ArneSaknussemm

ArneSaknussemm

"In Sneffels Joculis craterem quem delibat Umbra Scartaris Julii intra calendas descende, Audax viator, et terrestre centrum attinges. Quod feci, Arne Saknussemm"

translated into English, reads:
"Descend, bold traveller, into the crater of the jokul of Sneffels, which the shadow of Scartaris touches before the calendas of July, and...more »
  • St. Louis, MO, USA
  • member since Tuesday, April 3 2007

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Public Notes

  • The Poet

    The Poet says

    Greetings Arne,
    If you want to understand the Vietnam War as it really was it takes some good researching. It was a war infiltrated and protracted with lies and propaganda fomented from a society whose fear of Communism had reached the stage of McCarthyism. Stanley Karnow's book, Vietnam: A History, is excellent for a first book about the "traditional" history of the war. He presents the facts about the war, no excuses, no justification, no propaganada.

    Then, the author Francis Fitzgerald, a journalist, went one step further and showed how a great deficiency in knowledge about the Vietnamese Culture caused, first the French and then the American War, to totally destroy their centuries of culture and history. It made the war more an act of terrorism than a war against Communism. Indeed, the majority of Vietnamese, even those in the South, would have voted for Communism had the U.S. given them a free election. The Geneva Convention in Paris (1954) was intended to settle some of the differences between "North" and "South" Vietnam (There really wasn't two different states at the time.) At the 17th parallel, the demilitarized zone, was a division below which the North Vietnamese Army agreed to remove their troops, and a two year truce was to be maintained. The NVA moved thousands of soldiers to the North but thousands remained behind in the South (they were the majority, after all!) Within a couple of months the Americans broke the truce, clandestinely, and sent Colonel Edward Landsdale to Vietnam to commit acts of terrorism against the Northern "state." For instance, fuel intended for the public transportation system was contaiminated by Landsdale's team in order to stop public transportation. Diem, who was actually a dictator, was set up as a puppet ruler in the South who was and for about 8 - 9 years the U.S. supported a dictatorship without the American's knowledge. The South was governmentally, politically and militarily weak. It had always been the weakest link in the country as a whole. The book is a real eye opener.

    posted 6 months ago. ( send a note )
  • The Poet

    The Poet says

    Greetings Arne,
    I see that you posted another book on the Civil War. It piqued my interest. I'll have to search for it in Zooba books.

    I don't know if you have any interest in the Vietnam War, but I am almost finished with a work that is just incredible in its magnitude of explanation for the American involvement and the Vietnamese culture, the lack of understanding which caused many errors to be made in that country by outsiders. The author gives a very 3 dimensional picture of the war itself, and, most of all, more than a glimpse into the culture of the Vietnamese people which explains much of how that war was both fought and lost to the NFL.
    Cheers

    posted 6 months ago. ( send a note )
  • puella_stulta

    puella_stulta says

    hey there. what have you been reading lately? im taking a breather in oreoaration for the final harry potter. i read a couple of the books i brought.

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • BellaSwan

    BellaSwan says

    poco_loco will explain me.

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )


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