34LMLFQ@CMUVM.BITNET (Chris Curtis) (02/08/90)
larry states: >(And by the way, just what is wrong with Barry Goldwater? If Johnson had lost > the race, there wouldn't have even BEEN a Vietnam War!) I shall refrain from commenting on most of the posting larry has been making lately... and he says there will be more. Hmmm... I wonder if there's a rerun of *anything* on some channel soon? But to this point, I have to remind larry that he's factually incorrect. US military involvement in Vietnam began immediately after the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu. By the start of the 1964 election year, the US had 16,300 troops stationed in Vietnam (from Wallace Terry's book _Bloods_. He was citing Pentagon figures). Military buildup had started under Ike, and increased through the JFK presidency. Secondly, the illustrious Mr. Goldwater advocated use of nuclear weapons in the Asian theatre. If this lunacy is not reason enough to oppose *any* politician, I don't know what is. Aside from the fact that world opinion would be instantly mobilized against America (possibly excluding the French), I prefer not to glow in the dark - which would most likely have been Kruschev's response. BTW, larry, the book I mentioned, _Bloods_, is quite well written. It details US servicemen's experiences in "the Nam", ranging from privates to colonels. One of the profiled soldiers (a sgt. at the time) became a major exec. at GM. Oops. Sorry, just remembered they're all Afro-Americans. Sorry, larry. --chris