The American Spectator

Reader Mail

p> OUT OF BOUNDS br> Re: Virginia Rose's letter ("Out of Left Field") in Reader Mail's Continuing Education : /p> p>It's hard to cram so many incorrect statements into a single short letter. Ms. Rose confuses the Mariel Boatlift with the Boat People. The former did come from Cuba; the latter -- in overwhelmingly larger numbers, and the group which created the phrase -- from Vietnam after 1975, fleeing the Communist government which had come to power. The Khmer Rouge came to power in Cambodia, not Laos, in 1975. The U.S. had done everything in its power to prevent their triumph until Cooper-Church and similar follies perpetrated by the Left cut off our aid to the opposing forces. (I spent six years in Cambodia doing development work in 1995-2001 and my wife is from there). The U.S. did, for a while commencing in 1979, refuse to recognize the Vietnamese puppet government that threw the Khmer Rouge out for strategic reasons arguably valid at the time. I am 59, a Vietnam veteran and proud to have served. My friends from those days are equally proud. One hard lesson we learned is that some of the Americans whose freedoms we defended were ingrates, or ignorant, or both. Ms. Rose's letter just goes to show... br> -- David Clayton Carrad br> Augusta, GA /p> p> Well, Virginia loves America? I think Virginia went to too many Peace Marches in the seventies. Vietnamese Communists were more honorable than the American soldier? She probably thinks the Black Panthers were a bunch of cuddly, lovable teddy bears. I am sure the 7, 000 or so people in the Vietnamese village of Hue who were SLAUGHTERED by the Vietcong for no apparent reason, except they were South Vietnamese, might disagree with Virginia's apparent love relationship with the Vietcong. As for "hurting people for private gain and not sticking around to rebuild and only loot," as an Air Force veteran I can personally tell you that I spent my career "staying around" in countries defending their sovereignty. Japan, Germany, and South Korea also come to mind as a matter of fact. Last I checked we were "sticking around" there pretty good too. Republicans, like me, live in the real-world. And Virginia, in the real-world there are a lot of nasty people who do a lot of nasty things. I would love to live in the sixties-Liberal version of what the real world should be like, but that has already been tried -- in Russia. P.S. It didn't work, just ask the many million Stalin SLAUGHTERED during his tenure. br> -- Andrea Wolfe /p>

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