Antiwar and countercultural activism by millions of young people of every backgound turned campuses and cities into both battle grounds and zones of social and cultural innovation while helping to bring down two presidents and rearranging both the Democratic and Republican Parties. The impact of these movements registered widely: in the military which had to be redesigned to operate without conscription; in mass media which scrambled to recapture a generation that had discovered underground newspapers; and especially in the new ways that many Americans would from then on view their nation‘s institutions and role in the world.
Archiv: Viet Nam / Vietnam / Vietnam War
Vietnam and the Soldiers’ Revolt: The Politics of a Forgotten History
(June 1, 2016)
All sides have attempted to define the collective memory of the Vietnam War in ways that advance their current visions for global and domestic politics and superimpose them on the past. Think, for example, of the persistence of the “spit upon” or “baby killer” myths, or the claim that the antiwar movement “stabbed” soldiers “in the back” (even many of my students, born decades later, say these are the first things they think about when they hear “Vietnam War”).1 The continued influence of these myths has helped prop up consent for militarism at home and abroad. The story of GI protest during the war is an important counter to the conventional story, for it hits at the heart of some of the most emotive symbols in these political battles: the soldiers. It offers grounding for an alternative politics from the antiwar left. It is history worth knowing.
Waging Peace in Vietnam: A Timeline of the Movement
August 1964
False claims of North Vietnamese attacks in the Gulf of Tonkin lead to U.S. airstrikes and an escalating air war over the coming years that becomes the heaviest bombing campaign in the history of warfare, with more than 7 million tons of bombs and ordnance used against Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.
1965
Major escalation of U.S. ground troops begins.
January 1965
Lt. Richard Steinke becomes the first U.S. serviceman to refuse to fight after arriving in Vietnam. In November that year, Lt. Henry Howe of Ft. Bliss, Texas, attends antiwar protest in El Paso and is sentenced to two years hard labor.
June, 1966
Privates James Johnson, Dennis Mora and David Samis—the Ft. Hood Three—publicly refuse orders to Vietnam.
October, 1966
Capt. Howard Levy, MD, refuses orders to train Green Beret combatants at Ft. Jackson, South Carolina.
December 1967
Andy Stapp and others at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma, form the American Servicemen’s Union and organize chapters at dozens of military installations and ships.
Late 1967
Vietnam GI , one of the first known GI antiwar newspapers, begins publication. Hundreds of other GI papers appear throughout the military over the next five years. …….
When Did Liberals Become So Comfortable With War?
First, history has shown that governments and bureaucracies tend to become addicted to a war footing, with failure sucking them in further — think of America’s war on terror, or Vietnam. War encourages a perverse cycle of escalation in which huge financial and political gains accrue for governments and the military-industrial complex while the costs tend to be borne by weaker parties — before they start to come home in some shape or form.
We’ve called this bipartisan pattern “wreckonomics” and have found it especially present in wars or conflicts with costs that Western politicians can largely outsource — from fighting terrorism, drugs and smugglers to quasi-colonial interventions during the Cold War.
Biden Condemned for Ahistorical and ‚Politically Suicidal‘ Attack on Campus Protests
„Biden‘s claim that ‚dissent must never lead to disorder‘ defies American history, from the Boston Tea Party to the tactics that civil rights activists, Vietnam War protesters, and anti-apartheid activists used to confront injustice.“
College administrators are falling into a tried and true trap laid by the right
For now, Trump has called the recent protests “antisemitic” and “far worse” than the 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville. Biden has similarly condemned “the antisemitic protests” and “those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians.” (…)
Like their association of civil rights and peace demonstrators with communism throughout the Cold War, politicians on both sides of the aisle are now broadly hurling claims of antisemitism against anyone protesting Israel’s war in Gaza, many of whom are Jewish.
The purpose then, as it is now, is to intimidate administrators into a false political choice: Will they protect students’ right to demonstrate or be seen as acquiescent to antisemitism?
The Ghost of the 1968 Antiwar Movement Has Returned
Those young demonstrators had come of age seeing continual — and effective — protests during the civil rights movement and national mourning after the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. A year earlier King staked out his opposition to the war, saying that while he wasn’t attempting “to make North Vietnam or the National Liberation Front paragons of virtue,” he wanted to underscore his belief “that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money, like some demonic, destructive suction tube.” He said he was “compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and attack it as such.”
Column: The crackdown on student protesters shows exactly why we need them
After all, the division over the war in Gaza is by no means confined to students. As has happened with so many rifts in our country’s history, students have simply used their activism to become a prism reflecting the wider world. Which is why they need to be taken seriously, for all of our sakes.
If they do nothing else, the growing demonstrations are forcing us to confront who we are, what we believe and why.
What is happening in Gaza is not a war “over there.” It’s right here, right now, among our own children. And we all need to figure out where we stand.
Campus Protests: Beautiful Moments Vs. Trampling Of Speech
Going over some of the news, good and bad, coming out of the campus protests. Including what happened to Emory University‘s professor of economics Caroline Fohlin, but also a beautiful speech given by an 88-year-old activist.
How Americans felt about campus protests against the Vietnam War
There is no guarantee that history will eventually vindicate the positions of protesters. But it does seem safe to assume that the positions, not the protests, are what will be remembered.
12 suspended Columbia students reinstated just days after anti-Israel protest, as lawyer vows to take ‘fascist’ school to NY Supreme Court
“Speech, no matter how unpopular it may be, is the essence of academia. Protest against Zionism in Israel is pure protected speech. … If Jewish students are made uncomfortable by it, f— them!” Cohen, who was raised in an Orthodox Jewish home, told the Village Sun.
