I'm looking at this on my phone, and one of the deficiencies of Substack is that when you look at Comments in the Activities list, you are unable to go to the context and see what people are replying to. So from memory I would say that my comment was not intended to refute your implied point. I tend to avoid direct disputation, since usually people are pretty resistant to having their mind changed, but it may have been offering an opportunity that you MAY have been unaware of to add some nuance to your existing opinion.
It sounds as if I wasn't very helpful in directing you to the relevant part of what Prouty said. But if you listen on YouTube to the long interview with him for example, there are 3 or 4 revelatory points that are difficult to find elsewhere.
Sorry I can't be more helpful at this juncture, but Prouty was in such a rare position to be well informed about a great deal that was going on, at the highest level, for many years, that it's worth listening to EVERYTHING he said. E.g. how many people know that preparations for a war in Vietnam were under way in 1945; or that the the mechanism the US used for starting that war was to displace over a million North Vietnamese to the South of South Vietnam, after traumatising them?
You might find interesting the parts where Prouty discusses the records of the official policy discussions which are revealing about JFK's attitudes and actions, which are not referred to by several popular accounts of the events, and which directly refute them.
Thanks for sharing. It’s a bit of a shock to hear that the U.S. was sizing up Vietnam for a makeover in 1945, the same year that FDR died. The Security State was in the wings until the money’s front man, Harry Truman, legitimated murder for empire.
I had the pleasure of meeting Colonel Archemedes Patti, who wrote a book titled Why Vietnam? in the 1980’s when he was a guest lecturer in my political science class. His humanity was at odds with the cold detachment of the generals who prosecuted the illegal war, and he wrote with warmth and sincerity about his friend, Ho Chi Minh.
Thanks for your thoughtful reply.
I'm looking at this on my phone, and one of the deficiencies of Substack is that when you look at Comments in the Activities list, you are unable to go to the context and see what people are replying to. So from memory I would say that my comment was not intended to refute your implied point. I tend to avoid direct disputation, since usually people are pretty resistant to having their mind changed, but it may have been offering an opportunity that you MAY have been unaware of to add some nuance to your existing opinion.
It sounds as if I wasn't very helpful in directing you to the relevant part of what Prouty said. But if you listen on YouTube to the long interview with him for example, there are 3 or 4 revelatory points that are difficult to find elsewhere.
Sorry I can't be more helpful at this juncture, but Prouty was in such a rare position to be well informed about a great deal that was going on, at the highest level, for many years, that it's worth listening to EVERYTHING he said. E.g. how many people know that preparations for a war in Vietnam were under way in 1945; or that the the mechanism the US used for starting that war was to displace over a million North Vietnamese to the South of South Vietnam, after traumatising them?
You might find interesting the parts where Prouty discusses the records of the official policy discussions which are revealing about JFK's attitudes and actions, which are not referred to by several popular accounts of the events, and which directly refute them.
Thanks for sharing. It’s a bit of a shock to hear that the U.S. was sizing up Vietnam for a makeover in 1945, the same year that FDR died. The Security State was in the wings until the money’s front man, Harry Truman, legitimated murder for empire.
I had the pleasure of meeting Colonel Archemedes Patti, who wrote a book titled Why Vietnam? in the 1980’s when he was a guest lecturer in my political science class. His humanity was at odds with the cold detachment of the generals who prosecuted the illegal war, and he wrote with warmth and sincerity about his friend, Ho Chi Minh.
https://vietnamnet.vn/en/american-intelligence-officer-a-special-witness-to-national-day-1945-671714.html
Thanks very much: an interesting article.