05/05/05

This week marks the 30th anniversary of America's ignominious withdrawal from Vietnam in helicopters from the roof of the American Embassy in Saigon. The South Vietnamese capital, soon to be renamed Ho Chi Minh City, fell to Communist forces on April 30, 1975. President Ford proclaimed the end of the war on May 7. Not since the Civil War 100 years before had the country been so divided. What lessons have we learned, or should we have learned, from the Vietnam experience? * Be sure there is a solid, enduring national consensus about where the national interest lies. ... * Be sure it is the US national interest that drives involvement and not the national interest of another country. ... * Think the problem through: Are we going to stick with our original policy even though it turns out to be mistaken?" [editor's note: Required reading for anyone too young or myopic to remember history! - SAT]

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0505/p09s02-coop.html

from Christian Science Monitor, by Pat M. Holt


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp