Tragic Consequences

The lesson to be drawn from this story is that the Vietnam War—the entire thirty year tragedy, not just the final phase most Americans now think of—could have been avoided in 1945, in 1954, and again in 1956.

On 2 September 1945, Ho Chi Minh delivered a dramatic independence speech as head of the provisional government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. His faith in the United States and the Atlantic Charter encouraged him to incorporate in his speech the opening lines from the American Declaration of Independence. Unfortunately, the establishment of an independent state was a short-lived triumph. The French, unwilling to surrender their colonial empire, pressed to reestablish sovereignty over Indochina. The Truman Administration was unwilling, or unable, to deny the French claim, thus allowing this first chance for peace to slip into history.

The French phase of the Vietnam War began even before the Japanese in Indochina were repatriated. It ended in 1954 with the Geneva Accords. United States policy making at that time was mired in gridlock by McCarthyism and by the China lobby, a group of men in the United States Senate who opposed any action that could be construed as recognition of Communist China. Under these powerful influences, our representatives in Geneva were powerless to have any positive influence on the final treaty, which was ratified without our endorsement.

The final opportunity to avoid our becoming involved in the Vietnam War came in 1956 when, according to the Geneva treaty, nation-wide elections were to be held and the artificial separation between North and South Vietnam was to end. Fearing Ho Chi Minh would surely win those elections, the United States refused to pressure the South Vietnamese government to live up to the terms of the agreement. That fateful decision, driven by an irrational fear of communism and the United States' unwillingness to accept the Geneva Accords, eventually led to America's takeover of the war.

The War in Vietnam—the thirty year war—is a tragedy in world history, and the horror of that tragedy was visited upon millions of families around the world. The family of Rudder Glynn paid the ultimate price for this unnecessary war, a price multiplied by all the families of the world who suffered similar fates.