“Speech is supposed to make you uncomfortable. This is not lighting candles and kumbaya. … All speech is protected unless the imminent intent is to commit violence — like shouting ‘Fire!’ in a crowded movie theater,” he added. (…)
“I got f—ing suspended from Columbia 50 years ago. I got thrown out of Columbia after a week for anti-war protesting,” he lamented.
“Columbia is fascist,” he said.
Suicide vs genocide: Rest in power, Aaron Bushnell
In the aftermath of Bushnell’s self-immolation, the New York Times announced: “Man Dies After Setting Himself on Fire Outside Israeli Embassy in Washington, Police Say” – a rather strong contender, perhaps, for the most diluted and decontextualised headline ever. One wonders what folks would have said in 1965 had the US newspaper of record run headlines like: “Octogenarian Detroit Woman Dies After Setting Herself on Fire, Police Say – An Event Having Nothing Potentially To Do With Said Woman’s Opposition To The Vietnam War Or Anything Like That”.
The Pol Pot regime’s simultaneous war against Vietnam and genocide of Cambodia’s ethnic Vietnamese minority
This article examines the international context of and empirical evidence for the genocide of Cambodia’s domestic ethnic Vietnamese minority in the years 1977 and 1978. It sets out the basis for the scholarly consensus that the state of Democratic Kampuchea (DK), ruled by the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK, or “Khmer Rouge”), launched a war against neighboring Vietnam beginning in early 1977 with a series of cross-border attacks. The article then examines the evidence for the simultaneous CPK campaign of near-total mass murder of the approximately 20,000 members of the domestic ethnic Vietnamese community remaining in the country after the killings and forcible expulsions under both the previous regime and the CPK from 1970 to 1976. The article then surveys the CPK’s ethnic policies towards the country’s Vietnamese, Cham, and Chinese minorities, and demonstrates how racist policies often merely masqueraded as class analysis. It concludes with a description of the international legal concepts of both genocide and the crime against humanity of extermination, showing how each applies to crimes the DK regime perpetrated against Cambodia’s ethnic Vietnamese minority.
BBC-Filmreihe “The Trap” (III): Die Freiheit von Berlin oder Der “Kampf der Zivilisationen”
(18. November 2012)
1965 begannen die U.S.A. während des Krieges gegen Nordvietnam ein ebenso mörderisches, wie geheimes Bombardement gegen das neutrale Kambodscha, was bis 1954 Kolonie Frankreichs gewesen war. 2,7 Millionen Tonnen Bomben zwischen 1965 bis 1973 beförderten Kambodscha “zurück in die Steinzeit” und töteten 200.000 Menschen. Den U.S.-Bomberpiloten wurde vom Pentagon sogar verboten, die eigenen Vorgesetzten zu informieren. Die angeblichen Militärstützpunkte Nordvietnams in Kambodscha, wegen denen die Bombardements vermeintlich durchgeführt wurden, existierten nicht.
Was die Tat von Wahnsinnigen war, wurde nachher als “Wahnsinnigen-Theorie” (“Madman-Theory”) verkauft: die U.S.-Regierung unter Präsident Richard Nixon und Außenminister Henry Kissinger (der später den Friedensnobelpreis bekam) behauptete, sie habe sich wahnsinnig benommen, um der Sowjetunion Angst vor einem Atomkrieg zu machen, damit diese Druck auf Nordvietnam ausübe, damit das den Krieg gegen die U.S.A. beende, den die U.S.A. selbst begonnen hatten.
1970 stürzten die U.S.A. die Monarchie unter “Prinz” Sihanouk, installierten ein Proxy-Regime und marschierten in Kambodscha ein. Sihanouk, einst 1941 im Alter von achtzehn Jahren vom französischen Vichy-Regime unter deutscher Besatzung zum neuen König der damaligen französischen Kolonie Kambodscha ernannt, floh ins China Mao Tse Tungs und formierte dort eine kambodschanische “Freiheitsbewegung”. Deren Teil: die Roten Khmer.
1972 besuchte Richard Nixon als erster U.S.-Präsident China und Mao Tse Tung, im Versuch gegen das mit der Sowjetunion verbündete Nordvietnam einen Verbündeten zu finden und die Rivalitäten sowohl zwischen China und Vietnam, als auch zwischen China und der Sowjetunion zu schüren.
Als 1975 in Vietnam die Truppen des Vietkong und Nordvietnams in Saigon einmarschierten und den Krieg gegen die U.S.A. gewannen, marschierten in Kambodscha die Truppen der Roten Khmer – von China unterstützt und traditionell verfeindet mit den vietnamesischen Kommunisten – plötzlich in der Haupstadt Phnom Penh ein. Und setzten Prinz Sihanouk als offizielles Staatsoberhaupt ein.
Von der Schreckensherrschaft Pol Pots, auf dessen Killing Fields Millionen Leichen lagen und dessen Verbündeter Prinz Sihanouk nach wie vor im Land lebte, befreite Kambodscha 1979 nicht etwa die “negative Freiheit” der U.S.A., von Frankreich, oder der U.N.O., sondern die einrückenden Truppen des kommunistischen Vietnams.
Die Mörder der Roten Khmer, die gerade einen Genozid begangen hatten, flohen in Dschungel und begannen dort einen neuen Guerillakrieg – mit Unterstützung der U.S.A. und anderer ehrenwerter westlicher Länder. 1982 formierten die Massenmörder unter Führung Sihanouks eine Exilregierung, die von den U.S.A., der U.N.O und unwichtigen Ländereien Westeuropas anerkannt wurde.
Vizepräsident dieser kambodschanischen Exilregierung: das “Staatsoberhaupt” des Pol Pot Regimes von 1976-1979, Khieu Samphan. Er lebt heute noch. Er sagt, er hätte nichts gewusst.
Pol Pot wurde nie verfolgt. Dafür sorgten die U.S.A..
