To both Don and Phuc

My family were prosperous Southerners and my grandfather was an officer in the ARVN, but I feel I must reply to all the attacks on Phuc. I was only 4 years old after the war ended in 1975 and although I know my family suffered many losses form the viet cong, they did not impart any poisonous feelings of hatred and politics on me, so I feel I can be unbias in my views. Let's agree that the both sides suffered horribly in the war and atrocities were committed by each side. Before I started studying more in depth about the history of Vietnam and all of its wars, I was very against the Viet Cong and the communists. I thought they were evil monsters who killed their own people to force their poltics on the people of the south. In many ways, this was/is true. However, as I learned more about the oppression the majority of the rural vietnamese suffered at the hands of all the different foreign rulers, I can understand why the Viet Cong and the communists received the vast amount of support they got from the people, and why the corrupt South Viet. government could never win. As Phuc mentioned, I don't think the majority of the average Viet Cong supporters fully understood all the politics, other than the reasons she mentioned - freedom from so many years of oppressive foreign rule and a misguided "patriotic" desire and to have a united country. I've always wondered why people like Phuc would fight for the "evil communists" and used the dirty tricks they employed. Now I can understand her reasoning at the time and I wonder if I would not do the same if I was in her shoes. Although the South government was labeled "democratic" it's leaders were very corrupt and brutal in silencing any and all political opponents. Why didn't they allow the free elections promised by the Geneva Conventions? Because they knew that the majority of the people supported the Communisits cause of Nationalism, even if they were against the Marxism. Is that democracy when you don't give people the choice to vote? Did the S. viet government truly have the interests of their people (the vast majority of whom were rural farmers and peasants) at heart, or did they want to maintain an elite status quo that benefitted them, their families, and their friends politically and economically? It is sad that Vietnam is now communist, but I don't think the communist are as evil as they are made out to be. ALL the people there can now recieve a decent education and the literacy rate is now at its highest. They are making efforts to improve the ecomony through changes in economic policies, so it appears that they do care about their people. The glaring problem of course remains the denial of the basic freedoms we here all enjoy here in the US.