By Ken Leslie for the Saker Blog
The Poglavnik of the East[1]
“I know no way of judging the future but the past.”
Patrick Henry, 1765
“This time, it’s different”
Any gambler bleeding thousands of dollars at a table in Las Vegas
These days we all seem preoccupied with daily events which are taking a turn for the worse. No, not everything is “bad” but only those who are sound asleep do not hear the cold winds of war rattling the windows. My previous essay “Two clicks to midnight” has caused quite a stir with over 20000 views and hundreds of comments. I put it to you that this is not the result of my brilliant writing and analytical skills (I mean this) but the ability to express something that many people keep hidden inside—questions about the true nature of the system in which we live, their inchoate fears and half-buried memories. I believe in the cathartic power of the truth (the way I see it) and it appears that so do many others. This in itself is encouraging because it means that under layers of lies, anxieties, complexes and dogmas, there lies a good human heart capable of love and redemption. Given the current state of the world, this is the only way I know of fighting for a more hopeful tomorrow—warts and all.
Our gracious host has achieved fame (he might disagree!) through a knowledgeable and timely analysis of the Western military-political nexus that is using all its power to destroy Russia and China. His prescient and nuanced assessments of the situation in the “East” have made many of us loyal visitors and contributors to this blog. Now, I can’t hope to offer anything like the military analysis a la Saker of Andrey Martyanov. And that is just as well because they are doing an excellent job. What I can do well is to observe certain historical patterns and try to interpret them in the modern setting. As knowers say, history does not repeat itself but it rhymes. It is these “rhymes” or similarities between historical events that tell us all we need to know about the limited cognitive grasp of the human beings as well as partial predictability of human behaviour. Of course, the complexity of the systems in question precludes any confident claims but nevertheless—past is all we have and we’d better learn how to use its lessons pronto.
Of course, there is danger of overestimating the importance of past events but it is equally dangerous to ignore them. In applied probability, these two types of bias are called “Hot Hand” and “Gambler’s fallacy” and they hamper any analysis of complex events. Yet, as noted by Patrick Henry above, all we have is the past and we’d better study it carefully—if judiciously.[2] And then, there are the emotions—yearning for justice in the face of a blatant injustice and anger at the abandon with which criminal elites hiding behind the holiest of principles have destroyed innocent human lives. After decades if not centuries of demonisation of Russia in all its forms, the time has come to fight back—to turn the light of history on its enemies. As some of you might have noticed, I have focussed almost exclusively on Roman Catholicism at the risk of alienating some readers. This does not mean that evil is the exclusive province of the Vatican but that a large proportion of recent historical tragedies are closely linked with if not caused by it. Given the nature of these tragedies, I intend to explore the nefarious role of this “Official” Christianity in some detail.
In the infernal Encyclopaedia of human beastliness that is kept bound and chained to the gates of Hell there are few events as heart breaking and anger provoking as the War in Vietnam, one of the longest and bloodiest conflicts in modern history. “Conflict” is not the right term here. Rather, the Wars in Vietnam which started in 1945 and ended in 1975 represent an archetype of naked criminal aggression and genocide waged by all weapons in the arsenal of the Western “democracy” against an old and proud people which only wanted to see the backs of foreign invaders. 19th Century was very unkind to the peoples of East Asia in that it brought with it an unstoppable surge of Western imperialism greedy for raw materials and cheap labour. The British, the Dutch and finally the French swooped on the rich rubber and timber-growing fields of Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam respectively, crushing any resistance with the aid of modern weapons and advanced political warfare techniques. Although each of these examples deserves in-depth treatment, I wish to devote and dedicate this essay to Vietnam, whose suffering brings tears to any feeling person’s eyes even today 45 years after colonel Ted Serong clambered up the rickety ladder on the roof of the Saigon embassy leaving the long-suffering country in utter ignominy. If you are wondering who this is, you’ll need to wait for part II.
You may ask—why now? There are several reasons. First, historical amnesia is very dangerous and as stated by President Putin, deliberate attempts by those who fought on the side of evil to embellish their role and soothe their ravaged consciences can only bring us closer to another global tragedy. Change is inevitable and needed but not at the expense of the rehabilitation of the worst human instincts and thirst for iniquity. Second, even in the bloody milieu of European colonial conquest, Vietnam stands out as a symbol of martyrdom—in the Christian sense, despite or because most crimes against the Vietnamese people were committed in the name of a Church which calls itself the only true Christian faith. Third, obsessed by Eurocentrism, we tend to forget that lives and struggles of other peoples are equally as important. Finally, the topic I shall focus on is highly relevant in the modern era of limited and “targeted” military and paramilitary operations underpinned by a vast human and electronic intelligence apparatus and the largest military in the world. There are a lot of parallels between what happened in South Vietnam from 1967 to 1973 and more recent US-sponsored or executed crimes in different parts of the world.
Although I’d love to expound, this is not the place to retell the story of the tragedy of Vietnam which began with a mid-19th Century scouting expedition by several French Jesuits on behalf of French capital. Their demise at the hands of Vietnamese patriots served as a pretext for what Wikipedia describes as follows: “Vietnam’s sovereignty was gradually eroded by France, which was aided by the Spanish and large Catholic militias in a series of military conquests between 1859 and 1885.”[3] Although the Vietnamese fought bravely against the legions of newly-converted “rice Christians”, they could not withstand the onslaught of one of the premiere imperial powers of the day.[4] After a couple of decades of resolute resistance, the kingdom of Vietnam became another French colony to be exploited and visited by adventurers.
In their obsession with the hard-nosed “it’s all about the money” agenda, many seem to ignore the fact that the conquest of a people requires the destruction and erasure of their spiritual and cultural identity. While money is of paramount importance, it is useless if the people resisting are aware of their history and culture. This allows them to draw from deep wells of history and replenish their strength. Very often, they come out victorious in the end. The strategists of the global spiritual conquest in the Vatican have been well aware of the power of religion as a weapon to be wielded against indigenous cultures. The psychology of religious conversion is a fascinating psychological topic which deserves a separate article. Once a person converts (for personal gain or under duress), he or she becomes isolated from or ostracised by their family and wider community. Exposed to the opprobrium and shame, the new convert turns to his new family—priests and laymen who are masters at leveraging the sense of guilt and anger. This is combined with the “carrot”—the convert is told that they are special because they belong to the “true” faith. They are initiated within the new ingroup and are soon ready to turn their anger against their former friends and kin.[5]
In Vietnam, this spiritual war (which for me is the most pernicious and least explored form of aggression) resulted in the formation of a class of Vietnamese Catholic converts who struggled to reconcile their origins with a foreign religion and culture to which they were now irrevocably bound. These people became members of a nascent Vietnamese middle class whose ambition to better themselves involved supporting the French occupation and generally renouncing their Buddhist heritage. They often received a French education and tried to emulate French culture and mores. The ones who excelled were employed as low-level bureaucrats or officers. This soon brought them into conflict with those Vietnamese who saw French presence and religious encroachment for what it really was—a brazen attempt to behead the Vietnamese civilisation (which owes a lot to China) and replace it with a docile population of useful “supplétifs”, that is, deracinated aboriginals who are given just enough incentives to keep them in check. The hatred of their community would do the rest.
