Col your analysis of the links between European Communism and the communism in SE Asia is quite ignorant. Are you basing your assessment on any reputable historical account or your own amateur, bigoted ideas?

The domino theory was a lot of rubbish perpretated by frightened people who had no understanding of the situation. The same sort of 'fear' is what leads you and others to fear those 'illegal immigrants'.

Your hysterical fear of communism (and other cultures) is unfounded and is an insult to the strength and resilience of democracy and the power of economic growth to convert people.

The only countries in which communism has ever been successfully implemented are those in which the population were poor, disempowered and had never had any 'freedom' of choice.

There were people at the time who knew the Vietnam War was foolish and the whole idea of the 'domino theory' misunderstood by the US and Austtralia. They have been proved right and if you cannot see this, you need to read a bit of history rather than making up your own version.

Mollydukes – I am pleased you noted - my disgust of communism, just like any other malevolent force.

That you would prefer us all to suffer under the yoke of enforced subservience to the state is your choice, not mine.

Just remember the “model” I pursue entitles both you and I to free expression and democratic elections. The socialist/communist model is the one which subjects everyone to the omnipotent power of the faceless bureaucrats and party machine of the levellers and a straight jacket of no-choice conformity, where we suffer “equally” whatever rubbish the state decides we are fit to receive and without a right of reply or expression.

Suggest I am bigoted all you want. When you express your one eyed view, you have to rely on cheap lines to get attention.

Allude to what were real fears for many people as much as you care.

Suppose I am fearful if you wish ( not that there is anything I have ever written to suggest I am xenophobic –the last BBQ I held at my house had people born in 9 different nation states – from Communist China to USA and including Sri Lanka and Germany - hardly the BBQ of someone “fearful of other cultures”, as your own pitiful and absolute ignorance claims.

If you think there is anything of merit in the rubbish you pedal – I suggest you first go ask someone from a previous communist block country – they have had the “real” experience of it – and not the “pseudo-intellectual theory-fest”, best viewed through the haze which is induced by a nice bottle of Chardonnay.

Not only was the war worth it but as Michael Lind says in his book of the same name (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0684870274/qid=1115282967/sr=8-2/ref=pd_csp_2/002-0606768-8882425?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) it was necessary. The US was involved in a life and death struggle with the Soviet Empire. Vietnam was one battle in that war. The US could not be seen to be abandoning states and people to the Marxists. To do so would be to indicate to its allies that it was not up to the battle, inviting those allies to seek an accommodation with the Soviets. Every advance and expansionist move by the communists had to be opposed or else those who were under threat would not feel able to rely on US protection and thus would seek other accommodations. So we have Korea and Berlin. Neither strategically vital but each had to be saved to demonstrate that the US was willingly to do so.

Several people have claimed that the domino theory was proved false. But this is not clear. By fighting the war the US bought 10 years to stablise those nations that were potential dominoes. Even so, dominoes fell and not just in S-E Asia. In the years following the US defeat we had series of states fall under the communist sway as the US lay paralysed and unable to respond - Cambodia, Afghanistan, Angola, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Yemen, Benin, Congo, Zaire, Verde and Madagascar. We also had the example of détente as erstwhile allies sought to come to an arrangement with what seemed to be the rampant and victorious Soviets. Meanwhile the Soviets were so buoyed by the withdrawal of the US that they expanded into the Third World and in their hubris saw no problems in waging aggressive war in Afghanistan.

Defeat in the war saw a long US retreat only arrested by the rise of Reagan, Thatcher, John-Paul 2 and Walesa. Even so, to have not fought it would have carried even worse consequences for those states in S-E Asia that were in the path of the world revolution. Many states were spared the killing fields of Kampuchea because of the Vietnam War

It is important to remember that in Vietnam, the war to which Keith Suter refers is known as the 'American War'.

Well, was the 'American War' worth it? For the Vietnamese the answer must be an overwhelming YES!

In 2005, there no American military base on Vietnamese soil, nor any Chinese or Russian. Vietnam today, despite an unsuccessful 20 year post war economic blocade by America, is a prospering FREE nation which attracts foreign investment on VIETNAMESE TERMS.

In 2005 there are fourteen (14) permanent American miliary bases under construction in IRAQ.

30 years on, the declining American Empire still maintains an overwhelming yet increasingly weaker network of military bases to enforce its economic will. This will to dominate by force is declining with America's waning economic superiority. Like America's increasingly bankrupt economy, it will eventually collapse as with all such imperial powers, much the same as the Soviet imperial model which imposed its military will on soverign peoples.

The American War was a 20 year demonstration by America that it would not give away its illegal possession of Vietnam. Likewise it has become apparent in only a fraction of that time that America is just as determined to keep its newest illegal possession of IRAQ. Whether after 20 or 30 years of destructive war the same inevitable final defeat of American imperialism in the middle east is assured.

Looking back in 30 years the FREE peoples of Iraq will also say this war was worth it.

Col It’s a bit funny (perhaps obsessive?) the way you latch onto the word ‘communism’ and then apparently stop reading and begin pounding your keyboard.

You missed the whole point of my sentence and you also seem to be imagining things. I must have used invisible ink when I referred to you as a bigot, or was you dreamin’?

What I said was that your fear of communism coming to Australia is ludricrous, because democratic countries do not become communist. It is dire poverty and dissaffection with the current regime that provides the seeds for communism.

I am not quite sure what mhaze means when he says that the US bought 10 years by their militaristic adventure in Vietnam.

It is also not the case that because a few countries in SE Asia became communist, that the domino theory was correct.

It wasn’t the influence of the Marxists from China or the Soviets who contributed toward these countries falling. It was dissatisfaction with the governments and colonial masters that they had.

The US could have been far more effective in preventing the spread of communism if it has addressed these issues rather than upholding the corrupt South Vietnamese Government.

Over 2 million vietnamese were killed during the war.
Hundreds of thousands continue to suffer the effects of the chemical warfare which was used by the US against them. Thousands of children are born each year in Vietnam with birth deformities linked to the dioxin in Agent Orange.
I wonder what percentage of people would see any positive effects of the war.
I wonder that no members of the loosing side were convicted of war crimes.

I wonder if every country could have a ministry of Peace with a healthy budget if we would have all these wars.

Peace