Is it true that Vietnam was more about corporate access to minerals than

[steve2470]

"stopping Communism" ? Viet vets, I'm speaking of the government and politicians here, not you. I honor your service.

[xray s]

1. It was about corporate access to the American taxpayers wallet

War feeds the bull.

[90-percent]

2. Noam Chomsky

wrote in "What Uncle Sam Really Wants" that the Viet Nam war really did achieve our governments objectives.

The objective was to show how diseased rat crazy warped and trigger happy the US really is.

Roughly...I had a hard time understanding all of the book.

-85%

[FightingIrish]

3. Would you believe oil?

In 1970 1nd 1971 I flew almost daily "market Time " patrols looking for trawlers carrying arms to the V.C. We were also tasked to check in on Spratly Island, a contested piece of South China Sea real estate which was being visited regularly by Standard Oil. That shook my faith in why we were there.

[Coastie for Truth]

That was what we ere told (after commissioning - not before)

1. Oil (same formation as Indonesia)
2. Rubber trees

[FloridaPat]

5. About that time the NYT had an article about how much oil was

assumed off the coast of Vietnam. When we pulled the plug and left, 3 oil companies asked the new government to honor the oil contracts the old government had signed. One was BP. You've got one - Standard. Probably the last one was Exxon. Too many decades ago. Funny how BP keeps showing up everywhere.

[Jackpine Radical]

13. Oil, definitely. I found that out in a long, drunken night in Cam Ranh Bay

with some PA&E oil geologists who were drunk enough to talk about what they were doing & finding out in the South China Sea.

[dogman]

4. It was a long, drawn out affair.

The early years were about rubber which was not superceded by synthetics yet. I think the main reason that Eisenhower financed the French was to checkmate Communist expansion from China. The Chinese and Sovit bloc aid was to stalemate the US.

[eleny]

6. Oil

http://www.oilcompanies.net/oil1.htm Scroll almost midway down for the Vietnam part.

[fishnfla]

7. Minerals from poppy plants

It aint called the golden triangle for nothing

[TahitiNut]

8. No international conflict is ever simple.

There are a conglomeration of interests and motives on all sides. People speak blithely of "the reason we were in Viet Nam." Any such rhetoric fails miserably on the presumption. There were 2.5 million troops, for example, who served in Viet nam -- and probably 2.5 million 'reasons' for doing so. Many of us did and still do love the Vietnamese people we met. To some extent, we believed in supporting them. Others didn't. Part of it had to do with the agricultural capacity of VIet Nam. The Mekong River delta was the most fertile region on the planet. It had the capacity, I once heard, of growing enough rice to feed all of China. Well, after Agent Orange and chemical fertilizers poisoned so much of the land, it no longer had that capacity. The Michelin Rubber plantations were the source of much of the world's natural rubber. It seemed like they were everywhere. We've had to find alternatives. We pumped BILLIONS into the underground economy. By some estimates, we lost 50% of the supplies and materials sent to Viet Nam before they got off the receiving docks. A lot of in-country Americans became rich. So did a lot of Vietnamese. Wars, like food-fights, attract flies -- under the influence of the Lord of the Flies. Each has its own selected food.

[wli]

9. heroin, oil, and rubber n/t

[Daphne08]

10. Brown & Root and President Johnson had a longtime

relationship which allowed Brown & Root to secure some war contracts.

Brown & Root is now a part of Halliburton known as KBR.

This page has some interesting history. It's a MUST READ.

Here's a snippet (and yes, it's THAT Rumsfeld):

Mr. CARTER: Donald Rumsfeld was overtly critical of Johnson's handling of the war. And I'll read a short passage from this. Quote, "Why this huge contract has not been and is not now being adequately audited is beyond me. The potential for waste and profiteering under such a contract is substantial," unquote.

http://hnn.us/roundup/comments/2851.html

[ZombieGak]

11. US involvement goes back to late 40's

We funded about 80% of the French's attempt to retake "French Indo-China" after WWII. Then we sabotaged elections in 55.

We were setting oursleves up to fight in Vietnam long before LBJ beefed up troops to 500,000.

[niallmac]

12. It was about dominoes and a mirage seen in the Gulf of Tonkin

It was about a military industrial complex that wanted to crank up. It was about power. I am not privy to the 'real' reasons i admit. I do know what it was not about. It was not about the welfare of the people of Vietnam.

[Redstone]

14. Oh, bullshit. Do you see any American corporations profiting

from Vietnamese "minerals," including oil?

This is utter fucking nonsense. There are thousands of reasons why our blunder in Viet Nam was wrong, but this isn't one of them.

This has to be one of the dumbest conspiracy theories I've ever seen.

If someone had told me this one on conversation, I'd say it's too stupid to warrant a reply and walk away. But it's here on DU, so I have to do my little part to convince people of its idiocy.

Redstone

On Edit: Please at least show enough respect to spell the country's name correctly. It's two words.

[steve2470]

15. I'd correct my spelling but the time limit's up. :-)

[demzilla]

16. A lot a you youngins

don't really remember the height of the Cold War. Yes, the Communist bloc and the US and its allies were competing for resources, but it was largely a hearts and minds thing, a game of checking an advance by one side or the other, here and there. This is why the Soviets refused to let resource-free countries like Czechoslovakia (1968) and Hungary (1956) leave their orbit. And our side felt compelled to take a stand lest the Communists "overrun" one country after another.

It was a different time, a different psychology. Yes, various contractors benefitted at various times, depending on their connections. But that was not the main reason, IMHO.