I looked it up on Wikepedia. According to the numbers listed there, over 2,000,000 people were killed or missing in action in the struggle to keep the Communists out of South VietNam. Both these images were taken in Saigon. The image on the left is clear evidence that our sacrifice did not keep communism out of South VietNam. The image on the right tells another story. Taken at the Saigon Zoo on a Sunday afternoon it could be evidence of something we left behind. Probablly not as a result of our military might and prowess. Definitely not becasue we prevailed in that conflict in the classic sense. More than likely what we left behind was a result of the one-on-one interactions that took place; the associations and friendships that developed and the effect of a warm and caring western persona that surfaced in spite of all the strife that took place. Was it worth the lives? That question will hang in history for a long time.
Another thing, she is wearing that dress and apparently she is free to do so. The communist party is the majority party in a number of states here in India. In today's world, communism seems to have turned out in many places to be just another view of the world; not necessarily an inherent evil. One could argue that China contradicts this notion. It does, but I think the oppression there is more about their approach to government than a communisht ideology in its purest form.
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