58,000 soldiers died fighting Communism in Vietnam as Secretary of State Kissinger says that Communism is "acceptable"

Former U.S. secretary of state Henry Kissinger quietly acknowledged to China in 1972 that Washington could accept a communist takeover of South Vietnam if that evolved after a withdrawal of U.S. troops - even as the war to drive back the Communists dragged on with mounting deaths.

The late U.S. president Richard Nixon's envoy told Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai: "If we can live with a communist government in China, we ought to be able to accept it in Indochina."

Kissinger's blunt remarks surfaced in a collection of papers from his years of diplomacy released Friday by George Washington University's National Security Archive. The collection was gathered from documents available at the U.S. government's National Archives and obtained through the research group's declassification requests.

Kissinger's comments appear to lend credence to the "decent interval" theory posed by some historians who said the United States was prepared to see Communists take over Saigon, as long as that happened long enough after a U.S. troop departure to save face.

I have to wonder if the families who lost their sons in Vietnam are heartened by the fact that America was able to "save face" due to their sacrifice?

These people are just numbers to the government. Cannon fodder, used to maintain some political balance of power. They are not fathers, and sons, daughters, grandchildren, cousins, nephews, uncles, aunts, sisters, or brothers. They are just numbers.

I know that I have been accused of being naive by some who feel that I don't see the big picture. But I think I do see the "big picture" and that picture is a picture of a species that prides itself on being completely evolved and yet still solves its problems with violence. We kill to maintain peace. Sounds insane doesn't it?

Look if I get attacked I will pound the person into the ground. I know, I have done it. But if I am disagreed with then I just use my intellect to try and convince them they are mistaken or walk away if it is apparent that I cannot change their minds. Why hurt them?

But my species sees nothing wrong with killing people who have a different religious belief or political agenda then their own. They use words like "Commie" or "raghead", or "camel jockey", or "Charlie" to make them seem less then human and then they kill them. They kill them!

Don't we owe it to ourselves to solve our differences in a more humane manner?

"Humane" sounds a lot like "human" to me.