re: #362 avanti

Maybe, but much of that brutality was due to the long years of war between the North and South. Had the elections been held after the French left, there may have been fewer scores to settle. HO, had no great love for China at that time, he even feared them, but the war made them allies.
Hell, neither one of us know how it would have turned out, but I just feel we mismanaged the whole thing.

Ho had been a communist since the Twenties, and wouldn’t have treated the South’s leadership any more gently than he did his own rivals in the North during the Fifties, when he consolidated his power. It may not have turned into Cambodia, but it wouldn’t have been Switzerland, either.

The sad thing is that the crisis was probably beyond hope by the time it came into our laps. Thanks for your service, btw.