The ignominious defeat of the French state in 1940 was momentous for France’s colonies which soon had to decide between Petain’s Vichy and De Gaulle’s Cross of Lorraine. That same year, the seemingly unstoppable Japanese Imperial Army occupied the French Indo-China and hammered out a pragmatic agreement with the Vichy colonial government which allowed the latter to continue governing the colony with the Japanese taking on a largely overseeing role. Needless to say, the fruits of the colonial plunder started travelling due East resulting in deadly famines and the birth of a movement of Vietnamese patriots who were guided by (but never subservient to) the precepts of Marxism-Leninism.[6] This cell of exceptional individuals who devoted their lives to the struggle for freedom having spent (cumulatively) over 300 years in French prisons were led by the most exceptional of their number—one Nguyễn Sinh Cung better known as Ho Chi Minh. A tireless revolutionary, socialist, humanist and fighter against oppression, Ho had led an incredible life of adventure, adversity and reincarnation. After being largely side-lined for most of his political life, Ho grabbed the moment in 1944, when he and his comrades organised and led the indigenous guerrilla resistance to Japanese occupation. The name of the movement for the liberation of Vietnam became world-famous as the Viet Minh.
Following the war, Ho Chi Minh declared the independence of Vietnam in August 1945. He was keen to enlist the help of the United States whose anticolonialism under Roosevelt offered hope to many liberation movements. However, with the death of FDR, the US foreign policy doctrine experienced a U turn. Instead of continuing their assistance to Ho provided by the OSS in the fight against the Japanese, the newly-hatched American Empire decided to defend the colonial status quo on the pretext of fighting communism. Although exhausted and shamed by its wartime record, France reneged on any promises made by the pre-war Blum government and decided to restore its colonial empire in the hope that the false grandeur of pith helmets and white dress shoes would constitute a sufficient recompense for being a willing partner of Hitler’s own empire just a year earlier (resistance excepted).
To cut a long story short, after eight years of bloody struggle, the Vietminh succeeded in liberating their country following a brilliant victory at Dien Bien Phu in May 1954. This gave rise to an international conference at which the USSR and China convinced Ho to agree to a temporary partition and a unification following a “free and fair” election in 1956. There was some anger at the time at the role Ho’s two mentors played but their reticence was understandable given the current political and economic situation as well as the hawkishness of the US foreign policy apparatus. Nevertheless, this was the crucial point in the evolution of Vietnamese Golgotha because the names of Ho Chi Minh and Vo Nguyen Giap became household names overnight—the great heroes of the liberation struggle—so much so that even the Americans knew that were an election to take place, the Viet Minh would take the vast majority of votes. This was absolutely unacceptable to warmongering criminals the Dulles brothers and their minions. A free Vietnam friendly to China and the USSR was a nightmare which called for a nightmarish solution. The first task for the dark cabal was to find somebody who could rival Ho as a figure of national prominence and significance. This was impossible in principle because most prominent Vietnamese politicians (including the emperor Bao Dai) were in France’s employ and the people of Vietnam at that point would rather eat raw nettles than countenance another French puppet ruling over them. However, everything was not lost.
In one of many Roman Catholic seminaries in the United States, an austere, celibate Vietnamese man, short in stature but full of noblesse oblige was waiting to be interviewed by one of the leading RC politicians of the era, Senator Michael Mansfield. Diem had left Vietnam in 1950 ostensibly to take part in a Vatican celebration but in reality, to lobby for the RC takeover of Vietnam under his family. Diem’s reputation as a nationalist who equally opposed the French and the Vietminh was played up for the media.[7] What was kept in the background was that Diem was a scion of the most powerful RC family in Vietnam as well as the fact that he had collaborated with the Japanese during the war. One of his brothers, Bishop Ngô Đình Thục was one of the most senior RC clerics in Vietnam and the co-ordinator of the takeover of this largely Buddhist country. Having been vetted by “Hitler’s Pope” Pius XII, Diem immediately acquired access to various offices discretely tucked away inside the massive brownstone buildings of Georgetown in which the fate of Vietnam was being decided at that very moment.[8] Having received the necessary instructions from his Padron in Rome, the ultra-powerful Archbishop of New York, Cardinal Francis Spellman put into motion a process that would result in one of the greatest instances of unprovoked carnage in history.
Diem’s religious zealotry and hatred of Buddhism made him an immediate hit with the Roman Catholic elites in the USA who yearned to redeem the catastrophic “loss of China” to the Communists. Immediately, a “Vietnamese Lobby” was formed consisting of some of the most prominent and influential Roman Catholic personalities on the US scene including Cardinal Spellman, Joseph and John Kennedy, judge William O. Douglass, senator Mike Mansfield and many others. Needless to say, Diem was favoured by the Dulles brothers who would play a crucial role in the formation of his semi-secret system of oppression. Under their tutelage and boosted by American money, the hitherto unknown Catholic zealot would turn Vietnam into a bulwark of anti-Communism modelled on fascist Catholic satrapies such as Spain, Croatia and Slovakia. It did not matter that Diem was almost completely unknown to the people or that up to 90% of Vietnamese population was Buddhist. These inconvenient facts would be overcome by enthusiastic CIA engineers of chaos whose task was to ensure Diem’s rule at all costs.
What happened after this is generally well known. With the help of the CIA man Edward Lansdale, Diem crushed his opponents and became president of Vietnam after a 98.2% victory in a sham election. Soon after, he instituted a reign of terror primarily targeted against Buddhists, Cao Dai and Hoa Hao sects as well as members of the Viet Minh who had remained in South Vietnam after the partition. On the instigation of his American bosses, he reneged on the promise of reunification and in order to strengthen his shaky hold on power organised a massive transfer of Roman Catholics from North to South Vietnam. Despite the North’s leniency towards their religion, many fell for the expensive and effective propaganda campaign funded by various US Catholic Charities and the CIA. “Virgin has gone to the South” was a potent call for hundreds of thousands of Catholic believers to leave their ancestral homes and start afresh in the newly born Civitas Dei.[9]
This unprecedented demographic shift had a twofold effect: it strengthened Diem’s popular base with Northern Catholics being vastly over-represented in his oppressive apparatus including military, intelligence, police as well as countless Catholic militias strewn around South Vietnam (e.g. Father Nguyen Lạc Hoa’s “Sea Swallows).[10] On the other hand, the population movement increased the political homogeneity of the North making its preparations for a war of liberation easier. Here is a quote from a research essay by Peter Hansen: “Jean Lacouture, for example, suggested that Ngô Đinh Diệm deliberately created a “ring of steel” by strategically placing settlements of loyalist Bắc Di Cư around Sài Gòn to protect himself both from communists and from potential enemies within the RVN: ‘As a result, surrounded by fortifications turning them into strategic hamlets, some villages filled with refugees formed a sort of a belt surrounding Saigon; it was as though the beleaguered [Ngô Đinh Diệm] regime wanted to fortify its capital with an iron guard composed of those people most hostile to communism and most violently attached to militant Catholicism.’”[11]
By 1955 everything was in place. The influx of American military and academic advisers, law-enforcement officials and economic experts gave Diem an ostensibly modern system of state repression together with his own FBI, special units, a plethora of secret services and even his own political party (Can Lao, a child of his brother Nhu’s political ambitions) which underpinned the regime’s security through the infiltration by its members into all important institutions. Diem’s secret police was headed by Dr Tran Kim Tuyen, a Catholic who excelled at cruelty and pro-regime zeal. The signal was given for an all-out campaign of anti-Buddhist and anti-left terror. Tens of thousands of innocent Buddhists were imprisoned in animal-like cages or killed by Diem’s assassination squads (akin to the Nazi Einsatzgruppen).
