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Manner of Speaking
Joined: 09 Jan 2003
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 Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2005 5:56 am Post subject: |
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What is it with right-wing nutbars and their propensity for historical fiction? 
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The assumption of power in Cambodia by the bloodiest government of all time, the Khmer Rouge, who killed a third of their own people, often by making children beat their own parents to death. No one doubts RN would never have let this happen.
So, this is the great boast of the enemies of Richard Nixon, including Mark Felt: they made the conditions necessary for the Cambodian genocide. If there is such a thing as kharma, if there is such a thing as justice in this life of the next, Mark Felt has bought himself the worst future of any man on this earth. And Bob Woodward is right behind him, with Ben Bradlee bringing up the rear. Out of their smug arrogance and contempt, they hatched the worst nightmare imaginable: genocide. I hope they are happy now -- because their future looks pretty bleak to me. |
Are you kidding? Cambodia was a quiet, peaceful, sleepy little country until Nixon came along. It was Nixon who got North Vietnam involved in Cambodia in the first place. HE spread the Vietnam War to Cambodia with his secret bombing campaign. The NVA would have stayed out of Cambodia if Nixon had as well. The Soviet Union, China and North Vietnam were compelled to support the Khmer Rouge to counter US operations there.
I'm old enough to remember that, I suspect you aren't. |
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Bulsajo
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2005 6:18 am Post subject: |
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| Manner of Speaking wrote: |
I'm old enough to remember that, I suspect you aren't. |
Not to be contrary or anything, but do you know how old Ben Stein is? It's already been pointed out in this thread that he was one of Nixon's speechwriters.
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Are you kidding? Cambodia was a quiet, peaceful, sleepy little country until Nixon came along. It was Nixon who got North Vietnam involved in Cambodia in the first place. HE spread the Vietnam War to Cambodia with his secret bombing campaign. The NVA would have stayed out of Cambodia if Nixon had as well. |
I certainly don't want to defend Nixon's bombing of Cambodia and perhaps I'm missing something here but aren't you engaging in a little historical revisionism yourself? What about the Ho Chi Min trail? I think you've put the cart before the horse. A small point to be sure, but it seems to me that you ignore that the Viet Cong were already in Cambodia. |
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Manner of Speaking
Joined: 09 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2005 10:03 am Post subject: |
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| Bulsajo wrote: |
| Manner of Speaking wrote: |
I'm old enough to remember that, I suspect you aren't. |
Not to be contrary or anything, but do you know how old Ben Stein is? It's already been pointed out in this thread that he was one of Nixon's speechwriters. |
I was referring to the thread author.
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| Are you kidding? Cambodia was a quiet, peaceful, sleepy little country until Nixon came along. It was Nixon who got North Vietnam involved in Cambodia in the first place. HE spread the Vietnam War to Cambodia with his secret bombing campaign. The NVA would have stayed out of Cambodia if Nixon had as well. |
I certainly don't want to defend Nixon's bombing of Cambodia and perhaps I'm missing something here but aren't you engaging in a little historical revisionism yourself? What about the Ho Chi Min trail? I think you've put the cart before the horse. A small point to be sure, but it seems to me that you ignore that the Viet Cong were already in Cambodia. |
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Nixon initiated a secret bombing campaign, expanding the scope of the Vietnam War to the Cambodian portions of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. At the time, Cambodia was a poor but independent monarchy struggling to play off the NVA against the US. Most of the Ho Chi Minh Trail was in Vietnam, not Cambodia. The steady expansion of US involvement in Vietnam -- primarily during the Nixon administration -- lead to an equal expansion of NVA involvement in Cambodia and to Soviet/Chinese support for Marxist insurgents in Laos and Cambodia.
Perhaps I should be more precise in stating the historical circumstances, but the fact remains it's ridiculous to assert that the Watergate journalists are responsible for the Cambodian genocide...especially to those of us who lived through the period. Woodward, Bernstein, Felt, and Bradlee did not expand US involvement in Southeast Asia to include Cambodia. Nixon did. |
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Manner of Speaking
Joined: 09 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2005 10:14 am Post subject: |
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| Bulsajo wrote: |
| Manner of Speaking wrote: |
I'm old enough to remember that, I suspect you aren't. |
Not to be contrary or anything, but do you know how old Ben Stein is? It's already been pointed out in this thread that he was one of Nixon's speechwriters. |
I meant I am probably older than the thread author.
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Are you kidding? Cambodia was a quiet, peaceful, sleepy little country until Nixon came along. It was Nixon who got North Vietnam involved in Cambodia in the first place. HE spread the Vietnam War to Cambodia with his secret bombing campaign. The NVA would have stayed out of Cambodia if Nixon had as well. |
I certainly don't want to defend Nixon's bombing of Cambodia and perhaps I'm missing something here but aren't you engaging in a little historical revisionism yourself? What about the Ho Chi Min trail? I think you've put the cart before the horse. A small point to be sure, but it seems to me that you ignore that the Viet Cong were already in Cambodia.[/quote]
Yeah, to a relatively small border region of the country, and most of the Ho Chi Minh Trail was in Vietnam, not Cambodia. The steady expansion of US involvement in Vietnam -- primarily during the Nixon administration -- lead to an equal expansion of NVA involvement in Cambodia and to Soviet/Chinese support for Marxist insurgents in Laos and Cambodia. In any case, as those of us who lived through that era know, it's ridiculous to assert that by assisting in Nixon's self-initiated downfall, the Watergate journalists are directly responsible for the Cambodian genocide.
Vietnam and Watergate were two of the biggest blunders ever initiated by the Republican Party -- and by association by the right -- and as a result, there are some on the right who never let an opportunity go by to distort the facts of those two historical events. |
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