vietnam vets, what do you think?

[Waitone]

Yea, it is time to move on. If my father can learn to trust and then admire Germans after his experiences we can do the same with VN.

My only problem is establishing trade with <insert country of choice> is code for giving that country preferrential access to US markets meaning they are allowed to sell their products here without the reverse happening. At some point we have got to cut out the nonsense of letting everyone sell to us while simultaneously making it difficult for use to sell to them. The trade deficit is far more than just numbers. It represents real wealth being transferred out of the US.

 

[JR47]

Sirius__GTO, to what are you referring? I don't believe that the majority of vets have said anything about not reopening trade with the Vietnamese. Are you a Vietnam vet, sir? If you're not, then I submit that you lack the requisite credentials to understand how some may feel, even after 30+ years.

If you were to add thirty years to WWII, it would have been the mid-to-late 1970's. Thinking back, there was still a fair amount of resistance and distrust of Japan. My father doesn't mind trading with the Japanese, he just thinks that we should NEVER trust them. He was with the AAF in the Pacific from 1942 until the end of the war. He flew as a waist-gunner on B17 bombers. His feelings are the same today, at 83, and nearly 60 years after the war ended. I'll venture that a lot of Americans who served in Vietnam still don't trust the Vietnamese government, even while approving trade with them. It's not a narrow-minded viewpoint, just one arrived at through experience with, and against, many of the same people from 30 years ago.