Neues altes Staatsoberhaupt Kambodschas wurde 1991 Sihanouk, nach dem Abzug der vietnamesischen Truppen. Er starb erst vor wenigen Tagen, am 15. Oktober 2012, in Peking.
Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia: TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS – “DUCH” TRIAL PUBLIC
(6 April 2009, 0910H)
Q. Still in the political context — of course, we will go back to your detention, speak about your detention a bit later, but you also spoke about the coup d‘etat of 1970, so a coup d‘etat through which Sihanouk was deposed and a republican regime that was set up by Lon Nol was installed.
Can you tell us, you were — can you tell us how this was perceived? In particular, how the declaration of March 1970 was perceived through which Prince Sihanouk asked the Cambodian people to rise up? I‘d like to understand how the CPK, Communist Party of Kampuchea, experienced this period and was there a real union? What happened, in fact?
[10:19:40]
A. Judge Lavergne, I would like to respond to your question based on my political view. Samdech Norodom Sihanouk was the Head of State of Cambodia. His position was the populist to preserve his throne. It was not Norodom Sihanouk. Lon Nol was
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affiliated with the United States, and when he grasped or controlled the Assembly in 1966, he managed to — he really caused the dispute and the uprising in Samlaut at the Sihanoukist side, and the other side is the Communist side which are affiliated with Marxist and Leninist, and these things were mixed up.
I think through my understanding, if Richard Nixon did not be quick to allow Lon Nol to start the coup d‘etat and allowing Khmer Rouge to cooperate with Sihanouk, I think Khmer Rouge would be demolished or otherwise they would never be able to stand up again. But Mr. Kissinger and Richard Nixon weren‘t quick and the Khmer Rouge noted the golden opportunity and King Sihanouk declare from China that all Cambodian people go through the Marxist jungle and then the Khmer Rouge troop will build up from 1970 to 1975.
I think this is the political context and people tried to gain — to have political gain. Lon Nol tried to benefit from politics and then Sihanouk also tried to gain benefit for his side.
Khmer Rouge jailer says U.S. contributed to Pol Pot rise
(April 6, 2009)
Duch, the first of five Pol Pot cadres to face trial for the 1975-79 reign of terror in which 1.7 million Cambodians died, said the Khmer Rouge would have faded if the U.S. had not got involved in Cambodia.
„Mr Richard Nixon and Kissinger allowed the Khmer Rouge to grasp golden opportunities,“ the 66-year-old former jailer said at the start of the second week of his trial by the joint U.N.-Cambodian tribunal.
Henry Kissinger’s bombing campaign likely killed hundreds of thousands of Cambodians − and set path for the ravages of the Khmer Rouge
(November 30, 2023)
To Kissinger, Cambodia was a “sideshow,” to use the title of William Shawcross’ damning book exposing the story of America’s secret war with Cambodia from 1969 to 1973.
During that period, the U.S. bombing of neutral Cambodia saw an estimated 500,000 tons of ordnance dropped on 113,716 targets in the country.
Kissinger and others in the White House tried to keep the campaign from the public for as long as they could, for good reason. It came as public opinion in the U.S. was turning against American involvement. The bombing campaign is also considered illegal under international law by many experts.
But to Kissinger, the ends – containing communism – seemingly justified the means, no matter the cost. And the cost to Cambodians was huge.
It resulted in the direct deaths of hundreds of thousands of Cambodians. With the U.S. government keeping the bombings secret at the time, comprehensive data and documentation are limited. But estimates on the number of deaths range from as few as 24,000 to as many as a million.
War on Gaza: A strategic blunder to hasten US decline
This Palestinian paradox – military defeat and political victory – is not unusual in the history of liberation struggles. The Vietnamese Tet offensive of 1968 was a military failure, but it is widely agreed that it was a political turning point which left the US unable to rally support for the war as it had done before.
In South Africa’s long struggle against apartheid, at least two defeats, the Sharpeville massacre of 1960 and the Soweto uprising of 1976, so exposed the white nationalist regime that it never rebuilt the pre-existing levels of support that it had enjoyed.
None of these cases were final victories. Those took longer to achieve, and much more blood was spilt before liberation.
The Vietnamese lost three million souls compared to 55,000 US casualties before the war ended.
Starvation, mass displacement, rampant disease. That is Gaza right now. During the Vietnam War, R‘ Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote: „Our own integrity as human beings is decaying in the agony & merciless killing done in our name.“ If we turn away, we risk losing our own humanity.
NBC News – Muhammad Ali on not going to war
(…)
White House Close To Providing Kiev With Cluster-Armed ATACMS
During the Vietnam War, US forces dropped hundreds of millions of cluster bomblets on Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. People still die in Laos on a yearly basis because of the tens of millions of unexploded ordinances left behind following US bombing campaigns.
Việt Nam, US upgrade ties to Comprehensive Strategic Partnership for Peace, Cooperation, and Sustainable Development
The move followed talks between General Secretary of the Communist Party of Việt Nam (CPV) Central Committee Nguyễn Phú Trọng and US President Joe Biden at the headquarters of the CPV Central Committee in Hà Nội.
Biden is in Việt Nam for a two-day State visit at the invitation of the Vietnamese Party leader.
US President Joe Biden arrives in Hà Nội for State visit
US President Joe Biden arrived at Nội Bài International Airport in Hà Nội on Sunday afternoon, starting a two-day State visit to Việt Nam at the invitation of General Secretary of the Communist Party of Việt Nam Central Committee Nguyễn Phú Trọng.
