Reason #468 Why We Shouldn't Be Doing Any Business With Vietnam...

[SteyrAUG]

Lots of people like to say "the war is over, it's time to move on", but that isn't how the communist government of Vietnam see's things.

In 1963 West Point graduate and Green Beret James "Nick" Rowe was take prisoner in Vietnam. He was held prisoner for 5 years, most of it spent in a 3x4x6 foot bamboo cage. When it was discovered that he was actually an intelligence officer his captors ordered his execution. And when he was walked deep in the jungle to be shot, his guards were distracted by a US helicopter and Rowe was able to overpower them and escape. He was rescued on Dec. 31, 1968 when he managed to signal a helicopter.

In 1981 he took everything he learned from his time as a POW, his successful 5 year deception where he passed himself off as a civil engineer for the military and his successful escape from an execution detail to help design and build the SERE program for the US military.

And it was at this point when the people who say "the war is over, it's time to move on" think that should have been the end of it.

But in 1989 while working with the Philippine government, the New People's Army - a communist insurgency that threatened to overthrow the existing government, targeted him for assassination along with several other prominent individuals. On April 21, 1989 his vehicle was ambushed and shot 21 times and Rowe was killed when he was shot in the head.

Communists never seem to think "the war is over, time to move on."

We should also keep in mind that the current communist government is the exact same government that locked Rowe in a bamboo cage for 5 years and then ordered his execution. Today Vietnam is often found on Top Ten lists of best places to retire in the world and many US companies have moved their production facilities to Vietnam.

[MountainRaven]

So we should refuse to forgive Vietnam for something some Filipinos did. Got it.

[Firefly]

So we should refuse to forgive Vietnam for something some Filipinos did. Got it.

YOU WEREN'T THERE, MAAAAAN

[SteyrAUG]

So we should refuse to forgive Vietnam for something some Filipinos did. Got it.

Actually we should refuse to forgive Vietnam for what they did to Rowe and we should remember communists, like terrorists, kill for political and ideological reasons. While Hanoi may not have orchestrated the assassination, Rowe was killed because he escaped from Hanoi and became a symbol of the enemy.

But just as Iran is the same Iran that took US hostages, and indeed some of the actual hostage takers are now part of the current Iranian government, the Vietnam today is the same government that committed all manner of war crimes against US POWs. We should have nothing to do with them, the fact that we are improving their economy and quality of life is offensive.

[CommO]

I first learned of this American hero while attending a course at JFKSWCS. COL Rowe wrote one of the best books I've ever read, Five Years to Freedom, about his time in captivity. It is an absolutely amazing survival story. As you'd expect, it's extremely instructional, but it reads like a novel.

To clarify, COL Rowe was held neither in Hanoi nor by the NVA. For his entire 5 years as a prisoner, he was held in small jungle camps (and moved often) in extreme southern Vietnam, in what was then called IV Corps, by VietCong forces. This is an important distinction, and it is discussed in the book, especially given the time frame of his captivity relative to the rest of the war's history (and the friction between leadership in Hanoi and VC leadership in SVN.

But I appreciate how you feel Steyr. I'm conflicted, but every time I re-ead that book, my anger towards COL Rowe's captors is renewed.

Semper Fi.

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[chuckman]

It took almost a full two generations for a lot of world war II vets to get past the atrocities of Germany and Japan. I imagine we need a few more years to let some of the wounds heal over before a lot of older Americans feel comfortable about Vietnam. That said, hundreds and hundreds of Vietnam vets have gone to Vietnam and made peace with the previous enemy, so I think they are trying hard to getting a better place with relationships.

I agree it is a moral challenge.

[CPM]

People think I’m weird for detesting Japanese and German automobiles. “They’re so reliable.” “There’s none more refined.” “They’re built right here!” I know where that money eventually trickles back to and I know what both of those nations and families did just 75 years ago- not just to American’s, including 5 from my family, but to the world.

[Nightvisionary]

At what point do you move on and make nice then? Should we then sever relations with the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Russia, Libya, China, North Korea, Panama, Mexico, Canada, U.S. Southern States, Morocco, American Indians, Algiers, Malaysia, Fiji, Phillipines, Nicaragua, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Austria, Hungry, Turkey, Bulgaria, Iraq, Yugoslavia etc etc?

[lowprone]

Communism is what he is referring to, not necessarily Viet-Nam as a nationality.
Communism is a cancer, pure and simple it infects and corrupts everything it contacts.
Physically, mentally, spiritually, it is poison, period.
Socialism is Communism in the early stage.

[Nightvisionary]

Communism is what he is referring to, not necessarily Viet-Nam as a nationality.
Communism is a cancer, pure and simple it infects and corrupts everything it contacts.
Physically, mentally, spiritually, it is poison, period.
Socialism is Communism in the early stage.

Very true but a open or closed relationship with Vietnam is not going to halt or even slow the eventual complete adoption of socialism and oligarchal collectivism in what we now call the United States. The machinery moving that forward was put in place long before we sent troops to Vietnam.