Cut and Paste

Que Sera, Sera,
Whatever will be, will be
The future's not ours, to see
Que Sera, Sera
--Que Sera, Sera, Livingston and Evans


Those who cannot remember the past
are condemned to repeat it
--George Santayana


What's past is prologue
--The Tempest (II, i), Shakespeare


Wouldn't it be nice if we could wake up
In the morning when the day is new
--Wouldn't It Be Nice, Beach Boys
_________

Part the third of Ranger's nostalgia series:

Let's pretend for the purposes of argument that the U.S. and allied powers Britain and France actually intended to implement the Atlantic Charter, thereby eliminating and ending colonialism in the post WW II world. Let's pretend, because that didn't happen, though it sure sounded good.

Let us pretend that British troops did not enter French Indochina immediately after their surrender. Let's pretend the French weren't given control of the Indochina region immediately after WW II ended. But that didn't happen.

Let's pretend that after the French were expelled from the area, that America did not enter into the mix. This means that we must further pretend that nationalists, Buddhists, armed criminal gangs, monarchists, religious armies, government forces and the Communists would have to resolve their situation internally within their borders, and in a manner politically acceptable to their society at large.

Then we must further pretend that U.S. forces didn't enter the picture and help the government (SVN) to defeat and neutralize all the groups that were a counterbalance to the Vietnamese Communists. This is hard to pretend, since it didn't happen.

Let's further pretend that the U.S. military did not kill, maim or wound 20% of the VN population in an effort to show them the glories of Capitalism and Democracy. Again, hard to pretend, since it did happen.

If we pretend the U.S. didn't enter the fray, and the various elements of Vietnamese society had to resolve their own political future, perhaps they could have done so with all of the elements we destroyed with our intervention still intact. Perhaps they could have countered the communist threat. But of course, that didn't happen, as the intervention of our war machine destroyed the balance of their society.

Let's pretend that 58,000 Americans didn't die trying to defend a country in which our policies defeated the nationalists, criminal gangs, religious armies, Buddhists, landowners and monarchists.

Let's further pretend that one of the 58,000 would live to be a president. This is hard to pretend since it didn't happen.

This article can be re-written substituting Iraq or Afghanistan for the RVN. This is up to the reader, since Rangers have difficulty with complex concepts.