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Message: [QUOTE="oldude, post: 2349821, member: 7511"] While you offer a compelling analysis of U.S. policy at a strategic and global level, it appears to sidestep another fundamental truth regarding Vietnam. As Ho Chi Minh was gaining power he reached out repeatedly to the U.S. He saw his movement as a fight for freedom and democracy and felt a kinship with America. Faced with the choice of siding with an upstart like Ho Chi Minh or the remnants of Vietnam's colonial oppressors, we chose the latter. There was every possibility that the U.S. could have achieved it's goal of establishing a " U.S. client state in third world" Vietnam simply by negotiating with the individual who captured the support of the people in their century old battle against colonial oppression. Our ignorance in not knowing who we were fighting pushed Ho Chi Minh and his supporters right into the arms of communist China and the Soviet Union at a cost to the U.S. of billions of dollars and 58,000 lives. [/QUOTE]