Like in Croatia, whole villages converted to Catholicism in order to avoid imprisonment, torture and death.[12] Hundreds of thousands were relocated into American-funded Potemkin villages called Agrovilles which were supposed to disrupt the traditional patterns of village life deemed unfriendly to the ways of the Catholic puppet Poglavnik. The terror reached its peak in 1958 and 1959. Hitherto dormant on the orders of the Hanoi government, the surviving remnants of the Vietminh started to organise and offer minimal resistance to the crazed crusader. The signal from the North to transition to armed struggle was issued with great reluctance—only after the vast majority of old and experienced cadres was eliminated by Diem’s death squads and there was a serious risk of a rebellion against the Socialist Lao Dong party by the disgruntled activists in the south.
Despite his best (worst) efforts, Diem could never overcome the ultimate barrier which separated him from the people of Vietnam—his religion. He always viewed his role as that of a Roman Catholic autocrat who holds the power of life and death over his flock. Like most religious transplants, he did not appreciate the deep animistic, Buddhist, Confucian and Daoist roots of the ancient Vietnamese civilisation. He did try to emulate these superficially for the sake of appearance but ultimately failed. He even emulated Pavelic and his successors by trying to create a congregation of “loyal” Buddhists who would support his anti-Buddhist crusade.[13] Nevertheless, for a short time, Diem was lionised by his masters in Washington as… oh, think of something… George Washington of Asia who stood alone in his deadly struggle against “Communist oppression”!. The honeymoon might have lasted longer but for the rapaciousness and zealotry of Diem, his family and his regime enforcers. The rumours of the nation-wide killing spree which had resulted in a large number of dead, imprisoned, dislocated and dispossessed non-Catholics started to reach the pricked ears of the Western media. No amount of slick propaganda could hide the horrors of Diem’s torture chambers and death squads (shades of Papa Doc Duvalier and his Ton Ton Macoutes). Not only did Diem antagonise the absolute majority of Vietnamese people including many hitherto loyal Catholics, but his masters in Washington were starting to get alarmed—similar to the German and Italian unease with the genocidal rage of Pavelic’s Ustashe whose cruelty threatened to upset Hitler’s European apple cart.
John F. Kennedy who had by then replaced an aging Eisenhower was faced with a serious problem. As a loyal Roman Catholic and a protégé of Cardinal Spellman, he was a passionate supporter of Diem and his Independent Croatia on the Mekong. As a young senator, Kennedy owed the support of his (mainly Irish Catholic) Boston constituents who were clamouring for a war against the USSR to his rabidly anti-Soviet and anti-communist pronouncements. Once he reached the top spot, he had to face some hard truths: First, Roman Catholics were still a minority in the USA and he had to moderate his inclinations and instincts in order to appeal to the majority. Second, the instability of South Vietnam caused by Diem’s persecution of the Buddhists (large-scale resistance started only in 1961) was threatening America’s wider interests in South-East Asia. Until the very last moment, he procrastinated. Removing Diem would not only end Spellman’s dream of a Catholic Vietnam but Kennedy would have to betray all that he held dear.
To assuage his guilt, he decided to revamp the war strategy in order to bolster Diem’s regime. First, he ordered a large increase in the number of “military advisers” who by now were taking an active part in the fighting. Second, following the doctrine outlined by General Maxwell Taylor, Kennedy placed the accent on the role of the special forces—specially trained paramilitary units used for targeted attacks, sabotage, training various collaborationist forces and assassination. The so-called Green Berets have their origins in the darkest days of the Cold War when the 10th Special Forces Group was placed in Germany in order to create an elite stay-behind army. The Lodge-Philbin act ensured that large numbers of East European Catholics, many of them with strong Nazi inclinations, received the green headgear and later proved their “mettle” in Vietnam.[14]
Kennedy’s efforts proved in vain. The elan and fighting spirit of the Viet Minh (now called Viet Cong by its enemies) could not be matched even by the heavily armed and US-assisted South Vietnamese ARVN (Army of the Republic of South Vietnam). Helicopters and fighter-bombers flown by American officers and large-calibre artillery were largely helpless against a lithe and mobile guerrilla force motivated by patriotism and belief in a better future. The most egregious example of the impotence of Diem’s military and their US advisers was the battle of Ap Bac which took place in early 1963 and was described in great detail by Neil Sheehan in his famous book.[15] The defeat of Diem’s army and the US strategy reverberated far and wide. But this was only a side issue. By the spring of 1963, the Buddhists of Vietnam had had enough. Having failed to stop Diem’s terror through protest and civil disobedience, they resorted to the ultimate weapon of non-violent religions—public suicide.
A number of monks and nuns burned to death in city centres in full view of foreign news cameramen. Diem’s obduracy and unwillingness to heed the protest convinced many in the United States that Diem was beyond salvation (pun not intended) and that America’s interest would be better served by somebody else. The two quarrelling factions bickered for months until the newly-appointed ambassador to Saigon, Henry Cabot Lodge (a protestant and a political rival of the Kennedys) started organising a coup. Diem and his brother Nhu were aware of America’s deadly grudge and tried at the last minute to start negotiations with the North Vietnamese government. But time had run out. The ever-loyal Kennedy had to accept his advisers’ recommendation and OK the removal of the would-be Catholic emperor of the East. This was executed by a junta of non-Catholic generals with a little help from an experienced CIA agent of French extraction, Lucien Conein.
Diem was overthrown soon and after an adventurous escape attempt ruthlessly killed, together with his brother while on his way to surrendering to the new government. When he heard the news, Kennedy was genuinely distraught and bereaved. Clearly, his emotions had nothing to do with the fight against communism in which Diem had been failing terribly, and everything to do with the fact that he himself was responsible for the murder of the last openly Catholic leader in Asia. Only three weeks later, he, the first Catholic leader of America would meet the same fate.
The early hope that a less repressive regime in Saigon would motivate the people to turn against the Viet Cong proved empty. Disaster after disaster followed with the guerrillas strengthened by infiltrators from the North Vietnam destroying large ARVN units without suffering major losses. Indeed, the Buddhists were not as good as Diem at killing “commies” and after a couple of years of chaos, the chastened and worried US empire decided to up the ante. The new strategy was two pronged. On the one hand, the old Catholic hands had to be quietly reactivated in order to form a “patriotic” core within the government and the army and second, the fighting would have to be done by the Americans.
