VLVL Rex and the BLGVN

[joeallonby]

on 5/8/04 11:41 PM, jbor at jbor at bigpond.com wrote:

>> Ho Chi Minh (who, by the
>> way, was indeed a communist dictator and renowned for murdering and
>> otherwise disposing of political opponents and dissidents)
> 
> NB the explicit reference in the text to the fate of the BLGVN: "some 500
> Trotskyist cadres, none of whom, being to the left of Ho Chi Minh, were ever
> heard from again" (207).
> 
> best
> 
> 
> otto
>> Rex is not talking about Asian dictators but about America explicitly in
>> that quote.
>> 
>> Ironically it's been Ho Chi Minh's army that defeated Pol Pot, ended the
>> killing fields and turned Cambodia into a free country. Thus to call the
>> Vietnamese regime a "murderous dictatorship" just like the Khmer Rouge
>> is absolutely wrong.
> 
This is all a little simplistic (understood, considering the forum).

Ho can be seen as a nationalist first. He was willing to suck up to whomever
would be willing to supply the guns, including his traditional enemies.