Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for June 20, 2014
Transcript:
Phred: General, we caught up with another member of the Thieu Clique-- Nguyen Van Van! General Tang: Nguyen Van Van? The brutal police colonel who personally supervised the tiger cages? Phred: That's him! General Tang: Well, what do you have to say for yourself? Nguyen Van Van: I... I'm sorry... it won't happen again. General Tang: Re-educate him. Nguyen Van Van: No! Phred: C'mon now-- don't be a baby...
BE THIS GUY over 10 years ago
About 165,000 people died in the reeducation camps.-http://dartcenter.org/content/camp-z30-d-survivors#.U6O2P4m9Kc0
wcorvi over 10 years ago
Why is it that EVERYPLACE we invade in order to bring stability and democracy ends up in civil war and tyranny? Why don’t they just get it? I don’t know, but I guess we just have to keep invading.
2578275 over 10 years ago
@wcorviI’m currently rereading an excellent book, “Overthrow” by Stephen KInzer, 2006. It covers the imperial, covert action and invasion eras of U.S. foreign policy beginning in 1893 (Hawaii) to the present. Most Americans don’t know the history of our foreign policy; it’s not something taught in schools and most Americans are very comfortable in not knowing anything about it. Because if we knew anything about it we wouldn’t allow it to happen. And most young people wouldn’t allow themselves to be suckered into joining the military in order to enable the wealthy to become wealthier. There are just too many lying ba$tards in business and gov’t.
beprepn over 10 years ago
Trudeau must have given up. Eventually the Republicans got so in the pocket of big money that he decided he had to pick a side. Then his side won and he discovered that the only difference between the two parties was the color of their ties. So he quit.
Beleck3 over 10 years ago
America invades countries to steal whatever it can. Business tells the Government what countries to invade, that is if Business can’t buy the Countries outright, like they did here in Americafollow the money, honey. lol
e.groves over 10 years ago
I worked with a South Vietnamese man that spent five years in a re-education camp(prison). Very rough. His family almost starved.
chrisb19 over 10 years ago
We do gain a certain amount of perspective with the passage of time sometimes.
mourdac Premium Member over 10 years ago
Ask the Communist Chinese and the Cambodians how those reeducation camps worked out.
hawgowar over 10 years ago
I was a short-term “guest” of the VC. Our chopper was shot out from under us and I awoke after the crash a prisoner. I spent three days in a tiger cage before a B-52 Arclight two clicks away shook things up so bad that it loosened the bars so I could escape. They were no fun. Lots of guys died in them or survived a lot longer than I had to – I was lucky.
QuiteDragon over 10 years ago
“It really sounds like you’re saying “I’m a liberal because I don’t know any history.””
Sounds to me like he’s confused regarding what to believe. And I see nothing at all that reflects his political “side”.johndifool over 10 years ago
In case all that smiling didn’t cheer you up, there’s one thing that never fails: a nice glass of warm milk, a little nap, and a total frontal lobotomy!
kaffekup over 10 years ago
If the French hadn’t been brutal colonials, and we hadn’t grabbed for their mantle as they left, and supported corrupt, brutal regimes, perhaps they wouldn’t have had any rationale to set up “re-education” camps..Read something about the South’s tiger cages and how Americans offered suggestions to the Vietnamese for improved torture techniques, and wonder why they didn’t just slaughter any of the locals who participated.
Coyoty Premium Member over 10 years ago
I think the point of the strip was that Van was to get his own treatment.
kaffekup over 10 years ago
‘Don’t you understand. Torture isn’t about getting information’I didn’t say anything about information.What I did say was that re-education camps were far less drastic than what they could have done to South Vietnamese who did these things to their probably innocent fellow countrymen. With our help.
Gokie5 over 10 years ago
Ugh, what cherry reading. Too bad more in the US don’t know about this stuff. I was a babe in the woods when we invaded Viet Nam, but not when we invaded Iraq. I was totally agin it. Sadly, Russ Feingold, the only Senator who voted against going into Iraq, was subsequently booted out of office by the majority of voters in WI.
David Huie Green LoveJoyAndPeace over 10 years ago
I’m not so sure others actually hate Americans.I’ve been in countries which were supposed to hate us and most just wanted to BECOME Americans.
BE THIS GUY over 10 years ago
@Ilegal SeagullI would say just the opposite is true in rerunning this strip. This week started with the future Kim Rosenthal Doonesbury leaving Vietnam as the last orphan out. He then jumps to this storyline to give the readers an idea of how lucky Kim was to make it to America. In this strip he also shows there were very few good guys.