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The Cold War produced plenty of immoral conflicts. Is it seriously arguable that Viet Nam was a genocide? Justifiable wars since WWII are the exception.

• azernik 8y ago
  Genocide: "Any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; [and] forcibly transferring children of the group to another group." The Vietnam War was immoral in many ways, but it was not a genocide. Throwing that term around willy-nilly cheapens it. Please don't.
  • rounce 8y ago
    Rather astounding that people would downvote a post defending the experience of genocide victims from being confused with subjects of a lazy adjective use. Edit: Oh, I forgot this is HN...
  • freewilly1040 8y ago
    The use of Agent Orange fits your pasted description quite well, as does the My Lai massacre and similar atrocities now anonymous to history.
    • azernik 8y ago
      "...committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group..." A massacre is not genocide, neither is irresponsible environmental damage. It needs to have a specific intent and exist in a context that (is intended to) produce such massacres on a large scale. e.g. German "reprisals" in France after partisan attacks were war crimes, but not genocide.