The United States and Indochina: Far from an aberration

Zbigniew Brzezinski thunders that the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan is a classical foreign invasion, waged with Nazi-like brutality. "The conquerors of America glorified the devastation they wrought in visions of righteousness," Francis Jennings observes, "and their descendants have been reluctant to peer through the aura." The United States was deeply committed to the French effort to reconquer their former colony, recognizing throughout that the enemy was the nationalist movement of Vietnam. The United States invaded South Vietnam, where it proceeded to compound the crime of aggression with numerous and quite appalling crimes against humanity throughout Indochina. In 1965, the United States began the direct land invasion of South Vietnam, along with the bombing of the north, and at three times the level, the systematic bombardment of the south, which bore the brunt of US aggression throughout. "Right isolationism" calls for "retreat from Wilsonian goals" in favor of defense of interests.