Try not to ignore the diplomatic nature with which I place my comments. That is, I do not present anything as fact, and I admit I, as well as others, have my biases and that even if I do like SOME things about Ho Chi Minh, not whoever the hell "Uncle Ho" is, I do not agree with the violence. I am simply, like you said, holding everyone, and that includes the U.S., to the same standard. I am not some naive child who couldn't possibly know anything about the world. I have very, very much to learn, but I do not see Ho Chi Minh as a hero in the same way I don't see John F. Kennedy as a hero, or most presidents for that matter. They have some good ideas, and some bad ideas; their commonality is that they all believe committing violent acts in order to achieve peace, which I fundamentally disagree with.
Though I would hope that countries would respect things like the Geneva Convention, those laws on human rights and the rules of war only apply to signatories. I personally do not know whether Hanoi signed on to the treaty, but I seriously doubt a territory that few recognized as a sovereign, functioning area would be able to sign onto such a document. If you want to talk about morality, the United States never signed the Geneva Accord that prohibits indiscriminate bombing of an urban population. Thus, it is each country's decision how they want to handle prisoner's of war and rules of war. Though the United States indeed treats our prisoners quite well in our current wars (mostly), during Vietnam I have no doubt we crossed the line a number of different times.
My personal views on POWs are that it's silly to provide rules as to how they're treated. That may sound offensive to some of you, but what I mean is this. I HOPE they're treated humanely and kept in good condition. But realistically, why would our enemy logically care if they treat theire ENEMY well? This is war, and if in Vietnam we can just burn the hell out of half their country with Napalm, chemicals, and landmines, I think they can rough up some prisoners. Once again; same standard.
It seems to me you are too paranoid about liberal control of media outlets. For instance, CNN and MSNBC are quite liberal, especially MSNBC. However, Fox is notoriously more conservative, and many, MANY, people watch all of those networks. So I see no liberal bias, and if there is, that's more just a genuine social change than a bunch of "libs" behind the scenes pulling the strings; seems a bit elaborate. Once again, I'm not a liberal, and do not wish for you to lump me into that category, nor into a category with democrats.
For the record, I think Stalin was much worse than Hitler. If not just by the numbers (he killed millions more than Hitler), he was also hugely paranoid and committed incredible atrocities against his own people. I do not mean to say that you are wrong about your particular points, but you must not lump people into the same categories. There are very few absolute truths in this world, or absolute falsehoods. Not all liberals believe that Stalin was a good guy (in fact I've never met one).
And no, the ends do not justify the means. I was simply saying that I AGREE with the ends and disagree with the means. Thus, I meant just the opposite.
I'm curious though as to your dislike towards Communists. Is it because of the dictatorships you have witnessed throughout the years that "claim" they follow such an ideology, or is it the teachings themselves? I am not completely well-versed in the theory, but Mao Zedong, Ho Chi Minh, Stalin, etc. did not take their horrible actions directly out of the Karl Marx handbook as far as I know.
Try not to brag so much about your own accomplishments; a little humility goes a long way. I do not deny you have been around longer, or that you have probably done a lot of reading. But we often state opinions here, some backed up by facts and others backed up by bias. Thus, I would appreciate if you just state it plainly and avoid talking down to me or others. People don't particularly enjoy being belittled.
Saying fantastic things such as liking Ho Chi Mihn in a military forum will get you unwanted attention, but you come off as a very fair minded person.
Remeber watching the Wizard of Oz when the Wizard said, "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain?" That is the same thing the major media is telling you today. I have been looking behind the curtain for awhile now. Here is a basic summary of who controlls what you see and think:
Comcast owns NBC, Telemundo, E Entertainment, Versus, 14 television stations, Universal Pictures, and Hulu. Disney holdings include 10 television stations, 277 radio stations, ABC, ESPN, A&E, the History Channel, Lifetime, Discover magazine, Bassmaster magazine, Hyperion publishing, Touchstone Pictures, Pixar Animation, and Miramax Film Corp. Viacom owns 10 television stations, The Movie Channel, Comedy Central, BET, Nickelodeon, TV Land, MTV, VH1, and Paramount Pictures. CBS owns 30 TV stations, Smithsonian Channel, Showtime, The Movie Channel and Paramount Network Television. News Corp. owns 27 television stations, the Fox Network and Fox News Channel, FX, National Geographic Channel, The Wall Street Journal, TV Guide, the New York Post, DirecTV, the publisher HarperCollins, film production company Twentieth Century Fox and the social networking website MySpace. Time Warner owns HBO, CNN, the Cartoon Network, Warner Bros. Time magazine, Turner Broadcasting and DC Comics.
Currently, six major companies control most of the media in our country. The FCC could decide to relax media ownership rules, which would allow further consolidation and put decisions about what kinds of programming and news Americans receive in even fewer hands.
- See more at: Facts On Media In America: Did You Know? - Common Cause
Facts On Media In America: Did You Know? - Common Cause
Now look at the people throwing the levers, the top descision makers: Viacom: Summer Redstone, Comcast: Brian Roberts, Time Warner: Jeff Bewkes, Disney: Robert Iger, and News Corp: Rubert Murdoch. Only Newscorp's Murdoch is a conservative or Christian. He is half-Jewish and joked, "I'm a Christian, but my wife is a Catholic." In all but Newscorp, Conservative Christians can be found in only tiny, token numbers among the directors, board memebers or controlling shareholders. All the other media giants have not a single conservative Christian in charge of any national new agency, movie studio or large cable channel. Zero.
As far as wartime atrocities go, the leftists in the big media giants have no interest in equal justice. All the atrocities committed by North Koreas, North Vietmanese and especially the Soviet Union will never be brought to attention. In WW2 only the Japs, the Germans and the anyone conscripted to serve under the Axis have ever been convicted of war crimes. Russians POW's imprisioned by the Germans and sent to their deaths in the salt mines after Stalin got his hands on them don't count. Not a single Allied soldier, American, British, Soviet or anyone else has even been held accountable for any of the legion of war crimes committed. This is called "Victor's Justice."
I've given up viewing almost all US media these days, except the NY Times, and occasionally PBS or MSNBC. The right wing bias has become so prevasive that there is no point. They are relentlessly pro-Israel, pro-military, pro-business, and never will ask a hard question of those in authority. During Iraq 2 we had all sorts of features on the workings of cruise missiles, or the wise decisions of military commanders on the ground, and similar, but hardly a question of why it was happening, by anyone. Edward Murrow was likely rolling in his grave.
As for Ho Chi Minh, he may have been a bastard, but the US has never shyed away from dealing with bastards before, and they had the choice in this case. But saying someone is a communist is the same thing as saying they are the anti-christ to an American, and this has caused them untold trouble since 1945.