A Truly Sad Anniversary

In 1975 on April 29, the United States began a helicopter evacuation of U. S. Citizens, South Vietnamese allies, and others out of Saigon.  On April 30, the city surrendered, and more than three million people died in the political chaos that followed.

Unfortunately, America caused the deaths of these people.  A new book, AN AMERICAN AMNESIA, written by Bruce Herschensohn, details the sequence of events that caused the massacre that followed.  The book is reviewed at DisruptThe Narrative at Word Press.  What the book tells us about our government and the media during the 1970’s is frightening and sobering in view of current events.

According to the website:

“Between the 94th Congress defunding the aid that was promised to South Viet Nam, crafting and passing the unconstitutional War Powers act, and the resignation of Nixon later that year,  the North realized that they had a new opportunity and eventually caused the collapse of South Viet Nam, Cambodia and Laos within a couple of years.”

This is the reply of Cambodia’s Prince Sirik Matak as U. S. officials fled Cambodia and asked the Prince if he would like to leave:

“I thank you very sincerely for your letter and your offer to transport me towards freedom.  I cannot, alas, leave in such a cowardly fashion.  As for you, and in particular for your great country, I never believed for a moment that you would have this sentiment of abandoning a people which has chosen liberty.  You have refused us your protection, and we can do nothing about it.  You leave, and my wish is that you and your country will find happiness under this sky.  But, mark it well, that if I shall die here on the spot and in my country that I love, it is no matter, because we are all born and must die.  I have only committed this mistake of believing in you.”  (Quoted from THE AMERICAN PATRIOT’S ALMANAC by William J. Bennett and John T. E. Cribb)

Prince Matak was shot in the stomach when the Khmer Rouge seized Phnom Penh.  He was left unattended and took three days to die.  During the Khmer Rouge’s reign of terror that followed, 15 million people died from execution, starvation and forced labor.

Two quotes from Democrats involved in the decision to end the funding:

“Chris Dodd:  The greatest gift our country can give to the Cambodian people is not guns, but peace, and the best way to accomplish that goal is by ending military aid now.

“George McGovern:  Cambodians would be better off if we stopped all aid to them and let them work things out in their own way.”

History will repeat itself if we turn our backs on either Iraq or Afghanistan.  Unfortunately, we are the only nation in the world that would even consider preventing the slaughter of innocents that would follow an American abandoment of either country.  We can behave honorably or we can be responsible for another slaughter as we were in 1975.