[Vision2020] Unexploded Munitions in Vietnam

[Saundra Lund]

Hi Nick,

I'd like to *thank you* for your original post on this tragic topic.  It's
something I've been aware of for a very long time, and my guess is that only
those living under a rock -- or in a cave -- would be unfamiliar with the
devastation these unexploded munitions continue to cause in Vietnam and
elsewhere.

For those cave dwellers, perhaps this link from our State Department will be
helpful:
http://www.state.gov/t/pm/rls/othr/misc/52830.htm

FWIW, I still donate to a charity to support the survivors who have been
injured by the munitions we left behind -- there's an extensive list to
choose from available at the above link.


Thanks Again,
Saundra Lund
Moscow, ID

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do
nothing.
- Edmund Burke

***** Original material contained herein is Copyright 2006, Saundra Lund.
Do not copy, forward, excerpt, or reproduce outside the Vision 2020 forum
without the express written permission of the author.*****


-----Original Message-----
From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com]
On Behalf Of Nick Gier
Sent: Sunday, December 17, 2006 10:01 AM
To: nickgier at adelphia.net
Cc: vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Unexploded Munitions in Vietnam

	Greetings:


Let me get this straight: someone on this list, who has yet to offer any
documentary evidence in support of any of his views, always insists that
others do what he has never done.  And when the person produces the
evidence, it is deemed slanted or insufficient.  And then one who has no
teaching credentials has the audacity to "grade" the success of the
documentation!

Since the Vietnamese sapper, who has cleared unexploded munitions for 11
years, and his international supporters are somehow "Commie" liars, let me
take a more deductive approach.  

It is well known fact that modern battlegrounds and areas that have been
bombed are littered with unexploded ordinance.  Even today exploded German
bombs are found in England and over the years they have killed many people.
U.S. supplied cluster bombs dropped by Israeli jets are now killing dozens
of civilians in Lebanon.

In terms of weight dropped, the U.S. bombing of Vietnam was three times that
in both the European and Pacific theaters of World War II. "The United
States Air Force dropped in Indochina, from 1964 to August 15, 1973, a total
of 6,162,000 tons of bombs and other ordnance.U.S. Navy and Marine Corps
aircraft expended another 1,500,000 tons in Southeast Asia" (Clodfelter,
Michael. (1995). Vietnam in Military Statistics: A History of the Indochina
Wars, 1772-1991. Jefferson, NC: McFarland).

We don't have to take the sapper's word for it: we only have to embrace the
logic of this evidence.  There are tons of unexploded ordinance in Vietnam,
Cambodia, and Laos.

My argument therefore stands:  Vietnamese killed by U.S. forces during the
war and after because of unexploded munitions and Agent Orange far
outnumbers the total who died by Communist hands after the war.  And we are
still waiting for the evidence of how many deaths that might be.  I would
guess that far more died by the hands of pirates than by those ugly Commies.

Yours for fair and accurate history,

Nick Gier