I am creating a revisionist history mp3 pack for a friend of mine. However, I can't find anything here or at FEE dealing with the Vietnam or Korean war. Does anyone know of any libertarian/revisionist mp3 lectures on these wars?
Unfortunately no lectures come to mind, but would you be willing to post the .mp3 collection whenever you happen to finish it? It sounds interesting.
Rcder: Unfortunately no lectures come to mind, but would you be willing to post the .mp3 collection whenever you happen to finish it? It sounds interesting.
Sure, but it's gotten beyond me being able to list link locations. Most of the lectures are from Mises, some are from FEE and a couple are from web searches and fff.org.
I am also looking for libertarian/critical lectures on the French Revolution.
In his American Economy lectures, Rothbard has a small aside regarding 'the third world peasant problem' which touches on Vietnam
http://media.mises.org/mp3/rothbard/AmericanEconomy1986/01_Rothbard_AmericanEconomy_1986.mp3
Whole context starts around 1h 29min, the specific Vietnam example starts around 1h33m
I love those old Rothbard lectures. The guy is such a character. I remember one where he spends like 30 minutes discussing something totally tangental to his subject but it was so interesting I didn't notice he was off topic until he said so and went back to the original subject.
Mark Moyar of Marine Corps University: mp3
The guy argues the war could have been won if Diem had not been knocked off in 1965. Perhaps not the sort of revisionism you are looking for? Bruce Cumings in one hour interview on the ocassion of publishing of a new book: link Another small 'r' revisionist. A hardline leftist, has nothing to do with the libertarian revisionist camp. EDIT: Sorry, the second link doesn't actually say a whole lot about the war. It has been a while...
The guy argues the war could have been won if Diem had not been knocked off in 1965. Perhaps not the sort of revisionism you are looking for?
Sound's like Nixon's No More Vietnams. And, actually, I agree: America could have wiped the floor with that po-dunk French province if it wasn't for the politics, but the politics goes beyond how the war was fought. America also sucked it up because of the military-industrial complex, which supply the military with crappy stuff in short supply that doesn't work correctly. Since the destruction of a private market in arms production (during the Great War) we have basically been equipped with increasingly expensively but hardly any more effective versions of WW1 equipment.
America also sucked it up because of the military-industrial complex, which supply the military with crappy stuff in short supply that doesn't work correctly.
The Vietnamese on the other hand had only the most modern, state of the art equipment.
They were better equipped for the kind of war they were fighting. The US is richer, and the richer people always win if they fight correctly. The USA didn't.
Also, it's not like Vietnam 'won'. The war just became politically unfeasible. Likewise, America didn't 'beat' Britain, the British just didn't think it was worth it while fighting the French on the Continent.
The US did not achieve its war aims, therefore it lost. The Vietnamese achieved their war aims, therefore they won.
The US is richer, and the richer people always win if they fight correctly.
What is this? A priori history?
Basic logic. Wars are fought with economies, duh.
Ricky, have you read Alexis de Tocqueville on the French Revolution?
So how do you punch someone in the nose with an economy? I'll let you in on a little secret. The Vietnamese were always going to win that one, because they were capable of feats Americans could not even comprehend, much less match.
lol, like getting almost their entire army killed in one battle. You're right, America couldn't manage that.
If I had had a mind to I could have easily won that war, by outsourcing the weapons production, going easy on the Chinese so they'd turn on the Vietnamese government they hated (as they later did), ceasing to support the S. Vietnamese puppet state, going scorched Earth on the Reds and turning the whole thing into a permanent martial law zone.
It is a ridiculous myth, probably deriving from the American revolution, that you just can't beat those plucky revolutionaries. The Hell you can't, America just doesn't have the will or the coordination or anymore. Throw enough money at it and get politics out of the way and we have the cash to beat anyone except for China and Russia. It would be stupid and pointless to do so, but yes, you can win a war by ruthelessly slaughtering enough people. Ask the Carthaginians.
America 'lost' that war because democracies are as stupid as they are prone to ideological warfare.