Well, why the hell not? As you will quickly read below and come to understand, it's probably the most meritorious endeavor that the current Republican Speaker of the House has undertaken in his entire political career, in the not at all humble opinion of this liberal ole 'Yellow Dog' Democrat.
In the interest of full-disclosure, I must state something that probably only a few of you know--but probably most of you suspect--my anti-Vietnam War sentiments during our salad days were not the Peacenik sentiments of my fellow 'heads' and 'long-hairs.' (I did not resist the draft, the Army sent me home almost immediately after discovering I had a collapsed left lung--I mean, every writer needs his war, popular or otherwise.) No, my problem with the war was that we were fighting on the wrong side.
Mr. Ho Chi Minh was only trying to first unify and then maintain his nation's sovereignty after he had beaten the Japanese, the French and the secret CIA war against that sovereignty during the decade before the Gulf of Tonkin resolution put U.S.A. boots on the ground against him in large numbers from 1964 onward.
And he whipped our asses, too, in a politically limited war; surely if General Curtis LeMay had gotten his way, along with General William C. Westmoreland, whose daughter took my class "Writing the Non-fiction Book" at U.C.L.A., we surely would have 'won' by annihilating several million 'noncombatants' that are now feuling the capitalist movement in the resurgent nation called Vietnam--no north or south appended.
But, no need to fight that battle again, that's for damn sure. You don't think so? Read the opening graphs from an article by Jane Perliz in The New York Times, and then click on for the rest of the story.
U.S. Competes With China for Vietnam's Allegiance
HANOI, Vietnam -- With the fastest growth in East Asia after China and a capitalist game plan that is attracting global investment, Communist Vietnam is emerging as a regional economic power as it moves steadily from rice fields to factories.
And with the wounds of war all but healed, Washington is paying attention.
Trade talks between House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, Republican of Illinois, and his Vietnamese counterpart turned into a lovefest here recently, choreographed by the hosts to show their affection for America.
"At last we're having dinner together," said Nguyen Van An, the leader of the Vietnamese National Assembly, as he hugged the speaker and presented a copy of a letter from Ho Chi Minh to President Harry S. Truman appealing for American help against the French. "We should have met 60 years ago."
Mr. Hastert's presence in April was part of a larger dance that has since starred Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld as visitors, and will feature President Bush when he attends the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit meeting here this fall. Vietnam's leaders have made plain they want the United States on their side for equilibrium against China, a longtime occupier. Vietnam, though an ideological ally of Beijing, fears an expanding Chinese sphere of influence and being reduced to an economic appendage by China, its northern neighbor.
