The War in Vietnam Goes On

I spoke to my friend Alexander today.  I met Alexander at an ACTS retreat sponsored by my parish.  I asked Alexander about Vietnamese history.  Houston has the 4th largest enclave of Vietnamese diaspora.  Alexander said his ancestors are from North Vietnam and that his father left Hanoi in 1954 following the fall of Dien Bien Phu.  We talked a bit about Ho Chi Minh and how much Marxism has influenced the way we teach history.  Then he surprised me.

Ngo Dinh Diem

He praised Ngo Dinh Diem - the CIA assassinated leader of South Vietnam as the best leader Vietnam ever had.  Alexander mentioned Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge for engineering the coup.  (Incidentally, John F. Kennedy defeated Ambassador Lodge in his 1953 re-election bid for the Massachusetts Senate seat.)

Alexander also said that the "Old Vietnamese" gather every year to honor Ngo Dinh Diem.  "If he was so bad, why do we honor him fifty years after his death?"

Apparently they honor Diem in Vietnam as well: