Letter to Newsweek

Long time no blog. Going to try to get back into it. Anyway, I sent the following email to Newsweek in response to this column by Michael Hirsch.

Dear Mr. Hirsh,

In your recent column on America's withdrawal from Vietnam you start from the year 1991 and note that Vietnam has essentially abandoned communism. This is true. Given scant attention, however, are the intervening years from the end of the Vietnam War to the end of the Cold War, with only passing acknowledgment given that "a lot of Vietnamese boat people died on the high seas."

Ignored in this piece are the thousands of Vietnamese that were executed, imprisoned or sent to "re-education camps" among other fates. There is, after all, a reason why literally hundreds of thousands elected to take their chances on the high seas rather than remain in the country.

To argue, as you do, that the Vietnam War was not a determining factor in bringing about the end of the Cold War is to completely miss the point. While the U.S. ultimately triumphed, the hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese that perished in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal from that country will forever be a stain on our record. And though many years in the future Iraq may attain the stability and economic growth that Vietnam currently enjoys, make no mistake that the death toll and suffering that will ensue following a U.S. pullout would be fearsome.

Until you and other advocates of immediate U.S. withdrawal are willing to acknowledge and address this fact your argument will continue to ring hollow.

Regards,

Colin