Digest Number 1325

I honestly doubt that.

Ho and his colleagues were fanatical Vietnamese nationalists but they
were still intellectuals hard line marxists.

Ho himself actually spent some time in the US. He was a pastry chef
in a major New York city hotel.

As for the rest, the whole region was a majot hotbed for communist
adventures. Malaya in peticular was a place where a lot of blood got
spilled with Marxist encouragement.

I am inclined to agree, we did lose Vietnam but we kept the
Communists from other pastures.

--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, "Rick Brooks"
>
> On 3/24/06, ralph buttigieg wrote:
> >
> > > Message: 6
> > > Date: Thu, 23 Mar 2006 20:50:38 -0000
> > > From: "Don Davis"
> > > Subject: Re: Don Davis article
> > >
> > > In making
> > >> that point, Davis said that we had squandered the money we
could
> > >> have used to make a lunar settlement to delay the takeover of
S.
> > >> Vietnam by the communists by only ten years. What I am
wondering
> > >> is, where does he get the idea that ten years is "only."
> > >
> > > My point was that We spent several times as much money on this
> > > unsuccesful intervention as on Apollo, a sucessful project. The
> > > economy was hurt by the war and by other decisions made then,
and
> > > Lunar voyages suddenly seemed like a luxery we couldn't afford.
In
> > > return for throwing away our ability to reach other worlds,
perhaps
> > > forever, we delayed the communist takepver of Vietnam by only
ten
> > > years. It was going to happen anyway, as soon as we decided to
cut our
> > > losses, as the French did before us. Communism, falling largely
due to
> > > the power of economic and mass access to information, is now
history
> > > except in Mainland China and a few other stragglers, and so is
our
> > > ability to reach beyond Earth orbit-for now.
> >
> > Ten years. Those ten years allowed Singapore to lift themselfs
out of
> > poverty. Allowed
> > Indonesia the chance to root out the Communists ans stablise the
country.
> > Allowed Malaysia
> > to do the same. Gave Australia a breathing space. If you really
think
> > those
> > ten years were
> > wasted you are condeming millions of people to poverty and
communist
> > dictatorship.
> >
> > Ralph
> >
> > It is impossible to tell what might have happened.
>
> That is merely your opinion.
>
> I seriously doubt the Vietnam Communists would have made it to
these other
> countries. Rented a fleet no doubt.
>
> You seem to be blinded by Conservative political correctness just as
> liberals are by Liberal political correctness.
>
> Without US pressuring them. the Vietnamese have become more
capitalist.