Krieg ohne Krieger – oder: Das phantomhafte Töten und Sterben an der Front
Nicht nur die USA, auch die manifest kriegführenden Akteure in der Ukraine haben aus dem seinerzeitigen ‚Informationsdesaster‘ der US-Army und ihrer GIs im Vietnamkrieg gelernt: Damals lieferten mutige Kriegsberichterstatter noch weitestgehend unzensierte Bilder vom Morden, vom Töten und vom Sterben direkt von der Front frei Haus, die weltweit über die Bildschirme flimmerten und auf den Titelseiten der tonangebenden Zeitungen erschienen – und vor allem die junge Generation in den Ländern des Westens zu Protest- und Verweigerungsaktionen auf die Straße trieben. Spätestens seit dem Golfkrieg 1991 werden wir, wenn überhaupt, nur noch mit – den Militärs und Machthabern genehmen – klinisch-reinen Bildern und Filmen von „Embedded Journalists“ beliefert.
Chris Hedges: They Lied About Afghanistan. They Lied About Iraq. And They Are Lying About Ukraine.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine was a war crime, although one that was provoked by NATO expansion and by the United States backing of the 2014 “Maidan” coup which ousted the democratically elected Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. Yanukovych wanted economic integration with the European Union, but not at the expense of economic and political ties with Russia. The war will only be solved through negotiations that allow ethnic Russians in Ukraine to have autonomy and Moscow’s protection, as well as Ukrainian neutrality, which means the country cannot join NATO. The longer these negotiations are delayed the more Ukrainians will suffer and die. Their cities and infrastructure will continue to be pounded into rubble.
Nuclear Secrets, a Compost Heap and the Lost Documents Daniel Ellsberg Never Leaked
(April 20, 2023)
Daniel Ellsberg — who died Friday at 92 — fully expected to spend the rest of his life in prison after he leaked the Pentagon Papers to The New York Times and The Washington Post in 1971. The documents revealed decades of government lies and mistakes about the war in Vietnam, and eventually, they helped end it.
The charges against Ellsberg were ultimately dismissed, but he had a secret: The Pentagon Papers were only supposed to be the beginning. Alongside the documents about Vietnam, he’d copied thousands of pages of other documents about America’s nuclear war planning that he believed would shock the public conscience. But a series of mishaps kept those documents from ever coming to light.
President John F. Kennedy‘s „Peace Speech“
(…)
Remembering RFK’s Final Speech 50 Years Later | NBC News
Jun 6, 2018
Shortly after he finished his California primary victory speech on June 5, 1968, Robert F. Kennedy was shot. He died the next day. Here are some key moments from his final speech
My cousin George Skakel, a gifted naturalist who shared my love for the outdoors, died 54 years ago in the Tet Offensive three weeks before his scheduled discharge. War is a nightmare.
Kennedy campaign reminds me of ’68 race
Though my family were avid followers of politics, they were never Kennedy supporters. In spite of that, I found “Bobby’s” anti-war position both brave and admirable.
In the wee hours of June 5, I watched live coverage of the California primary — the last big ticket to the Democratic nomination. My mother and I stayed up for RFK to give his speech, then turned off the TV and went to bed.
That next morning, my mother would wake me with the awful news: Sen. Kennedy had been shot at the hotel in Los Angeles where we’d seen him on TV just hours earlier.
THERE IS A WAR COMING SHROUDED IN PROPAGANDA. IT WILL INVOLVE US. SPEAK UP
(1 May 2023)
I am writing this on 30 April, the anniversary of the last day of the longest war of the twentieth century, in Vietnam, which I reported. I was very young when I arrived in Saigon and I learned a great deal. I learned to recognise the distinctive drone of the engines of giant B-52s, which dropped their carnage from above the clouds and spared nothing and no one; I learned not to turn away when faced with a charred tree festooned with human parts; I learned to value kindness as never before; I learned that Joseph Heller was right in his masterly Catch-22: that war was not suited to sane people; and I learned about ‚our‘ propaganda.
All through that war, the propaganda said a victorious Vietnam would spread its communist disease to the rest of Asia, allowing the Great Yellow Peril to its north to sweep down. Countries would fall like ‚dominoes‘.
Ho Chi Minh‘s Vietnam was victorious, and none of the above happened. Instead, Vietnamese civilisation blossomed, remarkably, in spite of the price they paid: three million dead. And the maimed, the deformed, the addicted, the poisoned, the lost.
If the current propagandists get their war with China, this will be a fraction of what is to come. Speak up.
JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass review – Oliver Stone returns to the grassy knoll
(24 Nov 2021)
But, exasperatingly, and despite speculation being the order of the day, the film never attempts to name any supposed second or third shooter, to say exactly where these gunmen would have been positioned, and how the inevitable witnesses to their activity would have been suppressed. The old question reasserts itself: can you do this with any historical event? Could you, with enough time, undermine the case against Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo in 1914?
Rare Earths Reserves: Top 8 Countries (Updated 2023)
(Feb. 20, 2023)
Global rare earths reserves amount to 130 million MT. With demand for rare earth minerals ramping up as hype about electric vehicles and other high-tech products continues, it will be interesting to see how the top producers contribute to future supply.
Russia to hold 9 international military exercises in 2023
n addition, eight bilateral exercises are planned to be held at the training grounds of Russia‘s military districts, the ministry noted. According to the ministry, these exercises include Russian-Indian Indra-2023 drills, the joint military anti-terrorist command and staff exercises of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation member states Peace Mission-2023, the joint Russian-Lao military exercises, the joint Russian-Pakistani exercises Friendship-2023, the Russian-Algerian exercises, exercises with units of the collective forces of the rapid deployment of the Central Asian collective security region Frontier-2023, the Russian-Mongolian exercises Selenga-2023 and the Russian-Vietnamese exercises.
Cold Wave Grips East Asia, Felling All-Time Snowfall Records Across Japan; Historic Snow In Moscow; + Christmas Freeze: Extreme Cold/Snow To Blast North America Over The Holidays
(December 19, 2022)
The COLD TIMES are returning, North America, in line with historically low solar activity.
