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View Full Version : The Elections Went Well



Nickdfresh
02-04-2005, 07:24 PM
January 31, 2005

LESSONS OF HISTORY?....Tom Cleaver of Redress Press sends along this clip from the New York Times. The date is September 3, 1967:

U.S. Encouraged by Vietnam Vote
Officials Cite 83% Turnout Despite Vietcong Terror

by Peter Grose, Special to the New York Times

WASHINGTON, Sept. 3-- United States officials were surprised and heartened today at the size of turnout in South Vietnam's presidential election despite a Vietcong terrorist campaign to disrupt the voting.

According to reports from Saigon, 83 per cent of the 5.85 million registered voters cast their ballots yesterday. Many of them risked reprisals threatened by the Vietcong.

....A successful election has long been seen as the keystone in President Johnson's policy of encouraging the growth of constitutional processes in South Vietnam. The election was the culmination of a constitutional development that began in January, 1966, to which President Johnson gave his personal commitment when he met Premier Ky and General Thieu, the chief of state, in Honolulu in February.

The purpose of the voting was to give legitimacy to the Saigon Government, which has been founded only on coups and power plays since November, 1963, when President Ngo Dinh Deim was overthrown by a military junta.

Authors comment:
I know, I know, this doesn't mean Iraq is Vietnam. But you have to admit, this story is pretty spooky.

Link (http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2005_01/005556.p)

Before everyone gets overly exuberant regarding the elections, just note we have heard this before. Though the circumstances in current Iraq and 1967 South Vietnam are differnet, the elections are far from the end of this war and its outcome is far from certain.