Sometimes, it’s good to write. At other times, it is good to
merely repeat. I’ll repeat
Solzhenitsyn speaking at Harvard in 1978 (he was booed if I
recall correctly):
However, the most cruel mistake occurred with the failure to
understand the Vietnam war. Some people sincerely wanted all wars
to stop just as soon as possible; others believed that there should
be room for national, or communist, self-determination in Vietnam,
or in Cambodia, as we see today with particular clarity. But
members of the U.S. anti-war movement wound up being involved in
the betrayal of Far Eastern nations, in a genocide and in the
suffering today imposed on 30 million people there. Do those
convinced pacifists hear the moans coming from there? Do they
understand their responsibility today? Or do they prefer not to
hear? The American Intelligentsia lost its [nerve] and as a
consequence thereof danger has come much closer to the United
States. But there is no awareness of this. Your shortsighted
politicians who signed the hasty Vietnam capitulation seemingly
gave America a carefree breathing pause; however, a hundredfold
Vietnam now looms over you. That small Vietnam had been a warning
and an occasion to mobilize the nation’s courage. But if a
full-fledged America suffered a real defeat from a small communist
half-country, how can the West hope to stand firm in the
future?