The extradition of Julian Assange must be condemned by all who believe in press freedom1
(June 17, 2022)
There is some historical irony in the fact that this extradition announcement falls during the anniversary of the Pentagon Papers trial, which began with the Times publication of stories based on the legendary leak on June 13, 1971, and continued through the seminal Supreme Court opinion rejecting prior restraint on June 30, 1971.
In the months and years following that debacle, whistleblower (and FPF co-founder) Daniel Ellsberg became the first journalistic source to be charged under the Espionage Act. What many do not know is that the Nixon administration attempted to prosecute Times reporter Neil Sheehan for receiving the Pentagon Papers as well — under a very similar legal theory the Justice Department is using against Assange.
US Troops are on the ground in Ukraine „as trainers“. That‘s exactly how we began in Vietnam. The force that stopped the war was continuous protest by US & global citizens, including protest by US soldiers against the war; but not Congress.
False flags: What are they and when have they been used?
(18 February 2022)
As the conflict in eastern Ukraine intensifies, Britain and the US suspect Russia of planning „false flag“ attacks to create an excuse for an invasion.
Russian-backed separatists have already accused Ukraine‘s military of a series of highly dubious attacks and are now calling for civilians in the occupied areas to leave.
Biden delays release of JFK assassination records, blaming COVID-19 pandemic
In 1992, Congress ruled that „all Government records concerning the assassination of President John F. Kennedy … should be eventually disclosed to enable the public to become fully informed about the history surrounding the assassination.“
The act allowed the government to postpone the release to „protect against an identifiable harm to the military defense, intelligence operations, law enforcement or the conduct of foreign relations,“ according to Biden‘s memo.
US VP Kamala Harris visits Vietnam – BBC News
Beijing has accused her of seeking to drive a wedge between China and its South-East Asian neighbours. Ms Harris is the first US vice president to visit Vietnam since the Vietnam War ended in 1975.
Developing Vietnam-China relations top priority in Vietnam‘s foreign policy: Vietnamese PM
Developing the Vietnam-China relations is a strategic choice and a top priority in Vietnam‘s foreign policy, Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said Tuesday.
US VP Harris begins Asia trip amid Afghan debacle
Harris, an Asian-American whose mother was of Indian origin, landed in Singapore Sunday and will start her activities Monday by meeting the city-state‘s leaders.
The U.S. Government Lied For Two Decades About Afghanistan
That is particularly true given how heavily the U.S. had Afghanistan under every conceivable kind of electronic surveillance for more than a decade. A significant portion of the archive provided to me by Edward Snowden detailed the extensive surveillance the NSA had imposed on all of Afghanistan. In accordance with the guidelines he required, we never published most of those documents about U.S. surveillance in Afghanistan on the ground that it could endanger people without adding to the public interest, but some of the reporting gave a glimpse into just how comprehensively monitored the country was by U.S. security services.
Diesmal die Generäle zur Rechenschaft ziehen
Der Druck, der auf Obama lastete, war so deutlich, dass ich, als er seine Entscheidung, die Truppen in Afghanistan aufzustocken, bekannt gab, schrieb: „Willkommen in Vietnam, Mr. President“.
Escape from Kabul: Diplomats flee US Embassy in Chinook helicopters as Taliban fighters storm Afghan capital – in stark echoes of the Fall of Saigon
– Helicopter – believed to be US Air Force Chinook – seen flying over Kabul today from the US Embassy in Kabul
– It comes as Taliban closes in on the Afghan capital with shots heard on outskirts before fighters stormed city
– Around 3,000 US troops have been sent into city to aid with US evacuation, while British troops also deployed
– It is believed around 500 British staff needed to be evacuated and by Saturday the number was in ‚the tens‘
Krieg, Herbizide und moralischer Rückzug
Am 10. August 1961 begannen die Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika, mehrere Jahre bevor sie tatsächlich Truppen entsandten, die Wälder und Ernten Vietnams mit Herbiziden zu vergiften. Der Zweck: unserem erklärten Feind, den Kommunisten von Ho Chi Minh, die Nahrung und den Bodenbewuchs zu entziehen, der es ihnen ermöglichte, ungesehen von Norden nach Süden zu gelangen. Das Ganze lief unter der harmlos klingenden Bezeichnung Operation Ranch Hand.
SecDef Austin Heads to Southeast Asia With Eye on China
The US wants to form stronger partnerships in the region to counter China
U.S. Defense Secretary to visit the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam
“Secretary Austin’s visit will demonstrate the importance the Biden-Harris Administration places on Southeast Asia and on ASEAN as an essential part of the Indo-Pacific’s architecture,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said, referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations bloc.
The U.S. embassy in Hanoi said on Tuesday that Austin’s trip would start on July 23.
Es ist Saigon in Afghanistan
Im April berechnete das Cost of War Project der Brown University die Gesamtkosten des Afghanistan-Krieges auf mehr als zwei Billionen Dollar. Das bedeutet, dass Millionen von Amerikanern für ein vorhersehbar gescheitertes Projekt ärmer gemacht worden sind. Es bedeutet auch, dass Tausende von gut vernetzten Auftragnehmern und Unternehmen, die um den US-Kapitolgürtel herum lauern und den Krieg vorantreiben, viel, viel reicher geworden sind.
Indonesia Will Not Join QUAD as It Delicately Balances Relations With All Regional Players
Even Vietnam, which has centuries long animosity with China and more tense relations over the South China Sea, shows no intentions of joining QUAD. Besides the lack of interest from Vietnam, and likely from Indonesia too, QUAD members themselves, at this point in time, have not named any specific candidates to join their anti-China coalition.