By 1964, the stage was set for a drawn-out and bloody denouement of Vietnam’s struggle for freedom and independence. In its attempt to crush the Vietnamese resistance, the Americans employed every weapon and killing technique known to (in)humanity. Having laid out the broad historical context, in part II of this essay I shall analyse the strategy behind and impact of one of the most horrifying weapons wielded in an already horrific war—the Phoenix Programme.
- “Poglavnik” was the official title (meaning the Head or Leader) of Ante Pavelic, the leader of one of the bloodiest regimes in modern history—The Independent State of Croatia. ↑
- Another analogy is the distinction between a person suffering from delusions seeing connections and references everywhere (which does not necessarily mean they don’t exist) and another person with amnesia who is incapable of learning from past experiences. ↑
- This is not quite correct. The Jesuit infiltration into Vietnam began much earlier. The fact that these early “explorers” happened to be Portuguese is relevant for what is to follow. Numerous Catholic militias existed well into the 1960s and were an inextricable part of the French and American war efforts. They are also mentioned in Grahame Green’s “The Quiet American”. ↑
- There are close parallels between the Vietnamese struggle and the Chinese Boxer rebellion which was also triggered by the excesses of the (mainly RC) missionaries. ↑
- Please remember this bit because it is directly related to the topic of the essay. Also, what I describe here has been the modus operandi not only of the right wing of the Roman Catholicism but also many militant schools of Sunni Islam. ↑
- An excellent analysis of Vietnamese communism can be found in Gabriel Kolko’s “Anatomy of a War: Vietnam, the United States, and the Modern Historical Experience”. ↑
- That this was total nonsense became clear when Diem started to arrest, kill and torture anyone who had fought against the French. ↑
- This refers to the book by John Cornwell: Hitler’s Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII. ↑
- The personal accounts by Catholic refugees largely fail to mention Lansdale (who might have been inflating his own role) and ascribe the decision to move to the local clergy—disciplined soldiers of the Vatican. ↑
- JFK was particularly impressed by Father Hoa and his fiery anticommunism. ↑
- Hansen, P. (2009). Journal of Vietnamese Studies, Vol. 4, Issue 3, pps. 173–211. ↑
- Exactly the same thing happened in the Independent State of Croatia. ↑
- From “Vietnam: Why did We Go?” by Avro Manhattan: “Before engaging upon a thorough persecution against the Buddhists, President Diem attempted to form a body of Buddhists who would support his policies of coordination and integration.” ↑
- See William Simpson’s “Blowback” for a detailed account of this infamous episode. ↑
- The book “A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam” is an excellent if sanitised source of facts on the American strategy in Vietnam. One just needs to fill in the gaps with executions, secret torture chambers and other CIA special desserts. ↑
Well, I hope the author does not imply the 500.000 Wesmoreland’ men were catholic… or even that their true protestant roots – or simple nonreligion whatsoever moods – This Time imitated the catholic ones.
Similarly the British who promoted hundreds of thousands to millions of India to forget Shiva to adhesion to western standards were not roman catholics, by the way. And this process was far more long standing and destructive than that of Saigonese…
Dear Augusto,
I’ve decided not to respond to comments this time – I’ll make this exception.
Westmoreland himself converted to Catholicism. Coincidence?
Thanks
Dodging, not responding. What did you convert to?
Sorry you feel offended by the truth – the high criminal Westmoreland was only one of many butchers, murderers and torturers of innocent people who have sough succour in the bosom of “Mother Church”. There he is joined by the likes of Adolf Eichmann (and many Nazis), Tony Blair and the notorious Japanese sadist and Head of the Unit 731, Colonel Shiro Ishii.
For mos people pointing out the obvious works–some on the other hand refuse to see.
More specifically, and (just trying, as I have no illusions) to avoid further misrepresentations:
A reader [Augusto] posted some remarks. KL “responded”. Another reader [Anonymous] remarked on that “response”. KL then miscontrued / misrepresented again, pretending that he [the anonymous reader] had “felt offended” by “the truth”. What actually more than offends anyone “who practices the truth” is such lack of truth, at any level it manifests. “He who is trustworthy in the least…” : this is Jesus Christ’s teaching, and many do feel offended by it – as Himself direfully warns time and again.
Dear Anonymous,
Let me cut the Gordian knot in a way that will make sense to you: The Wars in Vietnam were religious wars. They pitted two great religions (depending on how you view Buddhism) against each other with Roman Catholicism serving as the instrument of infiltration, deracination, weakening of national resistance and most important – the puppet master behind the French and then American criminal crusades.
Do you disagree? Please put a name to the words and show me where I’m wrong.
What do you see in Brennan converting to Islam? Might it be that his chosen religion is an indicator that Islamists are being, or will be, used to take down America as we know it?
Or might it be an indicator that they are being, and will be, used to help silence those who have truly awakened to see the utter corruptness of TPTB?
In either case, what do you foresee is the endgame for America? It appears to many to be Communism, others believe Nazism or fascism.
The problem with believing the endgame is bringing in fascism is that it is said by not a few that America is already fascist.
Thank you.
Voluntary conversion (especially to Islam) often happens in Roman Catholics who see their religion as weak, corrupt, not militant enough etc. Militancy, readiness to die and absence of mercy were some of the reasons why Hitler respected Islam. I suspect that Brennan, a ruthless RC psychopathic assassin can only be looking for a firmer guidance in killing (see also Eduardo Rozsa Flores – who deserves a separate piece).
You flatter me by thinking me able to predict something so momentous. Nevertheless, annoyed by the spiritual conversion of an old hitherto compos mentis friend to mindless Americanism–together with a horrible baseball cap, in 1995, I wrote a detailed schematic of the breakdown and implosion of the American society.
I’m not sure that traditional labels apply here. It is what it is. On the one hand, one should never underestimate the ability of the American zombie to get back on his feet after having his head split in two by a Calzonian battleaxe. In other words, never underestimate America’s self-healing power, not because American society possesses some kind of miraculous balsam but because its existence is never threatened and it lives in a kind of fake make believe history. Having said that, the inner dynamic has reached such extreme deflections that it is hard to see a way back to normality.
Thank you, I’ll have to write a piece on this.
Ken,
Thanks for filling in more blanks.
I was in eighth grade, getting ready to go to a stupid dance, when I saw a vc shot in the head. Epic video.
Catholics vs Buddhists made no sense.
More clear now.
Oh, to hell with rules. That was General Nguyen Ngoc Loan, then the Regional Police Director who had caught a couple of VC fighters during the Tet offensive. I’ve read that he was a real patriot (and anti-communist) but know only that he was involved in the power struggle that resulted in the final governing junta in South Vietnam.
As far as I know, he wasn’t a Catholic but most of his victims WERE Buddhists.
