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<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite><font size=5>Greetings:</blockquote><br>
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!<br><br>
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. <br><br>
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.<br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=5>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. “T</font>he 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<font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=5> </font>and Marine Corps
aircraft expended another 1,500,000 tons in
Southeast<font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=5> </font>Asia"
(<font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=5>Clodfelter, Michael. (1995).
<i>Vietnam in Military Statistics: A History of the Indochina Wars,
1772-1991</i>. Jefferson, NC: McFarland).<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
Yours for fair and accurate history,<br><br>
Nick Gier<br>
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