Vietnam War legacy
Regarding “Editorial: Vietnam Peace Accords didn’t bring peace, but gave Houston life,” (Jan. 30): I too applaud the contributions of Vietnamese immigrants to the U.S. However, I still cannot support the statue of Lyndon Baines Johnson, the politician responsible for pushing the involvement of American troops in the Vietnam War, in Tranquillity Park.
Five of my high school classmates died in Vietnam. Of the over 58,000 troops who died in Vietnam, around 17,000 were draftees.
President Johnson did push through the 1965 Voting Rights Act; however, his engagement in a war in Southeast Asia tarnishes his legacy. By the way, about 12 percent of those who died were African American. Some of his supporters may also note he was the first president to push for the elimination of poverty through the War on Poverty. How successful was that program? We still have poverty.
Johnson does not deserve a statue anywhere in Houston — particularly in Tranquillity Park. Doug Woikey, Katy
This editorial acknowledges that the Vietnam War was “an unjust conflict” but is marred by important omissions. The conflict began long before 1965. Two decades earlier, Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Minh asked President Truman to recognize Vietnam’s independence. Instead, Washington bankrolled France’s war to reconquer its former colony. Approximately 850,000 people died before the French were defeated in 1954.
The Geneva Accords provided for the temporary division of Vietnam so French forces could withdraw to the south before leaving the country. The Viet Minh withdrew to the north. National elections and reunification were planned for 1956. However, President Eisenhower knew the majority of the population would vote for Ho Chi Minh. In his personal account, Eisenhower wrote that “possibly 80 percent of the population would have voted for the Communist Ho Chi Minh as their leader rather than Chief of State Bao Dai.” Washington refused to sign the accords, created a new anti-communist government in the south and prevented national elections and reunification. Widespread opposition to the U.S.backed regime led to the formation of the National Liberation Front, which fought in conjunction with the armed forces of the north.
As Daniel Ellsberg famously quipped, “We weren’t on the wrong side. We were the wrong side.” The communist-led resistance to Washington and its allies prevailed in large part because it enjoyed much wider popular support. Not even half a million U.S. troops could defeat the broad coalition of Vietnamese people willing to fight and die for reunification and independence. More than 5.3 million people are estimated to have died during the war. Their pain and loss should be acknowledged, too. David Michael Smith, Pearland