Vietnam‘s pandemic response leader sworn in as president
Phuc was the only candidate nominated for president, as Trong — who had held the presidency since 2018 after the sudden death of his predecessor — stepped down.
Skid Row, Los Angeles
Skid Row was established by city officials in 1976 as an unofficial „containment zone“, where shelters and services for homeless people would be tolerated.[19]
During the 1970s, two Catholic Workers — Catherine Morris, a former nun, and her husband, Jeff Dietrich — founded the „Hippie Kitchen“ in the back of a van. Over forty years later, in March 2019, aged 84 and 72, they remained active in their work feeding Skid Row residents.[20]
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, many veterans of the Vietnam War found themselves drawn to Skid Row, due to the services and missions already in place there, and feeling outcast from other areas. Like those after World War II, many of them ended up on the streets. It was around this time that the demographics of Skid Row shifted from predominantly white and elderly to those here today [see Demographics].
MI5 worked with undercover police to infiltrate Vietnam protests
The collaboration marked the start of a secret police operation that escalated over more than 40 years, involving at least 139 undercover officers spying on more than 1,000 political groups.
The top-secret collaboration between M15 and Scotland Yard was disclosed on the opening day of public evidence sessions that are being held by a judge-led public inquiry into the undercover policing scandal.
News Analysis: Why does Japan‘s PM Suga choose Vietnam, Indonesia to visit first?
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga departed on Sunday afternoon for visits to Vietnam and Indonesia in his first overseas trip
BBC-Filmreihe “The Trap” (III): Die Freiheit von Berlin oder Der „Kampf der Zivilisationen“
(18.11.2012)
Adam Curtis beschreibt nun in „The Trap“, wie Mitte der 70er Jahre nach einem vermeintlichen „Befreiungskrieg“ – geführt nach einem Konzept von „positiver Freiheit“, wie sie Isaiah Berlin 1958 definiert hatte, sprich: dem Kommunismus – ein ehemaliges Mitglied der Kommunistischen Partei Frankreichs eines der schrecklichsten Kapitel der jüngeren Geschichte aufschlug: der Guerilla-Führer der „Roten Khmer“ und spätere Diktator Kambodschas, Pol Pot. Seine Regimekräfte und ehemaligen Guerillas setzten in letzter Konsequenz die eigene, selbst geschaffene Realität, Moral und Handlungsfreiheit in die Tat um: sie vernichteten alle anderen.
Der „bourgeoise Klassenfeind“ der ausgebeuteten Bauern – Akademiker, Intellektuelle, Kambodschaner mit höherer Schulbildung – den das Regime in die Finger bekam (und dafür sogar extra ins Land lockte), wurde in Lager gesteckt oder gleich ermordet. Das gesamte Volk wurde einer Schreckensherrschaft unterworfen, Kambodscha zu einem apokalyptischen Sklavenstaat.
Das Wort „Schlaf“ wurde verboten und durch das Wort „Ruhen“ ersetzt. Es reichte im Lager zu lächeln, um ermordet zu werden. Viele Kambodschaner wussten bis zum Ende des Regimes nicht einmal, durch wen sie eigentlich beherrscht wurden. Das Pol Pot Regime versteckte sich hinter dem Synonym „Angka“, der Diktator trat erst Jahre nach der Machtergreifung überhaupt in der Öffentlichkeit auf, unter Pseudonym.
Was die Dokumentation „The Trap“ leider vergisst zu erwähnen, sei hier noch schnell hinzugefügt oder der Dokumentation von John Pilger „Year Zero: The Silent Death of Cambodia“ aus 1979 zu entnehmen.
1965 begannen die U.S.A. während des Krieges gegen Nordvietnam ein ebenso mörderisches, wie geheimes Bombardement gegen das neutrale Kambodscha, was bis 1954 Kolonie Frankreichs gewesen war. 2,7 Millionen Tonnen Bomben zwischen 1965 bis 1973 beförderten Kambodscha „zurück in die Steinzeit“ und töteten 200.000 Menschen. Den U.S.-Bomberpiloten wurde vom Pentagon sogar verboten, die eigenen Vorgesetzten zu informieren. Die angeblichen Militärstützpunkte Nordvietnams in Kambodscha, wegen denen die Bombardements vermeintlich durchgeführt wurden, existierten nicht.
Was die Tat von Wahnsinnigen war, wurde nachher als „Wahnsinnigen-Theorie“ („Madman-Theory“) verkauft: die U.S.-Regierung unter Präsident Richard Nixon und Außenminister Henry Kissinger (der später den Friedensnobelpreis bekam) behauptete, sie habe sich wahnsinnig benommen, um der Sowjetunion Angst vor einem Atomkrieg zu machen, damit diese Druck auf Nordvietnam ausübe, damit das den Krieg gegen die U.S.A. beende, den die U.S.A. selbst begonnen hatten.
1970 stürzten die U.S.A. die Monarchie unter „Prinz“ Sihanouk, installierten ein Proxy-Regime und marschierten in Kambodscha ein. Sihanouk, einst 1941 im Alter von achtzehn Jahren vom französischen Vichy-Regime unter deutscher Besatzung zum neuen König der damaligen französischen Kolonie Kambodscha ernannt, floh ins China Mao Tse Tungs und formierte dort eine kambodschanische „Freiheitsbewegung“. Deren Teil: die Roten Khmer.
1972 besuchte Richard Nixon als erster U.S.-Präsident China und Mao Tse Tung, im Versuch gegen das mit der Sowjetunion verbündete Nordvietnam einen Verbündeten zu finden und die Rivalitäten sowohl zwischen China und Vietnam, als auch zwischen China und der Sowjetunion zu schüren.
