It was on this day, May 7th in 1954 that the French forces in Vietnam surrendered to General Giap, culminating the “57 Days of Hell,” at a place now burned into the collective military knowledge, as a seminal battle, Dien Bien Phu.

The official website for the battle is here.

There is much to study and much to learn from this battle. Some might argue that we (the US) should have been supportive the man we call Ho Chi Minh in the aftermath of WWII and the subsequent strife in the region could have been avoided. Certainly, William Lederer, a retired Navy Captian with significant experience in SE Asia, tells an interesting story in “Our Own Worst Enemy”. I first found this book while at the Naval War College in 87-88 and I have recently purchased a used copy and begun re-reading it. The book was published in 1968, and he prophetically listed a number of major factors that were not going well for us. The most striking, in my reading, was our lack of our understanding of the culture and history of the Vietnamese, and the great regional history, added to the exceptionally limited number of Americans who were literate in Vietnamese. Bill Lederer, on page 54 of his book describes a chance meeting in a bomb shelter in China, while waiting out a Japanese bombing raid, with a Jesuit priest and his assistant , Mr. Nguyen. After the raid, they went to the river gun boat and provided a copy of the US declaration of Independence to this oriental gentleman, at the request of the priest. The story seems to hold together well, when you read this document from Sept 2, 1945 (less than a month after VJ Day).

It begins thusly:

All men are created equal; they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights; among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.

This immortal statement was made in the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America in 1776. In a broader sense, this means: All the peoples on the earth are equal from birth, all the peoples have a right to live, to be happy and free.

The Declaration of the French Revolution made in 1791 on the Rights of Man and the Citizen also states: “All men are born free and with equal rights, and must always remain free and have equal rights.”

Those are undeniable truths.

Other reading tells us Ho Chi Minh actively supported the OSS in conducting guerilla warfare against the Japanese forces in the French Indochina region.

The net result, at the end of the war, is we didn’t support freedom for all, but President Truman responded to the request of the French to allow them to return to their SE Asian colonies. The Japanese prisoners were armed and put to work ferreting out the Vietnamese nationalists, and assisting the French in re-establishing control.

Back to William Lederer. His book describes a people who once fought 1000 (yes, ONE THOUSAND) years agains the Chinese conquerors. I’d say that shows a cultural mentality of long term thought. By the way, the Vietnamese fought until they prevailed. That’s a lesson in “stick to it-ness” if I ever read one.

Along the way to our effective withdrawal from the region in 1972, the French felt the fury of a people determined to be their own controlling authority. The French were overcome in a valley base of Dien Bein Phu. Bernard Fall wrote the early story of the battle, “Hell in a Very Small Place: The Seige of Dien Bien Phu”. Obviously, because of the significance of a battle, where a large industrial nation’s defeat by peasant farmers occured in the post WWII period, many other documents and studies have been conducted.

Miscalcualtion? Entangling alliances? Over confidence? Arrogance? Greed? It happened, its still a story in heroism and strong wills in battle.

Thanks to Mudville Gazette for the Open Post.

Just what do Shannon Falkner and those illegally in this country have in common?

Shannon Falkner, back in the early 80s, applied to attend The Citadel in Charleston, SC and was accepted. That doesn’t sound bad, particularly with a strong academic record. In case you’re not away, which is a crucial puzzle piece for this analysis, back then, The Citadel was a male only school. Shannon, being a name that could imply either gender, is a woman. She had “forgotten” to fill out the gender block on the application form, and, just when you think your assumptions won’t bite you, the board reviewing records obviously didn’t frame the fact that a potential cadet would specifically mislead them.

Subsequently, the acceptance, was recinded, once Shannon and her lawyers got a national media audience as soon as the acceptance letter was received. They really intended all of this as a specific assault on a system. I’ll leave the complimentary debate on this part of the issue out now, for it’s not really material to the intended discussion.

Once the acceptance was withdrawn, the court battles began, and the federal courts ruled Shannon was to be allowed to matriculate into The Citadel. This part of the process took about two school years.

Once The Citadel was ordered to accept her, more maneuvering began. All “knobs” receive, one day one, as almost one of the very first things, a paid for haircut. It should be more proeprly be called a hair removal, that is only about 98% successful. Boy, does it feel strange to rub your hand over your almost bare scalp, but this was an accepted part of the entry procedure, which had a greater meaning in the grand scheme of things. With all males, people complained, but, you still lost your hair.

One of the more public “debates” that followed was the demand that Shannon’s hair not be cut,because it would be humiliating for a woman to have this happen. The end result, was she wouldn’t get the full cut, like all the men did. There were several other issues, and I was stationed in VA at the time, so I couldn’t keep up with the many other issues. The net result was Shannon’s lawyers got her several “concessions” as to how she would be given the experience of “Knob Year.”

Why was there the push for a women to get into The Citadel? The arguments revolved around “the good old boys club” professional fraternity, with the entry path coming via the all male institution. The lawyers wanted to know why should women be deprived of the experience of The Citadel system, the gave this advantage? Not a bad discussion to consider at all.

Now, begin assembling the puzzle: Shannon and her legal team demanded a female be given the system experience, so they could later be considered a part of the “club,” yet they also, having won the right to get a foot in the door, began telling the 100+ year old system, which must have been successful, for Ms. Falkner wanted it, just how that experience would be given to Shannon. That’s the rub. Her very presense, under these imposed changes, automatically altered the very system she desired to experience. How could she get it, being partially isolated from her fellow “knobs,” and still having hair, while the men did not?

Consider this with the illegal aliens, who came to this country because there is economic opportunity, and many freedoms not regualrly seen in other countries, particularly their own, yet they begin to demand just how they will accept their acceptance.

We value the power of the vote in this country and we argue and debate and say bad words to each other on various issues, but we, in some cases grudgingly, accept the results of a duly held election/vote.

Here’s my suggestion to the illegal aliens: You came here to get what you could not get at home. You were drawn here, because the American experience, while not the first republic style of democracy in history, it has evolved much further and has made us, a country of immigrants, able to not do what didn’t work and to adopt and refine what did/does from other cultures and history. If you have an idea on how to do it better, get it on a ballot, convince us it’s a better way and we’ll all vote on it, or let our elected representatives know how we feel, and therefore get them to vote in our stead.

Oh, you say you can’t vote if you’re not a citizen? Yes, that’s right. You know how to fix that, too. Get to the authorities and begin the process to become one, legally, and then join the debate, and exercise your vote.

The mass riots in the streets to helpt decide the outcome of such significant issues doesn’t work well where you came from so I ask why you’d want to try doing it the less effective way once more? If you really like to influence governments in the manner of large crowds, go home and do it there.

Once more, I remind the illegals that you came here because iwe have been a nation to “borrow” the good things of many other societies, while rejecting the bad, so, take a chance, try it the American way…you might just find you like it a lot better.

I went to the trouble to get this domain name and hosting, and I keep blogging via my Blogger account. Lazy me.

I’ll be spending some time in the near future pulling together the data from the “beginners” blog I have over to this blog.

In the mean time, I’ll begin with this next post as the first post (well, besides this one) that was not previously posted “over there.”

Much of my writing lately has been discussing the experience of the first MilBlogging Conference held 4/22/06 in DC. Jump over there and read up, and follow the links to the many other bloggers who were there and have covered their experiences.