Vietnam War Collection: books plus

[tequila]

So Mark Moyar's argument that the war in Vietnam kept Indonesia non-Communist (incidentally causing the deaths of nearly a million people in Indonesia) was originally a Westy canard? Good to see he was still trotting out the domino theory even in the 1980s.

[jmm99]

Canard = An unfounded or false, deliberately misleading fabrication, a false report, rumour or hoax.

What specific language in Westmoreland's 1983 piece is a canard ?

What variant of the "domino theory" do you assert that Westmoreland was following in 1983 ?

His description of SE Asian geopolitics appears to be more like such:

Domino_theory.jpg

Should we call this the "almost domino theory" ?

[Ken White]

So Mark Moyar's argument that the war in Vietnam kept Indonesia non-Communist (incidentally causing the deaths of nearly a million people in Indonesia) was originally a Westy canard? Good to see he was still trotting out the domino theory even in the 1980s.

It reads:

"It encouraged Indonesia in 1966 to throw out the Russians and, as time passed, unhappy events in Indochina showed to the people of Southeast Asia the real ugly face of communism and the inadequacy of the communist system. Consequently, the countries of Southeast Asia now seem to be staunchly a part of the non-communist world. Bold emphasis in original, underline added by me / kw)"

Agree with JMM -- no canard there. If you choose to think '"...events in Indochina..." refer solely to the Viet Nam war, your prerogative. Throwing out the Russians was due to the USSR attempting to muscularly support the PKI to the exclusion of Sukarno who disagreed with that idea. The PKI and the Confrontation were more significant catalysts to the 1965 coup regardless of Westmoreland's statement -- which may or may not be what he really thought. Those two items and Suharto's desire for power mean Viet Nam was really only a peripheral event.