Good article dealing with the untold religious aspects of the wars in Vietnam. My cousin was in Vietnam in 1971 and his life was saved when he volunteered to help Catholic refugees who were fleeing a Communist massacre of Catholics in the province where he was stationed. Because he was away from duty for a few weeks he missed being sent to Laos, where all his unit disappeared without a trace when the NVA and Pathet Lao destroyed all the American electronic listening posts in Laos in 1971. It’s also worth noting that Bishop Ngô Đình Thục, Diem’s brother, later became a schismatic and one of the leaders of conservative Catholics who opposed Vatican II, which ended up pretty much destroying the former Roman Catholic Church. Thuc became a leader of the Sedevecantists, who assert that there is no longer a true Pope, and created the “Thuc Bishops” – bishops who didn’t accept the changes of Vatican II. Some say Thuc was later reconciled to the official Church, some say he never did.
Yes, the good times had gone, the times when Thuc and his brothers could treat Vietnam as their fiefdom. Of course, it was the Pope’s fault (although John was the one who showed a special affection for the dying/dead butcher of the Balkans, Ante Pavelic).
Given the litany of high crimes committed in the name of the “Hitler’s Pope” Pacelli, I must say that I’m very glad to hear of its demise although the rumours have been somewhat premature.
Allow me to add to my post by reminding the world of another great untold story of the Vietnam war – the secret negotiations between the Catholic Church and the Communists that took place after the Americans formally departed in 1973. To make a long and still mysterious story short, the Communists told the Catholics – stop opposing us and keep your mouths shut and we’ll leave you alone when we roll into Saigon and take over the whole country. And that’s what happened. Now almost 50 years later Vietnamese Catholics are still the quietest and most invisible Catholics in Asia. If you visit the museum in Paris of the French Missionary Society, you’ll see no information about the momentous events that happened after 1950, just lots of info about the period’s early martyrs (late 1800’s to 1930’s).
Thank you for this interesting tidbit of historical information. If you read my article (especially part 2), you will realise that the crimes of the Catholic Church and its Vietnamese and American pawns against the people of Vietnam are too numerous and gross to be forgiven. So I bow my head in admiration for the wisdom and humanity of the victorious Vietnamese government. Had they wanted to repay every penny, there would be no Catholics left in Vietnam – and some would argue, no fifth column.
As I recently wrote in a comment elsewhere, there are lessons to be learned from history, but history itself isn’t the teacher; in most cases, the student must discover those lessons. Unless one is extremely fortunate to have a very knowledgeable history prof who’s willing to share/teach what s/he knows, the student is stuck trying to figure most of it out alone. For example, the UN and its Charter were the children of Franklin Roosevelt. When the UN Charter came into force on October 22, 1945, the USA was already grossly violating its provisions and has done so continuously ever since. But even more importantly is the daily violation of the USA’s fundamental law, the 1787 Constitution; for within that document is what’s known as the Supremacy Clause which automatically incorporates all ratified treaties into the Constitution leading me to call my nation the Outlaw US Empire. That these twin violations have never been challenged or even articulated is rather amazing since they’ve been ongoing for 75 years–certainly the longest spree of criminality within US History. IMO, that does us a great service by informing us the depth to the Evil we face daily and the importance of its riddance.
Bravo Ken!
Looking forwards to the next part of the essay. Seeing it in terms of the Vietnam War and the now-familiar modus operandi of the Vatican is very illuminating. As for Archbishop Thuc, Diem’s brother, I’m very familiar with him and his activities regarding the Vatican and the ”Sedevacantist” traditionalist roman catholic phenomena, as well
Thank you, Vladimir,
We meet on the jousting field again. Thuc, who basically ran Vietnam for the Vatican and his family discovered “traditional Christianity” once John XXIII put an end to his machinations. Surprise, surprise.
Hi Ken, thank you,
I would say rather that Thuc was part of a larger scheme to allow the Vatican to cover it’s bases as it went forwards on it’s modern trajectory. Anytime they have to go back and re-write history, they can just say that certain popes weren’t really popes, and certain that brave Papal Bishops became aware of the presence of antipopes on ”St. Peter’s throne”, and they took steps to bravely save the Roman Church from ”falling into error and doing bad things a real pope would never do”. Thuc was part of that, among others.
Thank you – that sounds right! What I know of Thuc is confined to Vietnam where he played God until shortly before Diem’s death. He disappeared quietly and this is where my interest in him faded. There is little doubt that he was the controller of the large Catholic system of oppression from the Vatican’s side (deciding what goes and what not). Judging by what happened – it was “anything goes” as far as he was concerned (Nhu was the executioner).
No problem. Thuc in his exile in Europe was very busy. He consecrated several traditionalist bishops from priests that held to the ”Sedevacantist” position (from ”Sede Vacante”, the ”Seat is Empty”) and ensured that that escape clause would continue to exist when and if needed.
I look forward to the next installment. I read “A bright shining lie” in the late ’80s. It opened my eyes to the sorry foreign policies pursued by the USA. A great book.
btw Ken, I suspect that one of the reasons your articles attract so many comments is because you yourself respond to most of those comments. This makes for a very lively and enlightening conversation so I’m sorry you have decided to desist in this case.
Hi, Simon,
I couldn’t ignore your heartfealt call – ask any questions you might have – let’s turn this into a historical debate of sorts.
Thank you,
Ken
I note with interest your mention of the name of Brigadier Ted Serong near the beginning of your article. Not nearly enough attention has been paid to the role in the Vietnam War of this Australian Catholic fanatic and senior military officer. Although he was a Class A war criminal by any civilised standard, his name and record have never been treated in his native land with the opprobrium they deserve – but then, Australians have never publicly condemned their military villains, reserving their ire for paedophiles and the like. In an ironic turn of fate, it is revealed that the fascist Catholic clergy which had such a huge influence on Australia’s foreign and domestic policies in the Vietnam War era was infested with men whose sexual interests lay in penetrating small boys and girls. For that, they are duly and rightly punished, but their worse crimes are never examined.
Dear Bernard,
What a wonderful comment – it encapsulates everything I’ve been trying to say and completes my article beautifully.
I have done a bit of homework re Australia which is often shunned aside as a wild outpost of Anglo imperialism. Yet, at least a half of the political “elite” there is Catholic and unashamedly so. Australia was and still is the largest haven for the thousands and thousands of Croat WWII monstrosities. All of their crimes were buried under the cloak of anti-Communist struggle.
Vicious, vicious bunch of Catholic bigots and potentially paedophiles.
Thank you!
Australia of Santamaria, Serong and Tony Abbott is not the continent of sunshine, koalas and billabongs. It is a particularly nasty deep RC outpost whose primary and only function is to aid the Empire in any way possible. Bernard, any nuggets on the overthrow of Gough Whitlam?
Isn’t it symptomatic that the so-called Murphy raid was linked to the ASIO protection of various ustasha units that were being readied to attack the Yugoslav president?
Ken,For more about the Whitlam overthrow go to johnpilger.com
Thanks, Bluey,
I was thinking more about the dark religious undercurrents of the Oz politics which even the great JP is reluctant to tackle. But I’ll work it out myself.
Thanks!
