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Monday, Nov 23, 2009
Readers respond to recent articles on Kissinger, DiIulio, McDonald's and McVeigh.
Dec 7, 2002 | [Read "The Day Henry Kissinger Cried" by Stephen Talbot.]
I read your interesting and astonishing article about Kissinger.
The "domino theory" question at the end stunned me. I'm disappointed in not reading the follow-up question from Talbot: "So, why were we in Vietnam in the first place?" (Of course, with no mention of "war criminal.")
Peripherally, I just saw again the David Frost Nixon interviews. Frost asked (in 1977) whether the domino theory had finally been discredited, since Southeast Asia had not all gone Communist. Nixon replied, "Let's wait another five years."
In 2002, we have a peaceful, growing Vietnam. What confused, paranoid, "men's men" we tragically elected -- and in 1968, too.
-- Kamalesh Thakker
This article made me cry. Kissinger is truly a heartless sociopath, and it was an unbelievably cynical slap in the face to the victims' families, as well as to all Americans, for Bush to appoint him to head the 9/11 commission.
How fitting that a president who avoided service in Vietnam would appoint a man who cavalierly dismisses so much war blood soaking his hands and his personal history.
-- Nancy Wiebe
My only criticism of your commentary was the last bit about the current Bush knowing "all about" Kissinger. I am skeptical of Bush knowing any modern history -- or any history, for that matter -- nor how it's doomed to repeat itself.
-- Christine Severson
Thank you so much for the Kissinger article. Articles like this are the reason that I subscribe to Salon Premium. Where else am I going to hear the truth?
-- Robert Nevitt
[Read "Bold Words From a Wobbly Man" by Joan Walsh.]
John DiIulio fits the classic mold of a "useful idiot" for a devious, secretive government. He is also an idiot savant -- an ivory-tower intellectual who seems sincerely to believe that the folksy posturing of a shrewd politician is the sign of genuine piety. He is thus a useful idiot savant.
-- Coby Lubliner
DiIulio's creepy apologies to the White House would present little surprise to TV news viewers in foreign lands. Part of the process of a White House visit by foreign statesmen in the Bush II era has become the televised acknowledgment by the visiting foreigner of all that is wise and good about Bush, particularly in his lead against the war against terror.
The visitors unfailingly look as though, just off camera, somebody is holding a pistol to the head of their favorite child. It's more likely, though, that it's been explained to them that this unprecedented groveling will help their country benefit through trade agreements.
This explanation, if correct, is threat and bribery on a global scale. The justification for suggesting it is the peculiarly unconvincing way in which the visitors praise their host.
-- Paul Lynch
Joan Walsh believes that DiIulio should apologize to the American public. But I wonder about all those journalists who daily sit before Ari Fleischer -- do they ever ask him for an explanation of such Soviet-style tactics as were worked successfully on DiIluio?
I wonder if it isn't the press, who on a daily basis grovel to this administration, that makes such grotesqueries possible. They should either ask the hard questions or themselves apologize to the American public.
-- Edward Ryan
