The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Separating Fact From Fiction

9.27.04 @ 12:01AM

CREDIBILITY GIAP
Re: Jed Babbin's The POWs Speak:

The column "The POWs Speak," by Jed Babbin, which first ran in the April 2004 issue and was published on your website September 7, presents a quote that Mr. Babbin says is from an essay by General Vo Nguyen Giap, about the contribution of the anti-war movement to the Communist victory in Vietnam.

The quote does not come from any essay by Giap; it comes from an essay "The Fall of Washington," written by an American named Danny Schechter.

Look at the words. When General Giap writes about the Vietnamese Communists, he calls them "we," not "they." That is why the essay from which Mr. Babbin thought this quote had come was titled "How We Won the War. The passage quoted, written by Schechter, calls them "they."

The confusion arose because when Recon Publications, an American outfit, decided to publish an English translation of the essay "How We Won the War," by Vo Nguyen Giap and Van Tien Dung, it decided to include Schechter's essay in the volume, as an introduction to the essay by Giap and Dung. The portion of the volume written by Schechter is from page 11 to page 19; the passages quoted above are on page 18. The portion of the volume written by Giap and Dung starts on page 21.
-- Edwin E. Moise
Professor of History
Clemson University

Jed Babbin replies:
Prof. Moise's note caused me to dig out my copy of the Recon document. He is correct, and it is my rather embarrassing error. The passage quoted is from Schechter, not Giap. My thanks for catching it, and my apology for the error.

SWAGGERLESS
Re: David Hogberg's Bush's to Lose:

Interesting analysis of Hogberg's -- particularly "Can he lose? Sure …" -- and then he cites the "if he gets complacent" angle. Hasn't four years of observing Bush shown him "complacent" is not in Bush's, Rove's or Karen Hughes's vocabulary?

What I'd like to know is, who insisted on the individual rules of the Debate? "Participants may not leave their podiums". Well, that would be OK, if we are deciding an election by the tallest guy getting your vote. But "NO CAMERAS SHOWING REACTION OF OPPONENT TO REMARKS MADE"? Damn. That means I can't add to my library of Famous Past Debates -- none of Al Gore's orange make-up enhanced by glistening flop sweat, no heavy sighs of exasperation, nor menacing stalking of the President. No dismissive nod by Bush followed by the famous smirk

Facial expression and body language are at least as important as words. And we don't know which of the debate negotiators demanded that rule! It would be instructive to find out. Except, of course, if it were James Baker. And I can't imagine it would be. I was looking forward to George Bush's unspoken "I hate to skin you, but I need your hide..." the amiable greeting of Texas poker players as they sit down to a high stakes game.
-- Diane Smith
South San Francisco, California

REBALANCING
Re: Peter Flaherty's Texas Smear Machine Targets DeLay:

The Texas Democrats have been rabid ever since they began losing control of the state. Tom DeLay is in my district, an ultra-conservative district that no Democrat has a prayer of winning. I believe that is the real reason they didn't bother naming DeLay in the indictments; it wouldn't hurt him in this election. We were happy here with his help given to our state legislature. Prior to redistricting, Republicans here in the Lone Star State were woefully underrepresented in Washington. Hopefully, the representation of Republicans and Democrats from Texas will finally be more based on the actual constituency balance here.

Thank you,
-- Pam Burton

OBSERVING PROTOCOL
Re: Eric Peters's Blair's Hot Air:

Mr. Peters is quite right in blasting Blair for his global warming-hurricane hypothesis. But, he gets carried away in his article and now lumps Britain as part of "old Europe" ( "..the stagnant economies of the so-called 'old' nations of Western Europe, most notably Blair's UK, France, and Germany"). Who on earth has ever included the UK in "old Europe" leave alone characterized her economy as "stagnant"? Far from stagnant, the UK has an enviably high growth rate (around 4%) and a historically low unemployment rate. Instead of sticking to the stupidity of Blair's ideas about global warming, Mr. Peters goes "postal."
-- Kenneth G.D. Allen
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, Colorado

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Bill Clinton, Mainstream Media, Business, Environment, Global Warming, Constitution, Law, Military, Iran