Als 1975 in Vietnam die Truppen des Vietkong und Nordvietnams in Saigon einmarschierten und den Krieg gegen die U.S.A. gewannen, marschierten in Kambodscha die Truppen der Roten Khmer – von China unterstützt und traditionell verfeindet mit den vietnamesischen Kommunisten – plötzlich in der Haupstadt Phnom Penh ein. Und setzten Prinz Sihanouk als offizielles Staatsoberhaupt ein.
Von der Schreckensherrschaft Pol Pots, auf dessen Killing Fields Millionen Leichen lagen und dessen Verbündeter Prinz Sihanouk nach wie vor im Land lebte, befreite Kambodscha 1979 nicht etwa die „negative Freiheit“ der U.S.A., von Frankreich, oder der U.N.O., sondern die einrückenden Truppen des kommunistischen Vietnams.
Die Mörder der Roten Khmer, die gerade einen Genozid begangen hatten, flohen in Dschungel und begannen dort einen neuen Guerillakrieg – mit Unterstützung der U.S.A. und anderer ehrenwerter westlicher Länder. 1982 formierten die Massenmörder unter Führung Sihanouks eine Exilregierung, die von den U.S.A., der U.N.O und unwichtigen Ländereien Westeuropas anerkannt wurde.
Vizepräsident dieser kambodschanischen Exilregierung: das „Staatsoberhaupt“ des Pol Pot Regimes von 1976-1979, Khieu Samphan. Er lebt heute noch. Er sagt, er hätte nichts gewusst.
Pol Pot wurde nie verfolgt. Dafür sorgten die U.S.A..
Neues altes Staatsoberhaupt Kambodschas wurde 1991 Sihanouk, nach dem Abzug der vietnamesischen Truppen. Er starb erst vor wenigen Tagen, am 15. Oktober 2012, in Peking.
Truman-Doktrin
Auch das US-amerikanische Engagement im Koreakrieg und der Marshallplan wurden mit den Argumenten der Truman-Doktrin begründet. Durch die Truman-Doktrin wurde der außenpolitische Aspekt der Monroe-Doktrin endgültig abgelöst. Sie bildet auch die Rechtfertigung für die Intervention der USA in innere Konflikte anderer Nationen, etwa im Griechischen Bürgerkrieg, im Koreakrieg oder in Vietnam. Die „Eindämmung“ des kommunistischen Machtbereichs zugunsten der „freien Welt“ weist den USA faktisch die Rolle einer globalen Ordnungsmacht zu – im Gegensatz zur in der Zwischenkriegszeit herrschenden Politik des Isolationismus.
Dieser Anspruch der USA als globale Ordnungsmacht spielt auch nach dem Ende des Kalten Krieges im „Krieg gegen den Terror“ noch eine große Rolle.
The Biden Doctrine Exists Already. Here’s an Inside Preview.
The Democratic nominee and his closest advisors served in the Obama administration—but their foreign-policy vision is finding inspiration in Harry S. Truman.
#Biden – „The Democratic nominee and his closest advisors served in the Obama administration—but their foreign-policy vision is finding inspiration in Harry S. Truman.“
Vietnam shutters borders with Cambodia as pandemic spreads
The Vietnamese government has locked down its borders with Cambodia and imposed a month-long entry ban for any foreign traveller — except accredited diplomats — as the country adopts measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
Việt Nam confirms 67th COVID-19 case
As of 7am on March 18, there were 198,178 confirmed COVID-19 cases around the world, including 80,884 in mainland China and 117,294 in 165 other countries and territories.
Four more patients test positive for COVID-19, raising total to 53
Four people, including one from the Czech Republic, tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 in Việt Nam on Saturday afternoon, bringing the total number of COVID-19 infection cases in the country to 53.
The 50th patient is a 50-year-old man from Hà Nội’s Ba Đình District. He reportedly returned from a business trip to Paris on March 9.
We are slipping into the very thing the revolution was fought on. We are moving to a monarchy. Americans really want a king – as long as it’s their king. Who’s left to stand for truth, justice or in many cases our republican system of government? They stand up for their party.
Weihnachten: ein Opfer des Kriegs
Ich erinnere mich, weit weg von Zuhause, Familie und geliebten Menschen gewesen zu sein. Gestoßen in ein fremdes und feindliches Land, von dem ich nicht einmal wusste, dass es existiert. Das Weihnachtsessen wurde per Helikopter in eine trostlose Landezone gebracht. Der Laderaum des Hubschraubers, in dem der kalte Truthahn und das warme Bier verstaut waren, füllte sich schnell mit den noch warmen Körpern der Kameraden, die ihr letztes Weihnachten erlebt hatten.
Christmas: A Casualty of War
I remember being far from home, family, and loved ones. Thrust into an alien and hostile land I didn’t even know existed. Christmas dinner choppered in to a desolate LZ. The space on the chopper where the cold turkey and warm beer had been, quickly filled with the still-warm bodies of comrades who had experienced their last Christmas.
Rudi Dutschke: »Ich bin Revolutionär …«
Die Organisation von Demonstrationen gegen den Vietnamkrieg, gegen die Bildung der großen Regierungskoalition und gegen die geplanten Notstandsgesetze steht im Mittelpunkt seiner Aktivitäten. Rudi Dutschke will zurück zu den Wurzeln von Marx und Luxemburg, er studiert deren Schriften, doch er sieht, »dass deren Analyse für Westeuropa ins Leere geht«. Im gleichen Maße, wie seine Popularität wächst, nimmt auch die Anzahl seiner Kritiker zu, auch aus den eigenen Reihen. 1966 heiratet er die aus den USA stammende Studentin Gretchen Klotz.
