Shouldn't America have supported Ho Chi Minh? As opposed to waging an unwinnable war that cost lives & money?

Do you think it "cost" the Banks or the Arms industry money?

They "make" money,..even when our troops are being SLAUGHTERED.

Of course not.

Now we can begin to understand why the Bankers and Corporations "buy" politicians.

This is the truth.

No, Ho Chi Minh was already involved with the communist movement in France around 1920's (look up French Communist Party), this was before Truman was president. He petitioned that Vietnam should be freed from the French, so he requested the U.S for support, they ignored him, possibly because of his involvement with communism.

There was a power struggle in Vietnam. Most were against the French regime, so a lot of nationalism and political movements occurred, communism was one of them, and Ho Chi Minh was in charged of that movement, the Viet Minh.

When he founded the Viet Minh, he killed many rival factions in Vietnam like Constitutional Party, the head of the Party for Independence, and Trotskyists, the rival anti-Stalinist communists. He also imprisoned thousands of non-communist nationalist.

Overall, Ho Chi Minh was power-thirst, just like Mao, Stalin, Kim Il Sung, and other communist leaders, killing people who opposes him. So a democracy wouldn't be possible anyway.

In my opinion, the reason why he asked for US support because of U.S presence in Vietnam during WWII, when Japan took over Vietnam. The US helped Ho Chi Minh to get rid of the Japanese, so Ho Chi Minh probably figured, "if they helped us once, they can help us again." That's my theory.

The Viet Mihn was a Communist front group pretending to be nationalist but had the intention of imposing a Soviet style Communist government in SEA (all of SEA from Vietnam to Indonesia) from day one. After they took over North Vietnam in 1954 they murdered something in excess of 75,000 people to ensure there would be no opposition to their control. In comparison the "corrupt" Diem regime in South Vietnam was a pussy-cat playing nice. But the biased media concentrated on Diem and never thought it appropriate to even mention the blood-bath going on in North Vietnam. In the end the Vietnamese Communists (and Uncle Ho) were monsters in the same category as Pol Pot, Mao, and Stalin. Five million of Southeast Asians were murdered AFTER the United States withdrew its support for the anti-Communist forces trying to build REAL democracies. Millions more were imprisoned and/or had to flee for their lives.

I think it is even more puzzling than you state. Not just Truman, I believe Ho contacted FIVE American presidents, starting with Wilson. He wanted a Jeffersonian democracy, and to those who say we shouldn't have supported a communist, try to learn the difference b/n cause and effect. He wasn't a communist until we rejected him.

And when he was our ally against Japan during WWII, his OSS contact, Maj. Patty, reported that Ho was a NATIONALIST, NOT a Communist.

edit: Oh, I love all the answers about how we wouldn't support a dictator (sarcasm alert). Ever hear of Pinochet, Shah of Iran, Saddam Hussein, and the dozens of other strong-men we did support?

Every point you state is valid. Whatever the "thinking" was back then, the U.S. could easily have avoided this nightmare and in fact, brought GREATER peace to the country, than backing at that time one of the MOST corrupt governments in the world. And correct again, we are closer now with Vietnam than we are with most of Southeast Asia. Imagine if instead of Chiang Kai-Sheck in Taiwan, we had supported Mao before he threw his country into disaster and death. The U.S also snubbed and taunted him, which to this day, is NOT forgotten.

America supported Ho Chi Minh when he first came to power. But them we turned on him because we didn't want Vietnam unified because of our friendship with France.

When we turned on him, he went to Communist States for support.

The same thing, by the way, happened in China with Chiang Kai-shek. We supported him until we saw he was loosing to Mao. Then we turned on him too, leaving China to the Communists..

It is quite likely that the Vietnam War was a mistake in many ways, but I still have a great deal of respect for my contemporaries who fought there.

Yes we should have done that. I firmly believe that VietNam would now be a much better country. More than likely it would still be a dictatorship, but less influenced by communists.

The war was winnable, even though we did not belong there. It was the (left wing loony) politicians that preferred to allow our soldiers to die than to really make an effort to win.

You are missing a lot of facts about Ho Chi Minh. Do some reading and you'll see he was not a benevolent ruler.

The war was not unwindable, we never set out to win. The goal was not to conquer Vietnam, that is why we never invaded the North.

Vietnam was a proxy war.

We should have never backed the corrupt regimes of South Viet Nam as long as we did. Just like we should have been out of Afghanistan and Iraq long before now.