹s when Vietnam signed a
treaty called the S.E.A.T.O treaty, which separated a north from the South.
The north being the communist and the south being the democratic. The U.S.
went in to try to stop the Communism from spreading to other countries.
That¹s when the U.S. sent weapons to the south to help protect them from
rebels. That¹s when the two sides started to clash.


Answer

Vietnam was a French colony before World War II. After the war, Ho Chi Minh
asked if the war was fought for freedom, did it include Vietnam. The answer
was no. France and the USA had won the war and France was not interested in
giving up colonies. He then went to red China for aid and got it. The war
was on.


Answer

That is actually a very complicated topic. But some of the salient facts are
as follows:

Following WWII, President Truman and other western allies perceived
Communism (in the form of the Soviet Union) as the largest post-war threat.
In asia, the turning point came in December 1949, when Chinese communist
forces won the civil war in China. At this point, the U.S. feared that all
of Southeast ASia (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand) might fall to
communism (i.e., the "domino theory.") Thus, the U.S. created a policy of
"containment".

The French had been fighting communist rebels in Vietnam (their former
colony) since 1945. Starting in 1950, the U.S. started to send military aid
and equipment to the French as part of our "containment" policy. After the
French withdrew from Vietnam in 1955-56, the U.S. essentially felt it had to
step-in and fill the void in order to support the fledgling South Vietnamese
army (the 1956 peace accords had divided Vietnam into North (communist) and
South (anti-communist).

Thus, starting in 1955, the U.S. started to send military "advisors" to help
the South Vietnamese army fight communist rebels in South Vietnam. Starting
in 1961, the U.S. started to greatly increase the number of advisors and
equipment to support the South Vietnamese gov't. This was viewed as
necessary b/c of the continuing growing strength of communist rebels in
South Vietnam.


Answer

It is a complicated answer. The real beginnings started a lot early in the
'20's when a young Vietnamese nationalist, who would eventually be known as
Ho Chi Minh, was in the U.S. studying. He wrote letters to the U.S.
presidents asking for their help in ridding his country of French
colonialism. They were ignored. During WWII, this same person was contacted
by the U.S. military, and told that in return for Vietnamese help in
fighting the Japanese, after the war was over, the U.S. would help Vietnam
achieve independence from the French. This promise was broken, and various
factions of Vietnamese under the eventual command of Minh, united to fight
the occupying military of France. Much of the cost of the French presence in
Vietnam was borne by the U.S. from the very beginning under the guise of
fighting communistic expansion. After the peace accords were signed in
1954-55, one of the stipulations was that Vietnam was to be divided into two
countries with elections to be held withing two years in each section
regarding total unification into one country. It was the South Vietnam
portion, under the control of their U.S. backed gov't that refused to hold
these elections. Thus basically the war was born again. It was not so much a
war of communistic aggresion, as it was a civil war to reunite the country
as a whole. The main reasons it was perceived as a communist threat, were
some of the ideology's of the north, and the fact that they North turned to
communist countries for the supplies and support they would need in their
fight, since the U.S. would not provide them with any aid, and the U.S.
clearly sided with the consistently corrupt regimes of the southern divide.


Answer

Vietnam was a French colony until after WW2. That¹s when Vietnam called
peace named the S.E.A.T.O treaty, which separated the north from the South.
The north being the communist and the south being the democratic. The U.S.
went in to try to stop the Communism from crossing to other countries.
That¹s when the U.S provided weapons to the south to help avoid them from
rebels. That¹s when the two sides started war.




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P.S.S. If you read the whole thing, you deserve a medal, a purple heart if you will, allah John Skerry! Here's doubting anyone gets this far.