VIETNAM

BERTRAND RUSSELL—Malcom Browne, correspondent for the Associate Press, reported: “Interrogation involves connection of electrodes from (this) generator to the temples of the subject, or other part of the body. In the case of women prisoners the electrodes often are attached to the nipples…. Many of the soldiers enjoy beating up Vietcong prisoners.The subjects of interrogation so often die under questioning that intelligence seems to be a secondary matter.”

PAUL STREET—And it is complete historical bullshit.  John McCain was a war criminal who happened to get shot down while trying to kill Vietnamese human beings who had the audacity to fight for national independence and social justice in their Third World nation during the 1960s. 

PHILIP A. FARRUGGIO—Driving home in a very happy state of mind, I thought back to five years earlier. I recalled, most vividly, seeing my friend’s older brother Vito at Mass one Sunday. He was home on leave from the Army Rangers, replete with his uniform, boots and beret. I gazed at him and saw such a stalwart figure standing but five feet away. He held his beret like a lady proudly holds a bouquet of flowers that she just received as a gift. Perhaps a month or so later we got the news that Vito was killed on some famous hill in the Nam that made the network news. His kid brother never recovered from his big brother’s death. A few years later I would see him at our schoolyard sniffing glue, and hearing from some of his friends that they were all shooting heroin. During that same time period another guy from our neighborhood, Tommy Lombardo, joined the Marines with his pal Pete Haros, the kid from the neighborhood Greek diner. Tommy’s mom was our school crossing guard by St. Edmunds church. We all loved her, with that beautiful smile and pleasant voice. When Tommy returned home in a box, his mom never really recovered.

JIM MILES—What is really happening is the overall loss of U.S. power in all aspects: economic, diplomatic, and military. The transformation is not just because the Pentagon has overridden the State Department although that is part of it. The full context of international relations is not discussed, omitting the rise of Russia as a military power, acting independently of U.S. interests, omitting the formal and informal economic and military/security ties between Russia/China and other Asian partners. It is also the rising awareness globally that U.S. intentions are entirely self centered for hegemonic control, along with the ability of countries to resist that control militarily and economically.

JOSEPH THOMAS—Vietnam is not the only nation facing growing US coercion in the form of US-funded and directed opposition movements. Cambodia and Thailand likewise face opposition parties entirely backed by the US and its European allies. US-backed opposition also just assumed power in Malaysia and a US-funded and directed opposition party has already seized power and ruled in Myanmar since 2016. US efforts to undermine and overwrite national sovereignty across Southeast Asia includes regional synergies between opposition fronts in each respective nation.