Sure, we can criticize anti-democratic actions no matter who does them. I submit that there is a difference between such action taken within one's own nation an

Sure, we can criticize anti-democratic actions no matter who does them. I submit that there is a difference between such action taken within one's own nation and such action taken on the other side of the planet. Hồ Chí Minh was a complicated man, but he really did try to improve the lives of his fellow Vietnamese. Somehow Truman chose to rebuff him while coddling a troglodyte like Rhee Syngman. The point is that we must have a sense of proportion. Nations should govern themselves. Accusations of deficiencies of democracy do not justify voluntary wars against remote nations who could not possibly threaten the aggressor. Also, French and American commercial interests in rubber plantations did not justify the mass murder of Vietnamese people and large-scale bribery that was required in order to install Ngô Đình Diệm as prime minister in the first place.