What Does Al-Qaida, Ho Chi Minh and Saddam Hussein Have In Common?

What does Al-Qaida, Ho Chi Minh and Saddam Hussein have in common? They were once our allies. It seems our government leaders have managed to create a history of turning on former allies.

From the beginning of it's history, theVietnam War was a conflict that could have been avoided if government leaders in Europe had acted responsibly. In fact, all wars are avoidable if leaders acted responsibly. It was precisely because of France's suppression of the rights of the Vietnamese people that eventually bought Ho Chi Minh to power. Believe it or not, all Ho Chi Minh really wanted to be was a chef. He became disillusioned over the hypocrisy he saw in Western governments and embraced communism while living abroad in France.

Let's briefly review the history. Following World War I, on behalf of a group of Vietnamese patriots, Ho Chi Minh petitioned the European powers at the Versailles peace talks for equal rights in French Indochina, but he was ignored. He was rebuffed first by President Woodrow Wilson, when he asked for help to remove the French from his country, and he was rebuffed by President Harry Truman, when he asked him to recognize his government.

It is was the French defeat during the Battle of Dien Bien Phu that led to the partitioning of Vietnam into the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in the North, under Viet Minh control, and the State of Vietnam in the South. When France left Southeast Asia during 1954, America increased its commitment to South Vietnam which eventually led to the Vietnam War. Americans have forgotten that Ho Chi Minh and the Vietminh were our allies in the Pacific War against Japan during World War II.

It seems our government has habitually turned on many of our former allies for various reasons when they were no longer useful. Our nation has also supported corrupt and tyrannical regimes like the Shah of Iran and Genral Fulgencio Batista y Zaldivar, whose gangster infested, corrupt regime was overthrown by Fidel Castro.

We allied ourselves with Al-Qaida in Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation, with Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq War, with Japan as an allied nation during World War I, with Russia during World War II, the Contras in the 1980s (which led to the Iran-Contra Scandal during the Reagan Administration), with former Nazis after World War II, and Manuel Noriega was once on our payroll working under cover for the CIA. Yes, we Americans have a sordid history when it comes to our former allies. Who will we turn on next?