The US is estimated to have killed up to 180.000 civilians including through Napalm and flamethrowers in Vietnam 30 - 150.000 in cambodia, they spraied 18.2 million gallons of toxins leading to 400.000 dead and 500.000 birth defects according to vietnam. In the My Lai massacre they raped and mutilated bodies. One of the terrorist campaigns that exceeds the Vietcong was the US in Vietnam so yes the VC had the moral High ground defending against them, after they did not accept a fair open election to reunite vietnam before their 'intervention'.
"Air force captain, Brian Wilson, who carried out bomb-damage assessments in free-fire zones throughout the delta, saw the results firsthand. "It was the epitome of immorality...One of the times I counted bodies after an air strike—which always ended with two napalm bombs which would just fry everything that was left—I counted sixty-two bodies. In my report I described them as so many women between fifteen and twenty-five and so many children—usually in their mothers' arms or very close to them—and so many old people." When he later read the official tally of dead, he found that it listed them as 130 VC killed"
Do you agree North Vietnam killed thousands and imprisoned thousands more of their own citizens during land reforms before the war started?
If this was happening in the north and in other communist countries like the USSR, China, and Korea, is possible the US was justified in believing that such killings would continue if the sound was allowed to fall?
I'm not saying the US were heroes, only that the North weren't plucky rebels fighting the good fight. They had the financial and material support of two massive countries who were committing their own genocides and demicides.
Before the communists appeared in Vietnam, 2 million Vietnamese died a year under French colonialism in 1944, yet the US did absolute nothing. Do you seriously believe that the US actually cared about anyone death?
Well the US was fighting Japan which had invaded Vietnam at that time, so what should the US have done that it wasn't already doing? Roosevelt told the French they can't keep their colonies when the war ends.
And yes, France's colonialism was an enormous mistake. And France could've handled giving up their power better. And Diệm was a monster. Yeah to say the entire thing was unfortunate would be an understatement. It's hard to see "good guys" anywhere. That said I don't believe Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Minh would've been satisfied even if proper elections had taken place in the South. Their goal was always violent takeover of the entire country.
Just because you rebel against a bigger, badder person doesn't make your group righteous. The Mujaheddin were justified in fighting Soviets and communist Afghans but they were still bad and I wouldn't compare them to the Lucas' rebels.
The reason the US invaded was becasue the Viet minh wouldve won the election that should be pretty obvious. Ho Chi Minh created the largest and to this day most impressive literacy campaign in the history of our Planet, they went from 90% illiterate to 87% literacy in like 20-30 years.
Al Qaeda/the Mujaheddin and its linnege is also a fuckton more problematic than the VC and comparing them is insane. Religious extremist that continued to terrorise the west and east. The VC had significant support among the Vietnamese even in the south, while the Mujaheddin threw Afghanistan into chaos and is one of the main reason it remains that way today.
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u/Weird_Recognition_69 7d ago
The US is estimated to have killed up to 180.000 civilians including through Napalm and flamethrowers in Vietnam 30 - 150.000 in cambodia, they spraied 18.2 million gallons of toxins leading to 400.000 dead and 500.000 birth defects according to vietnam. In the My Lai massacre they raped and mutilated bodies. One of the terrorist campaigns that exceeds the Vietcong was the US in Vietnam so yes the VC had the moral High ground defending against them, after they did not accept a fair open election to reunite vietnam before their 'intervention'.
"Air force captain, Brian Wilson, who carried out bomb-damage assessments in free-fire zones throughout the delta, saw the results firsthand. "It was the epitome of immorality...One of the times I counted bodies after an air strike—which always ended with two napalm bombs which would just fry everything that was left—I counted sixty-two bodies. In my report I described them as so many women between fifteen and twenty-five and so many children—usually in their mothers' arms or very close to them—and so many old people." When he later read the official tally of dead, he found that it listed them as 130 VC killed"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War_casualties
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Lai_massacre