US has 800 bases in 70 countries. It believes itself an empire (although historically nascent). How did it all begin? Since 2007 China has been Australia’s largest trading partner, replacing Japan, with trade valued at US$35 billion in 2019, or 32.6% of its exports. Who will be the clown? US maintains Australia’s economic security is a factor of US military defense of Australia, Donald Duck likes golf and Nancy Pelosi likes ice-cream. When the ship USS Empire is sinking try to find a lifeboat. Also bear in mind Julian Assange is Australian. There is a class of Australians that despises empire (US or UK) or any type of control subservience or grovelling to anyone. They usually ride on surfboards and spend much time at the beach and like Assange. https://youtu.be/p6xLchIIJWo or
http://www.cowdisley.com/videos/australia.mp4
Ken, thank you for your kind remarks. I take a particular interest in the case of Serong because a very close friend of mine is the son of General Sir John Wilton, commander of the Australian contingent in Vietnam and later Chief of the General Staff. His son (my friend) famously and publicly burnt his National Service (draft) card on the steps of Parliament House in protest against the war. Serong went to Vietnam as the commander of the Australian Army Training Team in 1962, but went far beyond his remit by conspiring with local Northern refugee Catholic fanatics to organise private fascist armies. When the time came for the extension of his commission in 1965, General Wilton (I believe) refused to grant it for the reasons mentioned. What did Serong do? He resigned from the Army, went to work for the CIA and was one of the chief architects of the Phoenix Program of torture and assassination which killed scores of thousands of Vietnamese and was the blueprint for later US atrocities in Latin America under Reagan. A truly diabolical piece of work. He later became the chief military advisor to the Thieu regime in Saigon and fled at the last minute. The only good thing about the bastard’s life is that he lived long enough to experience the total defeat of everything he had worked for in Vietnam.
Regarding the dismissal of Gough Whitlam on 11/11/1975 by the traitor Kerr, the then Governor-General, may I refer you to a radio interview I heard earlier this year on the Late Night Live program of the ABC hosted by Phillip Adams. The interviewee, whose name I unfortunately forget, laid out a most convincing case supporting the contention that Whitlam was sacked on American orders specifically because of his Government’s public opposition to the Vietnam War and especially the Linebacker bombing raids of Christmas 1972. You may like to follow it up.
Hi, Bernard,
Not only did you answer my question but you have also anticipated my part II!
With great respect to the Irish, but isn’t Kerr an Irish name – like in great Deborah Kerr?
The more you dig…
Just wait a week and then go all in on the second part of this essay.
Great stuff!
Gough Whitlam belongs to that honourable roll call of history of leaders who refused to turn their country into a mindless follower of the beast and paid with their career or worse (I’m watching you, Boris!). Let’s remember these tragic heroes:
Mohammed Mosadegh
Jacobo Arbenz
Salvador Alende
Gough Whitlam (who has the special honour to belong to one of the oppressor nations)
Patrice Lumumba
Slobodan Milosevic
Evo Morales
Hugo Chavez
Muammar El Ghaddafi
Ernesto Guevara
The list goes on …
small addition
demonization of Russia began with the Polotsk campaign of Ivan 4 in 1563. Poland and Lithuania started it
Dear Sadam,
You know the best thing about this whole business? I learn from readers. Well – I also mentioned Polotsk in my essay on the Jesuit strategy of derussification. So, it might me truer to say that Poland’s and Lithuania’s boss (as in the pulling the strings boss) started it. How about Alexander Nevsky? It might have started much earlier.
Under Alexander, Europe was afraid of the Mongols and was afraid to climb into Russia.
And under Ivan, Europe suddenly took away a huge and monolithic power capable of leading a huge army (40,000) under Polotsk, and besides, Ivan took the title of emperor.
After Polotsk, Poland and Lithuania were so scared that they had to unite into one state, but even that did not help them. And then they began to send propaganda leaflets throughout Europe and sponsor various authors. Since then, most of the myths about Russia have been roaming around Europe.
The Europeans themselves are rather uneducated and do not want to check the facts themselves. Nowadays many Russians go abroad and the opinion of most Western Europeans is rather negative.
Ken, these sentences of truth are touching the hearts of those who have gone through catharsis. Those ignorants without a conscience, wrapped in a blanket of Western servant comfort until they pass through that same catharsis, can’t understand what you’re writing about. They are either afraid of your words and run away from them in the daily show matrix, or clumsily try to keep self-confidence by joking at your expense.
Keep going, all the best
…..I believe in the cathartic power of the truth (the way I see it) and it appears that so do many others. Given the current state of the world, this is the only way I know of fighting for a more hopeful tomorrow—warts and all……
……As some of you might have noticed, I have focussed almost exclusively on Roman Catholicism at the risk of alienating some readers. This does not mean that evil is the exclusive province of the Vatican but that a large proportion of recent historical tragedies are closely linked with if not caused by it……
…..Change is inevitable and needed but not at the expense of the rehabilitation of the worst human instincts and thirst for iniquity. Second, even in the bloody milieu of European colonial conquest, Vietnam stands out as a symbol of martyrdom—in the Christian sense, ……
…..Once a person converts (for personal gain or under duress), he or she becomes isolated from or ostracised by their family and wider community. They are initiated within the new ingroup and are soon ready to turn their anger against their former friends and kin……..
Dear Djole,
That is very kind of you. I can say the same to you. Our anger comes from love – theirs from hatred and fear.
And the interesting part about that my friends, is that life is seen much clearer when your anger does come from love. A great deal of the truth is missed when it comes from hatred.
Thank you.
I am reluctant to claim a privileged moral position for myself but in the light of wanton criminality we are witnessing, I am not too troubled.
Lots of information in this post on a topic that I’m not very familiar with, but which I’m interested in. Thanks.
I thought that after the French Revolution, the power and influence of the Catholic Church in France had almost been played out completely, but apparently I was very much mistaken. In any case, I think many of the french people have become completely a-religious now and don’t care much about the catholic church.
Below you find an interesting interview with Ho Chi Minh from 1964.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROgYHCYU9Zk
You can tell by the content and by the comments of the french lady that she’s worried about the future of the french language in Vietnam; the knowledge of it among young people was apparently declining rapidly. The video shows how attached French people – and French-speakers in general – are to their own language, … and how they seem to have trouble accepting a (partial) loss of their former power and glory.
Dear Wilfried,
You raise an interesting question – but I also think you answer it yourself! It is precisely because of rapid secularisation of mainland France in the 19th Century that the missionaries started looking for far-off exotic locations to “civilise” without too much oversight from the atheistic bureaucrats of France. I wrote about it in one of my previous pieces.
You make a good observation re loss of prestige – there but for the grace of God go all of us.
President Ho was talking about American failures in 1964 – following Diem’s overthrow. That was the acme of the Viet Minh success. Another 10 bloody years were yet to come.
You can see the wisdom, sense of strong disciplined will and focus emanating from Ho’s face. Reminded me somewhere of President Putin.
Might appear disconnected with the topic but nevertheless. Hats down to Father Stephen Kelly who could serve as an example to all those Roman Catholics slobbering at the thought of destroying and converting various “heathens” around the world. Unfortunately, RCC cannot afford too many Father Kellys because it might (shock horror!) turn into a real Christian church with no interest in worldly power and wealth.
