Tuesday, May 29, 2018
More About Why Vietnam War Happened
5/29/2018
Hi, Helen & John!
Glad you all enjoyed our Celebration in absence! Nice that Leona & Garry could join in too. How about that? Hope you enjoy your "nightshirt," Helen! Bob calls it that. LOL! I wanted to give a "wedding gift" to all my siblings - and that is what I came up with. I guess I could have had it called BESSLER SISTERS instead of BESSLER BROS, but it was a fun thing to do for me - and so, I did it.
For those who do not know of what I speak, I had T-Shirts made for my siblings with an inscription headed with a title - BESSLER BROS. I spoke with Brother Bob last night and he called my (our) gift to my Bessler siblings a "nightshirt." But be it a nightshirt or dayshirt, I hope all can enjoy it somewhat. OK?
All is well here. Nancy & I will be going to Cancun, Mexico for a delayed honeymoon next week with her daughter, Debbie, and some of Debbie's family. We will be gone from June 6 to June 13. Debbie arranged for a visit to Cancun in 2013 too; and we had a great time there for a week or so in April of that year. I even spent a good deal of time working on a song that I called THE SANDS OF YUCATAN. Yucatan is the area in Mexico where Cancun is found. If I write a song this time, it will be song # 204. Time will tell if I will.
Too bad about that Vietnam saga, though. It could have all been avoided if Ike and his administration had honored the Geneva Agreement of 1954, when we committed ourselves to be there in Vietnam to assure free elections. Most do not know about that; and that probably includes 95 % of the soldiers who later fought in a war because of it, meaning fought because America had not honored its agreement to be there in Vietnam to assure free elections. It seems we did not honor our commitment to be there on election day in late 1954 or early 1955 because we knew that an "enemy," Ho Chi Minh - a Communist - would likely win. Those elections were refused by our ally - South Vietnam - not our "enemy" - North Vietnam. But look what happened when we embraced the wrong one? We sure did pay a great price. Didn't we? Ho was Communist too partly because earlier America did not want to supply weapons to him to oust our ally, France, from colonizing Vietnam. So, Ho - who wanted Democracy for Vietnam - or Indochina as it was called then - reached out to the Soviet Union for arms - and that is why he was a "Communist" in the first place. But who knew of all that when we so boldly marched into Vietnam to aid one - President Diem - who had violated the very Geneva Agreements we signed - but did not honor? Ouch!!!!!!!
Keep in mind, however, for what it's worth, it is all only opinion - my own. Others - like President Ike and then Vice President, Nixon - may have seen it much differently; and, of course, they did and that is why they acted as they did. But who in America was aware of what was happening? And, in my opinion, that ignorance led us down the wrong path. We should have embraced Ho for his desire of Democracy - not opposed him. Ho had gone to war in Indochina, as it was called then, to oust the French from an earlier domination of Indochina. After considerable warfare, he finally succeeded to defeat the French and those Indochinese who supported the French in a battle at Dien Bien Phu - or something like that. Rather than simply accept a right to rule over the territory he gained by war against the French, he wanted to go Democratic and allow the Indochinese to choose what president they wanted. Thus, he agreed to meet with other nations - like America - in Geneva, Switzerland in 1954 and sign an international document favored in part by Ike and America and Nixon that would allow for all who signed that document to be there in 6 months (or maybe a year) in Indochina for free elections. Until that time of an election, Indochina was divided into North Vietnam - to be controlled by Ho Chi Minh - and South Vietnam - to be controlled by a fellow named Diem, who had sided with the French in the previous war with Ho. Diem was named temporary president of South Vietnam; and Ho Chi Minh was named temporary president of North Vietnam. Then when an election was held and either Diem or Ho Chi Minh won that election, the Vietnams would be reunited as one Indochina under the presidency of the winner: Diem or Ho Chi Minh. That was the plan outlined in what became the Geneva Agreement of 1954.
But when it came time for an election to take place and America was supposed to be there assuring that it would, Diem declared there would be no free election - probably because he knew he would lose against a national hero like Ho Chi Minh; and Ike and his administration went along with Diem and opposed Ho Chi Minh. Diem, not Ho Chi Minh, refused to allow free elections. Personally, I was very aware of all of this because of reading about it in the Time and Newsweek magazines of 1954 and 1955. I was "outraged" that America - my country - could so blatantly violate an international agreement it signed, but at the time, I had no idea all of that would lead America into war in the '60s on the side of the man I thought betrayed Vietnam - President Diem. But again, I was mostly alone in my interest for spending my noon times as a student at Powell High in Powell, Wyoming reviewing Time and Newsweek. At the time, I was only 12 and 13 or so.
Enuf with such reminiscing for now. Be in touch! Come and see Nancy & I - when we get back from Cancun! LOL!
Gently,
Frank & Nancy