Bei einer Demonstration am 2. Juni 1967 gegen den Besuch des Schah von Persien wird der Student Benno Ohnesorg von einem Polizisten erschossen. Das ist der Beginn der Radikalisierung der Studentenbewegung, denn die Rufe nach Aktionen, auch unter Anwendung von Gewalt, werden immer lauter. Selbst Rudi Dutschke verwendet jetzt den Begriff »Kampfmaßnahmen«, obwohl er sich von terroristischen Aktionen deutlich abgrenzt. Später bezeichnet er sie als die »Zerstörung der Vernunft«.
Church Committee
Vor dem Hintergrund des zunehmend unpopulärer werdenden Vietnamkrieges erregten mehrere einzelne Veröffentlichungen über geheime Aktivitäten der US-Regierung ab Anfang der 1970er Jahre ein wachsendes Interesse von Öffentlichkeit und US-Kongress.
– Januar 1970: Der Ex-Soldat Christopher Pyle enthüllt, dass die US-Army im eigenen Land Anti-Kriegsproteste und -aktivisten überwacht. Mitte des Jahres beginnt der Senat mit ersten Ermittlungen unter Sam Ervin.
– Ende März 1971: Die Washington Post und die New York Times berichten über illegale Programme des FBI, Überwachung und Zersetzung gegenüber Bürgerrechtsgruppen. Später wird bekannt, dass die Programme unter dem Namen COINTELPRO bereits seit 1956 liefen. Die Berichterstattung erfolgte auf Basis von Dokumenten, die durch die Citizens’ Commission to Investigate the FBI entwendet und an die Presse weitergeleitet wurden.
– Juni 1971: Die New York Times veröffentlicht trotz massiven Drucks der Regierung die sogenannten „Pentagon Papers“ über das langjährige und geheime politische und militärische Engagement der USA in Vietnam schon vor und während des Beginns des Vietnamkriegs.
– 1972: Eine Serie zunächst kleiner Artikel der Journalisten Bob Woodward und Carl Bernstein in der Washington Post enthüllt die Hintergründe eines Einbruchs in das Hauptquartier der Demokratischen Partei im „Watergate-Hotel“. Erst der Prozess gegen die Einbrecher im Januar 1973 legt die Hintergründe der Watergate-Affäre offen und löst massive Senatsermittlungen aus, geleitet wieder von Sam Ervin. Im August 1974 tritt US-Präsident Richard Nixon unter der Last der Vorwürfe zurück, nachdem ein Amtsenthebungsverfahren gegen ihn eingeleitet wurde.
– Dezember 1974: Der Journalist Seymour Hersh enthüllt in einer Serie der NYT die „Familienjuwelen“ der CIA, geheime Operationen zur Ermordung ausländischer Staatschefs und Putsche. Er erwähnt zudem massive Überwachungsoperationen der CIA gegen politische Gegner des Vietnamkrieges in den USA unter dem Codenamen Operation CHAOS.
Die USA hatten zu dieser Zeit keine ausreichende Erfahrung mit der Kontrolle ihrer erst im Zweiten Weltkrieg aufgebauten und seitdem nur ad hoc strukturierten Nachrichtendienste.
(…)
Die Ermittlungen ergaben auch, dass verschiedene Abgeordnete der beiden Kammern über einzelne Operationen informiert worden waren. Es fehlte aber an einer Koordination und klaren Verantwortlichkeiten, so dass die einzelnen Abgeordneten es vorzogen, in eine andere Richtung zu schauen.
Unter dem Druck der Veröffentlichungen erließ Präsident Gerald Ford die Executive Order 11905, ein verbindliches Verbot an alle US-Regierungsstellen und deren ausführenden Organe, ausländische Staatschefs gezielt zu töten oder derartige Operationen zu planen.
Aus dem Church Committee gingen die ständigen Ausschüsse zur Kontrolle der Nachrichtendienste im US-Senat (Select Committee on Intelligence) und im Repräsentantenhaus (United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence) hervor. Außerdem legte der Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act von 1978 fest, nach welchen Regeln die CIA im Ausland operieren darf und dass die Dienste für die Überwachung von amerikanischen Staatsbürgern die Genehmigung des neu eingerichteten FISC-Gerichtes bedürfen.
Vietnam vs. Afghanistan – Matched Mayhem, Ceaseless War
You see, my granddaughter, Kaya, turns 14 next week and she has never lived in a time when her country wasn’t waging an unrelenting interventionist war somewhere. Not for one moment, and I couldn’t let it go.
Vietnam vs. Afghanistan – abgestimmtes Chaos, endloser Krieg
Siehst du, meine Enkelin Kaya, wird nächste Woche 14 Jahre alt, und sie hat noch nie in einer Zeit gelebt, in der ihr Land nicht irgendwo einen unerbittlichen interventionistischen Krieg geführt hat. Nicht für einen Moment, und ich konnte das nicht einfach auf sich beruhen lassen.
Cut These Words: Passion and International Law of War Scholarship
(12.11.2019)
First, and perhaps the most fascinating mystery, is the near-total erasure of the Vietnam era,
and its vociferous doctrinal and policy debates, from the War on Terror international legal debate. The more one reads, the stranger it becomes—particularly once the invasion of Cambodia becomes publicly known in 1970, and the U.S. Department of State justifies the intervention in international legal terms. The doctrinal debate is eerily similar to those underlying key controversies between 2009 and 2018. The underlying law is, in many respects, largely the same. The contours of the international legal questions and their purported implications for the future disclose remarkable similarities. And yet, with the exception of that single footnote in the Al Aulaqi memorandum, there is almost no reference to the raging scholarly discourse that occurred barely two generations earlier. This would perhaps be understandable if I had gone deep into the national archives of, say, Bangladesh, and had found obscure texts that had never been published in English, or had never been made available in libraries or on the internet. But we are talking more or less about similar substantive debates occurring in similar journals by scholars contending with the same government offices. And it all just disappeared. Why?7