Thank you Father Kelly! You seem to follow the best traditions of Irish rebelliousness. If they call you a Fenian, wear it with pride.
https://sputniknews.com/us/202010161080796722-roman-catholic-priest-to-be-released-following-2018-activist-break-in-at-nuclear-capable-us-base/
Dear Ken. You are absolutely right about the Croats in Australia. See, for example: https://balkaninsight.com/2019/09/10/in-australia-some-croats-openly-celebrate-fascism/. (The URL is generous; I would say most, not “some”). Where I live, it is but a short walk to the Croation Club, next door to the White Eagle Polish Club. A Lithuanian Club, now closed, was nearby. And not far away is a Ukrainian Catholic Church and parish centre. The Russian, Serbian and Greek Orthodox churches are far away on the other side of town. Geography is instructive. Best wishes.
Dear SImon,
You touch on one of the keys to understanding modern Australia. It is not its overemphasised Anglo roots but a powerful influx of the Irish (original criminals exported to the unfortunate corners of the empire) and other Catholics. Makes sense because a lot of original population movement occurred before Catholic emancipation. While playing an obedient younger daughter of the King throughout the two major wars, It started to assert itself after WWII when it literally saved thousands and thousands of Catholic Nazis–especially disgusting Croats. I thought to myself–they must have had a Catholic at the helm (who would have received his instructions from the Vatican and Allen Dulles). And of course, in 1945, a double Irishman Ben Chifley become PM and ruled Australia until 1951. Not that you’d know if from a frighteningly sanitized WIkipedia entry but it was under Chifley that huge numbers of Catholic Nazis were imported into Kangaroo land.
Another essay has just gained a title: Blood-drinking Croat ustashe and their cushy haven at the end of the world – or something. Thank you!
I think you are referring to the suburb of O’Connor in Canberra where the clubs to which you refer are located, in David Street. It might interest you and others to know that the interior of the Croatian Club is festooned with giant portraits of Ustashe butchers, leaders of the Nazi puppet state of Croatia set up in 1941 – and has been since its inception. And they get away with it. One cannot imagine the Harmonie German Club daring or even wanting to display portraits of Hitler or Goebbels , but there you are..
Dear Bernard,
You hit the nail on the head. All the Catholics expelled to the ends of the Earth by the English did in the end find a useful role – in nurturing the most rabid Nazis – like a colonial Porton Down (Canadians = Vukrops, Australans = Croats). Let’s not forget Ireland’s less than enlightened behaviour when it came to saving various Catholic Nazis (read Avro Manhattan).
Thank you!
The Roman Catholic vendetta against the Orthodox Slavs can be explained as simple competition between different religions, in this case between the Catholic Christianity and Orthodox Christianity. But there is no reason why it should have continued for so long into the Modern age, yet it has.
The Roman Catholic vendetta against Communism can be explained by the fact that Communism is anti-Christian. But Communism in Russia ceased in the 90’s, so there is no need for the vendetta to continue, yet it has.
Previously, colonialism was the method whereby the West extracted resources from the rest of the globe. Now Neo Colonialism is the method whereby the West extracts resources from the rest of the globe, the West just changes Third World governments when it suits them, or bombs / sanctions them until a change in government can be induced. Before the fall of the Soviet Communism, Neo Colonialism could be explained away by the need to prevent communism from spreading and the need of the West to retain strength by means of resource extraction from the Third World. But now Soviet Communism is gone, so there is no reason for Neo Colonialism to continue, yet it has.
I would argue that a greater agenda is at play than just Roman Catholic antagonism towards Orthodoxy or Communism, or the West’s greed for Third World resources which results in anti-development initiatives against the Third World less they acquire the capability to resist the plundering.
Dear gT,
You are right in the sense that the Roman Catholic West has always seen Russia as a target for epic plunder. Russia in any form has been the victim of these scumbags. Time to repay the debt – especially the reptilian Germans who have forgotten that they exist only through the mercy of the great Russian nation!
Thanks to the Saker and some great commentators, I’ve almost achieved the highly desired situation where an article serves only as a tinder which sparks a knowledgeable, constructive and interesting commenting session.
Thank you – I am learning a lot!
Why do established religions, especially Western (Trinitarian) Christianity, despise mankind and creation so much?
Why do their representatives seem so “alien” to our planet? So Reptilian? So inhuman?
Too much has been destroyed by these b*stards for me to see how anything can be replaced.
Nothing can atone or account or make up for the scope of their crimes, especially since 1492.
They perverted and destroyed everything.
If there is a God, why did He side with the aggressors?
Sorry for the catharsis.
Thank you, and I hope the next part of your essay is at least as enlightening and productive for you as well as your others have been. I for one have truly valued your article contributions!
Thank you, Vladimir – surely, I’ll manage a part II!
Ken,
Great to see you back! An incredibly illuminating article. I look forward to the second installment. Surprisingly (Sarc), the religious origins for the long war against the Vietnamese nation was never once mentioned in all my school teachings. Neither by the jesuits, nor my progressive (the school in Chicago was always considered the most prestigious, vanguard of progressive education), or “independent” scholars.
Thank you again for the incredible history lesson and shining more light on the role the Roman Catholic Church had in fomenting the Western orchestrated genocide. I am eagerly awaiting your pieces on the Roman Catholic influence on U.S and English foreign policy. Particularly, the full scale usurpation of policy which began during WWII. But I must say since at least 1941, both FDR and Eleanor were aware of the heinous role the Catholic church played in the genocide of Serbs and many others, they still did nothing to help the suffering of their staunchest allies and valiant heroes of WWI. In fact, FDR made it possible for the disgusting Churchill’s betrayal. Just as the English and US demanded the creation of the kingdom of Yugoslavia. (Selfishly, I do hope you’ll one day tell the real story of the heroes of WWI and the demand for a south slav nation built on the blood and sacrifice of Serbia)
Btw, I’d love to help anytime by providing additional materials you may possibly need for your analyses. The Saker has all my contact information. Your knowledge of history is unmatched among the great authors contributing to the vineyard. And your righteous quest to expose the truth and awaken the masses is truly an inspiration. Next to the Saker, there is no one on this blog who has so informatively and nobly attempted to bring justice to the victims of the evil empire. The empire that so many ignorant of history like to comment on incessantly.
Btw, I was one of those perpetual (loved my semi annual escapes from the real world) Vegas gamblers sitting at the table. I never thought “this time would be different”. But I walked away each time, always shaking my head at my continued idiocy in helping to contribute to Bellagio’s ridiculous ostentatiousness, haha. At least I can laugh at myself now ;).
Thank you Ken!
Dear Epithet,
You really are too kind. I don’t know what to say. So, I’ll move on to your specific comments!
Your observation re the Roosevelts is very interesting and I’m sure true. It is not so much that FDR deliberately handed the Serbs over to Churchill’s tender mercies but that his anticolonial position was losing support by 1943. He was no saint but was by far the most positive American political figure (with Henry Wallace and a few others).
