<<If 80% had voted for Ho Chi Minh there would have been a 20% casualty rate , pretty much what happened anyway.>>
Yeah right, plane. Based on what evidence? That 20% of North Vietnam's population was lost when Ho Chi Minh took over there? And it's NOT what happened anyway.
<<The idea was not to prevent the Vietnameese from determineing thjeir own destiny , but to prevent the imperial Communists from takeing them over and determineing their destiny for them.>>
Yeah. In a free election. The idea was to PREVENT a free election in the South precisely on the grounds that Ho Chi Minh was a national hero and as Ike said, 80% of the vote would have gone his way. If that's not preventing a people from determining their own destiny, I need to look for a second language to express myself in.
<<Spring had already failed in Prague , there was no expectation that the Communists were going to respect the rights of a people to determine their own destiny. Or especially not of persons either.>>
I see. The Prague Spring failed during the Eisenhower administration, when the decision was taken to abort the scheduled elections and support an "independent" Republic of South Viet Nam under the benevolent dictatorship of the Roman Catholic Diem brothers. Interesting theory of history there, plane.
<<So no there was no alternative availible that would have left the Vietnameese alone , they were going to have us or the Communists , we gave them a chance anyway.>>
No, they were NOT going to have "us or the communists," I don't know how much plainer I can make this than Ike already did, they were going to have THE COMMUNISTS and by a margin of 4 to 1.
<<By the way if Ho Chi Minh were really heroic , then he was also not very smart to throw in with Communists.>>
Oh, thanks for the heads-up, plane. So Uncle Ho was Not Very Smart. I'll try to keep that in mind. Have you communicated your findings to any historical associations? I'm sure they'd find that also very interesting. FYI, he didn't "throw in" with the communists, he was one of the FOUNDERS of the Vietnamese Communist Party.