#viet

Though he never actually joined it, he was close to some civilian elements of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which was the most Communist (and in the rather orthodox sense) of the Palestinian formations. I remember Edward once surprising me by saying, and apropos of nothing: 'Do you know something I have never done in my political career? I have never publicly criticized the Soviet Union. It’s not that I terribly sympathize with them or anything—it's just that the Soviets have never done anything to harm me, or us.' At the time I thought this a rather naïve statement, even perhaps a slightly contemptible one, but by then I had been in parts of the Middle East where it could come as a blessed relief to meet a consecrated Moscow-line atheist-dogmatist, if only for the comparatively rational humanism that he evinced amid so much religious barking and mania. It was only later to occur to me that Edward's pronounced dislike of George Orwell was something to which I ought to have paid more attention. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#communism #dflp #dogmatism #edward-said #humanism

It is difficult to violently suppress people in the long run, as the example of the Soviet Union and the Eastern European countries has shown. ↗

— Dalai Lama

#difficult #eastern #european #european countries #example

Membership of the United Nations gives every member the right to make a fool of himself, and that is a right of which the Soviet Union in this case has taken full advantage. ↗

— Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.

#case #every #fool #full #gives

I wasn't for Vietnam. When I told that to the hippie newspaper, all my people got nervous. ↗

— Loretta Lynn

#hippie #i #nervous #newspaper #people

Individual rights always go along with the interests of the society. I want to add that in Vietnam we have no political prisoners. No one is arrested or jailed for his or her speech or point of view. They are put in jail because they violated the law. ↗

— Nong Duc Manh

#along #always #arrested #because #go

The conclusion that many uniformed military came away from Vietnam with was that political interference, dominance of strategy and even tactics were a very bad way to conduct a war, and that indeed, if that was going to be our practice, that we shouldn't wage conflict again. ↗

— Robert McFarlane

#away #bad #came #conclusion #conduct

The Soviet government is the most realistic regime in the world - no ideals. ↗

— Golda Meir

#ideals #most #realistic #regime #soviet

The object of my relationship with Vietnam has been to heal the wounds that exist, particularly among our veterans, and to move forward with a positive relationship,... Apparently some in the Vietnamese government don't want to do that and that's their decision. ↗

— Ho Chi Minh

#among #apparently #been #decision #exist

When it came to political power, blacks need not apply. Add to this steaming stew the growing tensions over the Vietnam War and the movement for civil rights, and you had plenty of elements to fire the imagination of a novice journalist. ↗

— Andrea Mitchell

#apply #blacks #came #civil #civil rights

I did Our Daily Bread for King and that made me popular in the Soviet Union; King was amused by that. ↗

— Karen Morley

#bread #daily #daily bread #did #i