Vietnam was a resource war

I've been pleased to see the war in Vietnam is getting more attention lately ... as a model for American's failures in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Syria, it's perfectly reasonable to ask, "Why was this allowed to happen again?"

Vietnam began as a war fought to throw out a long-time colonial aggressor (the French, who occupied Vietnam for 60 years, controlling all of its wealth).  The Americans were fools to think they could take over as colonial occupiers after the French defeat by Vietnamese "freedom fighters" in 1954.

The propaganda lies used to get the American people to support a massive invasion of Vietnam are not so different from the lies that are used to support America's current aggressions.

"We can't just let Vietnam fall to the 'Red Chinese'!"  Or to the Taliban, al-Qa'eda or ISIS.  Right?

Vietnam became a war to extend and expand the American empire.  Pure and simple.  An ignoble war against a proud and noble people.  And victory went to the better protagonist.

What I could never understand, though, was why Vietnam (Laos and Cambodia) were worth going to war for?  For what natural resource?  Cinnamon, maybe?  

Not rubber, surely ... rubber had been synthesized by the 1960's.  

Guess what I learned?

Natural-rubber (latex) remains an extremely important commodity even today.  Airplane and truck tires are almost entirely natural-rubber; and radial automobile tires use natural-rubber in their sidewalls (the earlier bias-ply tires were synthetic).  No Boeing 747 ever landed on synthetic rubber tires, and none is likely to anytime soon.

Natural-rubber accounts for 40% of the world's total consumption of rubber ... and that percentage is rising (if slowly).  

Only natural-rubber can be steam-cleaned in a medical sterilizer and then, even if taken from sanitizing temperature and quickly frozen, will still remain flexible.  

The highest technology machinery all requires high-performance natural-rubber hoses, gaskets, and O-rings. 

Hospitals use natural-rubber (latex) gloves ... and you really don't want to trust a synthetic rubber condom.

Natural-rubber ... it's a resource worth ... well ... at least two million lives, right?

Learn a little history ... it's fun.

... the polyestered Kiwanis boys, the merchants and farmers, the pious churchgoers, the chatty housewives, the PTA and the Lions club and the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the fine upstanding gentry out at the country club. They didn't know Bao Dai from the man in the moon. They didn't know history. They didn't know the first thing about Diem's tyranny, or the nature of Vietnamese nationalism, or the long colonialism of the French – this was all too damned complicated, it required some reading – but no matter, it was a war to stop the Communists, plain and simple, which was how they liked things, and you were a treasonous pussy if you had second thoughts about killing or dying for plain and simple reasons.
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Excerpted from: The Things They Carried (1990)
Tim O'Brien received his draft notice on June 7, 1968 and served his tour of duty in 

Vietnam in1969 and 1970
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_O%27Brien_(author)

Who is Joan Trumpauer?

In June 1961, Joan Trumpauer was a 19-year-old Duke University student and part-time secretary in the Washington office of Senator Clair Engle of California when she traveled to Jackson, Mississippi to take part in the Mississippi Freedom Ride which took place on June 4. Trumpauer and eight others were promptly arrested and refused bail. Trumpauer served three months in a Mississippi jail.

Joan Trumauer risked her relationship with her family, her education at Duke University, and her life (she was actually hunted by the Ku Klux Klan during Freedom Summer) in order to participate in the Civil Rights Movement. 

She later enrolled in traditionally black Tougaloo college, which had just started accepting white students.

On the 14th of this month (September, 2017), Joan Trumpauer will turn 76. 

Joan Trumpauer is still active and travels several times a year to screenings of the PBS documentary, Freedom Riders (which first aired on May 16, 2011) at colleges and libraries around the United States, joining in interactive Q&A sessions with students.

More about Joan Trumpauer:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Trumpauer_Mulholland

Just in case it isn't obvious, I greatly admire this American woman.  Hers is the kind of courage I believe we are all capable of demonstrating, and a type of courage we should all strive to demonstrate, in ordinary acts, in our everyday lives.

And to think, the act for which she was punished was simply the exercise of her American freedoms.  Her crime?  She dissented against authority and, in Mississippi, in 1961, she dissented against public opinion.

There is no freedom in going along with the crowd, agreeing with public opinion, or in supporting your government, regardless of its actions.  The only freedom is in dissent.  Dissent is absolutely necessary for freedom to exist!  Ever thought about that?

Joan Trumpauer was standing up for her own rights, when she stood up in defense of others whose rights were being violated.  That's always how we can all best defend our own liberties.  Because We defend our own rights, liberties, and dignity when we protect the rights of those who we may not even feel deserve them, especially those who are powerless to defend themselves.

Joan Trumpauer is an American hero, and one of my personal heroes.

A Jackson Police Department file booking photograph taken on June 8, 1961 of 19-year-old Freedom Rider Joan Trumpauer; Photo provided by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (digitally colourized)