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David Horowitz points out that "everyone who wanted the US out of the war felt in one way or another that it would be ok if the Communists won and that there wouldn't be a bloodbath. They were wrong on both counts." I would have to agree with the first part of his statement with the quibble that I believe that there probably individuals amongst those who wanted the US out of the war that did not in fact take that thought to the conclusion Mr. Horowitz sets forth. I am admittedly unable to offer any names but I had enough conversations with people about the war at the time to conclude that at least some of those opposed to the war did not in fact reach the same conclusion Mr. Horowitz sets out., However, the remainder of the statement begs for "bloodbath" to be defined. If we treat the events in Southeast Asia as a single communist victory then events in Cambodia would probably warrant a conclusion that the victory was followed by a bloodbath. But if we treat the events separately and distinguish between the communist victory in Laos, the victory in Cambodia, and the victory in (South) Viet Nam, can we in fact declare that those in Viet Nam and Laos were followed by bloodbaths? I would argue that having set aside events in Cambodia, then we need another definition of bloodbath before we might be able to agree to apply that term elsewhere in Southeast Asia. In Viet Nam, of course, we have the example of Viet Cong actions in the old imperial capital of Hue during the 1968 Tet Offensive. If we extrapolate from the VC effort there to eliminate real and potential opponents of the communists might we then use that as a measure of what happened after April 29, 1975? Did the actions of the Hanoi government in the former territory of South Vietnam to eliminate real and potential opponents (including some former allies) constitute a greater, lesser, or equivalent level of effort compared to the Tet offensive killings in Hue? Robert A. Mosher
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