History of the Vietnam war for people with attention deficit disorder

[CCIP]

Originally Posted by August

I wouldn't compare our experiences in Afghanistan with that of the communists. The motivation for the war was totally different as was the tactics employed. For instance the US has not used poison gas against civilians nor ordered the execution of hostages in retaliation for resistance activity. Apples and oranges.

Then what do you call Agent Orange? Likewise the execution of hostages seems to be as much of a rogue activity as, say, the My Lai massacre.

I'm not arguing that the two are parallels and I'm sorry I've even raised the comparison. I think the view of Afghanistan and the Soviets as some sort of "anti-Vietnam" is really flawed and wrong. However by the same token, pointing a finger and saying that "they did worse things than us!" is no moral justification for anything. Taken in isolation, there are a lot of things that were wrong about US involvement in Vietnam in the first place.