Target Centermass

Day: April 29, 2005

  • Fall of Saigon — Thirty Years Later

    Vietnam Marks War’s End

    Tens of thousands of people gathered here today to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam war with the fall of Saigon to Communist forces and the defeat of the US-backed South Vietnamese regime.

    Gala celebrations got under way in the southern economic capital, now renamed Ho Chi Minh City, as people massed on the street in front of the former regime’s presidential palace, now called Reunification Palace.

    Top leaders including Communist Party General Secretary Nong Duc Manh, state President Tran Duc Luong and Prime Minister Phan Van Khai were joined by Raul Castro, Cuba’s defence minister and brother of President Fidel Castro at the ceremony.

    “The victory of April 30, 1975 opened a new era for the Vietnamese people. This glory and this victory belongs first of all to the heroic Vietnamese people,” declared Nguyen Minh Triet, politburo member and party secretary of Ho Chi Minh City.

    The glory and victory of the invading North, the actual aggressors along with their Soviet allies, were not to be shared by all of the Vietnamese people, as thousands were subsequently killed by the conquering communists and thousands upon thousands more suffered for almost two generations under the dictatorship of a gasping, dying ideology that now turns to the “aggressor” U.S. for friendly cooperation.

    The day is also marked rather differently by John and the denizens of Argghhh!!!. I especially direct you to the remembrances of the day in the comments, where several, including some vets, have posted their memories of the moment. Here’s a painful one from John:

    I just stood behind my Dad in the family room, watching the blood flow from the 5 Purple Hearts his tour in Vietnam garnered… as a little bit of his soul leaked out of each one, as he sat watching the television.

    In his book Summons of the Trumpet, an excellent history of the U.S. involvement in Viet Nam, Dave R. Palmer did not write of the glory of the fall of Saigon but instead looked at how the U.S. failed an ally and scrambled to save what and whom it could.

    Meanwhile, with the time bought by the ARVN stand above Saigon, the United States was able to evacuate most Americans and tens of thousands of South Vietnamese who were related to Americans or were marked for death because of their affiliation with various U.S. activities in South Vietnam. The last group out was extracted in a day-long helicopter shuttle started after North Vietnamese gunners began shelling the city. Two American marines were killed when a round struck the building which had once housed the MACV headquarters. The last to die in the long war, neither had been born when the United States began to back Diem with advisors in 1954.

    When the final chopper lifted off, carrying the last marine guards, it signalled the humiliating end to a once bright American dream of preventing a communist takeover of South Vietnam. The trumpet was silent.

    That is the true heritage of the day. And the U.S. military has unfairly been forced to labor vigorously to salvage its reputation — globally, historically and in the eyes of the American people — ever since that day thirty years ago, a day when the American military did not lose but the U.S. did.

  • Death Sentence for Murderous Traitor

    One huge step closer to justice.

    A United States soldier has been sentenced to death by a military court for killing two comrades and wounding 14 more in a “hate-filled, ideologically-driven” attack launched on the eve of the Iraq war.

    Hasan Akbar, a Muslim, confessed in his diary that “destroying America is my greatest goal”. He is the first soldier since the Vietnam era to be convicted of murdering a comrade during wartime.

    The sentence, which will be automatically appealed, makes him only the sixth person on military death row. The last military execution carried out by the US was in 1961.

    Relatives of his victims wept as Akbar was shackled and led from the courtroom at Fort Bragg, an army base in North Carolina.

    “Hasan Akbar has robbed me of so many things,” said Tammie Eslinger, the fianceé of Major Gregory Stone, who died as a result of the attack at a military camp in Kuwait two years ago. “He stole my love, my family, my dreams and my future.”

    Akbar, 34, from Los Angeles, was among members of the army’s elite 101st Airborne Division preparing for the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

    After rolling two live grenades into troops’ tents as they slept, he raised his rifle and shot at those who tried to flee the attack.

    Maj Stone, 40, was hit by 83 pieces of shrapnel. The other victim, Captain Christopher Seifert, 27, was shot in the back.

    In a computer diary dating back 13 years, Akbar documented his hatred for the military and US government, a dislike of white people and conflicting loyalties over the pending invasion of Iraq, which began two days after the incident. “I will have to decide to kill my Muslim brothers fighting for Saddam Hussein, or my battle buddies,” he wrote.

    This is the sentence that is deserved and that I’d hoped for, though I did say that I would not be surprised if he managed to dodge axe (or noose or firing squad or whatever is currently proscribed by the military for offing swine). Justice will truly be done when Akbar draws his last, hopefully painful breath.

  • Third Interview – Phil

    Phil of Shades of Gray (Umbrae Canarum) has asked to be my third interview subject. I’ve had a very difficult time coming up with questions for Phil but have enjoyed reading through his archives while pondering this interview. I find the difficulty surprising as I’ve been reading Shades of Gray for quite some time now. These may not be the greatest of questions but I do hope Phil finds some enjoyment in answering them.

    The rules are here. I’ll ask him six questions, even though he only has to answer five and can opt not to answer any one of them:

    1. You’re a grad student at my alma mater Texas A&M. What area are you studying and what degree level will do you hope to reach? Will you finish up your graduate work at A&M? What do you hope to do after school, teach or use your studies in another way?

    2. A&M has a reputation as one of the more conservative universities in the nation. As a conservative yourself, do you feel that this was part of the attraction for you? Do you feel the reputation is deserved, and have you found that there is any variance in the general political leanings of the undergraduate student body, your fellow grad students and the faculty?

    3. “Bleem” is a word you seem to enjoy using on Shades of Gray. Please explain the term, it’s origins and why it has stuck with you.

    4. How would you describe your current political beliefs? From your studies, name a political philosopher you feel is close to your beliefs and why? Has any other philosopher over the years caused you to alter your beliefs and, if so, who and how?

    5. Name a place any where in the world you haven’t been to that you would want to visit. What would your ideal trip there entail?

    6. (Blatantly lifting from my interview by TexasBestGrok) What got you into blogging? If you had to write a mission statement for your blog, what would it be? Do you have any conscious role models for or influences in your blogging?

    I will link link to the answers when posted.