Eleanor fought Spellman bravely after the war but from a position of weakness – her husband’s achievements were being dismantled with undue speed.
What a great idea – to commemorate the brave Serbs of WWI. I can’t promise anything but will do my best!
If you could walk away, you weren’t a gambler :-)
How much positive energy from one person! I’ll feel free to keep your lovely comment and use it as antidepressant!
Sorry, I missed some of your points.
-Good to know the Saker has your details. I might get in touch at some point. Thanks.
-You say they didn’t mention Vietnam. They have a school named after Stepinac in the middle of New York. Why would they?
May you long continue!
Thank you Ken. Allow me to clarify; I do hold FDR and Woodrow Wilson in higher esteem than most U.S. presidents. It may be naive, but I feel both these men always had the best of intentions for humanity. Donovan and the OSS didn’t start out as the bad guys they became. When you have time, check out the documentary that the Saker highlighted in his story about Draza Mihajlovic. While Roosevelt was sending the original copies of Rockwell’s freedoms to Draza, he was sending unprecedented military aid and all meaningful support to Tito.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yymGISP-COc
I apologize for the confusing paragraph, It wasn’t the Jesuit Loyola high school that was progressive (the antithesis to the progressive school of education). Neither of these esteemed schools discussed the religious origins of the attack on Vietnam.
Talk about diversity of education, lol. An American born Serbian kid growing up in a very rough part of the city, decided to first play American football for the Jesuits in the rich suburbs and then later transferred to the most progressive (definitely non athletic) school in Chicago. Just as the destruction of Yugoslavia was underway. I can promise you that both the wealthy Jesuits of Loyola Academy and incredibly wealthy and progressive, predominantly Jewish people of the other school, were equally vicious when trotting out disgusting propaganda against the Serbs. Although I shut up quite a few after I demanded the administration make my classmates watch the original Vatican Ratlines. :). I have no doubt the Loyola Jesuits would never have allowed me do that, lol.
Thank you again Ken.
It is very commendable that you remained sane after having been exposed to the ideology (I know how good their education is). I also never fail to mention that in the 1960s a lot of Jesuit colleges went against the grain and caused serious problems to Spellman etc. I know it is not black and white but then it never is. Nazis were not 2D cutouts as portrayed by the propaganda – which doesn’t make them any less evil.
Donovan and OSS? It’s an interesting question that deserves a serious write-up. I have a biography of Donovan and it is clear that he was a brave individual etc. You must know that he landed in Belgrade one winter day in 1940 on a “whirlwind tour” with Simovic, Mirkovic et al.
HOWEVER – his political views could never be wholly “American” – he was involved with the Vatican’s networks as early as WWI. Donovan was an arch-Catholic who worked under the aegis of Francis Spellman and who created the CIA after his own image (he is played by De Niro who admits as much). What is most telling and to me in a sense most important is that Donovan brought together all the enemies of the Slavs (Otto Habsburg, creeps from Le Cercle, arch Catholics from the US lobbies and CIA “experts” – e.g. Cord Meyer, J. J. Angleton et al.) in the grand project of the creation of the European Union.
Ratlines? Be careful! :-)
You also know that Draza had maintained unbroken contact with the Soviet leadership well into 1943 or later. Had he been clever enough, he would have taught Churchill a lesson and the Serbs would not have had Tito. As you know, Stalin mistrusted Tito and had a large number of Serb patriots in his employ (e.g. Golubic). Again – what could have been… But never mind, it’s fun.
(Mod please forgive the off topic conversation)
Dear Ken,
In regards to Donovan and his “whirlwind” trip, and early machinations, I honestly had no idea. There you go again, teaching even “old” dogs. Thank you for teaching this Serb a thing or two. Shame on me. I will have to read his biography. I solely celebrated him for his dogged reluctance to abandon Draza and Serbia. As you know, Serbs tend to hold onto any rare gleam of light coming from outside.
Regarding the original Vatican Ratlines doc, I know it is fraught with fallacies about Tito and the Partisans and the genocide of Serb victims lowered, but it was the only available documentary in English that exposed the Croatian Nazis and even mentioned Jasenovac. it was produced right before the English released some WWII archives exposing Churchill’s crimes and the myth of the partisans (who I’m sure you know we’re overwhelmingly Serbian. Unless you count the thousands of Ustashi that the Red army let become partisans after the defeat in Leningrad). Like Martin in Web of disinformation it incorrectly implies that Churchill was deceived into supporting Tito. But in 1992 it was the best I had to shut up the misguided progressive avengers :). They thought of themselves as real liberals only to embrace neoliberalism soon after.
I do know about Stalin and Draza’s contact, until Stalin accused Draza of collaboration after the the exiled monarchy turned down his offer to send a Soviet mission. It is well referenced in the documentary I linked above. The Serbian monarchy was initially incredibly receptive to Stalin’s offer, but Churchill would not allow it.
You correctly question Draza. But it honestly wasn’t for lack of intelligence. Draza was an incredibly honorable and courageous man, too good actually. In a world ruled by demons being so virtuous leads to only one result. His unrivaled sense of duty and honor resulted in his own death and the death of Serbia. He knew very well, for years that Churchill would betray him. And even though Stalin betrayed him and the Cetniks fought alongside and welcomed the Red army with open arms, only to be disarmed shortly after by the Soviets and turned over to Partisans for execution, he withdrew to northern Bosnia because he did not want Serbs and Russians killing each other. Someday I’d love to have that honest in-depth discussion with you.
I’ll do one better. Imagine if Russia was never poisoned and attacked by Western created Bolsheviks. The Tsar and the Serbian people would never have allowed A. karadjordjevic to give into the demands of the Anglo alliance (and his own greed), and create Yugoslavia.
Even though the martyred Tsar was of predominantly German ancestry, there was no greater Russian, no greater defender of Russia and the Slavs. Too bad some of his predecessors did not share his love and admiration for Serbia and tried to expand their influence at Serbia’s expense by concocting a fake Bulgarian rewriting of history. Most Romanians and most Bulgarians would have learned that they were actually descended from Serbs and there would have been a Russian-Serbian brotherly union that stretched from Italy to Siberia. Czechs definitely and probably even the poles would have learned historical truth and shared brotherly relations. Heck there would even be a modern Lusatia instead of eastern Germany. Today Serbia would have at least 5 times the population (just Serbia proper), with many brothers on all its borders.
Oh what could have been…. It’s definitely fun to imagine such things, my friend.
Thank you – I know too little to speak with any authority but what I do know agrees with your version of history.
I also agree about Draza.- too trusting and honourable. It is also true that Donovan played a positive role there. It is just hard to parse the good from the evil at multiple scales. He also objected to Stepinac’s trial – I would have been much less lenient.
I think that the Russians are finally learning the cost of their delusions vis-a-vis the Bulgarians et al. The Serbs have nothing to be ashamed of – they took on the beast again, alone and kept it busy for a decade.
I should be publishing something in a week or so which addresses your point about the Slavs – I hope you’ll approve. Stay tuned!