"The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis"Even at first glance, this email strains credibility.
Dante Alighieri
WE NO LONGER TAKE THE TIME TO KNOW OUR ENEMY; HOWEVER, FOR A LONG TIME OUR ENEMIES HAVE TAKEN THE TIME TO KNOW US! THIS SAME TACTIC IS BEING APPLIED TODAY
A REMINDER FROM HISTORY!
General Vo Nguyen Giap
General Giap was a brilliant, highly respected leader of the North Vietnam military. The following quote is from his memoirs currently found in the Vietnam war memorial in Hanoi:
'What we still don't understand is why you Americans stopped the bombing of Hanoi . You had us on the ropes. If you had pressed us a little harder, just for another day or two,we were ready to surrender! It was the same at the battle of TET. You defeated us!
We knew it, and we thought you knew it.
But we were elated to notice your media was helping us.
They were causing more disruption in America than we could in the battlefields.
We were ready to surrender. You had won!'
General Giap has published his memoirs and confirmed what most Americans knew.
The Vietnam War was not lost in Vietnam -- it was lost at home. The same slippery slope, sponsored by the US media, is currently underway. It exposes the enormous power of a Biased Media to cut out the heart and will of the American public.
A truism worthy of note: ... Do not fear the enemy, for they can take only your life. Fear the media, for they will destroy your honor.
Let's say that this quote IS from General Giap's memoirs. (More on that later.) Most of the time, memoirs are written in one's own native tongue. Yet, it quotes the phrases, "on the ropes", and "pressed us a little harder". These are thoroughly Western phrases - I doubt they'd make much sense to most Vietnamese.
But supposedly, they're published in his memoirs, lovingly kept in the Vietnam war memorial in Hanoi. Let's take a look at the expansive collections of this memorial:
It's a memorial, sure. But any research would reveal there's no room for a library here.
Okay. Maybe someone took some liberties in translating these memoirs for Western audiences. And maybe the author of this email got a little confused when he tried to remember where he actually read this. Are there actually a set of memoirs where he might have said something remotely similar?
Well, according to the historian Edward Moise, he's never published any memoirs.
I'm calling this quote 100% bogus.
Oh, and if you were wondering... My dad enlisted in the National Guard in order to avoid the Vietnam war draft.
