Slashdot Mirror
Vietnam Courts Microsoft and Vice Versa
wbren writes "Bill Gates and Vietnam's Prime Minister Phan Van Khai have signed two 'memoranda of understanding' regarding Microsoft's presence in Vietnam, according to this AP story. They met Monday at Microsoft's Redmond headquarters for a closed door meeting and a tour of Microsoft's "home of the future". The agreement reached is expected to strengthen Vietnam's IT industry, as well as provide software training for 50,000 of the country's teachers. Khai's visit also triggered protests in Seattle, reminding everyone of Vietnam's human rights record."
http://www.hrw.org/doc/?t=usa
"I should note the picture of the Vietnamese man summarily executing a Vietnamese prisoner is an RVN (US puppet government) official shooting an suspected NLF prisoner, polls show young Americans often think it's the reverse."
If they think so, it's because that's what they've been told by school teachers who want to rewrite history.
"the Ohio National Guard shot four students dead"
The Ohio National Guard fired into the air, over the heads of the protesters, who were throwing rocks and bottles at the RETREATING National Guard. Admittedly shooting into the air was a stupid thing to do, because all that lead has to land somewhere.
Your post suggests that the NG killed four protesters. They didn't. The truth is bad enough, so why lie about it?
And while I'm at it, don't even bring up the so-called atrocities committed by the US against the VC. The things the US did, including My Lai, were nothing compared to what the VC did to their own people and to any US soldiers captured by the VC. The VC were and are creative in a way the Spanish Inquisition would have envied.
As far as I could tell from the limited media coverage and digging through blogs most of the protesters were Vietnamese Americans who either fled the Communist Regime themselves or whose parents did. The rest are Vietnam Vet's.
I've personally spoken with one such refugee who escaped to the Philippines and eventually made it to the US. After the US pulled out, he went home and destroyed all of his documentation proving he worked on the US Base as an aircraft mechanic. He watched his neighbors literally disappear overnight! His house was searched and his family threatened. He moved his wife and kids to his mother in-laws and then he fled the country. It took him many years to save up enough money to have his family smuggled out of the country.
Vietnam is guilty of many Human Rights violations, many more of the Vietnamese died when the US pulled out then were killed in the entire war! The country denied having any American POW's but we all know they did.
I think it's despicable that we would open trade agreements with the country. They failed to build their own economy due to the oppressive nature of Communism. So why help bail them out with trade deals? The same with China... I think it's a mistake, China has shown little results from all the investments we've made. They are actively trying to crack down on the formerly free people in Hong Kong and not to mention Taiwan. Again, why do we give money to Communists?!?! We know their economy will eventually collapse just as it did in Russia.
Thanks for remembering. People aren't taught that fact (the one you referenced) in class, nor is it hardly ever mentioned in documentaries. It is definitely not common knowledge.
My father was one of those "advisors." Long before the Gulf of Tonkin meant anything, my dad was participating in a hot war in Vietnam.
Some people would still argue with me.
BTW, Eisenhower sent in the first wave of troops, not Johnson.
Thats because Cambodia wasn't a signatory to the Paris Peace Accords.
The Arclight missions over Cambodia were halted in August 15, 1973 by the United States Congress.
From the Khmer Rouge perspective, however, the severity of the bombings was matched by the treachery of the North Vietnamese. The Cambodian communists had refused to take part in the Paris peace talks. So that when North Vietnam and the United States signed the Paris Peace Accords on January 27, 1973, bombing missions over Vietnam and Laos were terminated. The fighter bombers and other aircraft thus released were diverted to strike Khmer Rouge positions in Cambodia.