Cribbing from a man of letters.

Yes, once again I'm reduced to lifting bits for Mark Steyn's letters page that are especially fine.

Once again I find a viewpoint I've expressed here expressed there, and I'm led to think once again that a drinks party with Steyn and co. would be a perfect night out.

'If Kerry implodes - as I predict he will - the opportunity to truly put Vietnam behind us will finally be available. Not just the war, but the 30 plus years of liberal elites arrogantly claiming that they were "right" about Vietnam and the concomitant cancerous effect the perpetuation of that myth has upon our national security and political discourse. I few days ago I watched the John O'Neill/John Kerry debate on Dick Cavett in 1971. Two things stood out; First, Kerry clearly did not view communism as a worse outcome for South Vietnam (he hasn't changed). Second, he claimed that our pullout would not result in a bloodbath of innocent civilians in Southeast Asia, as O'Neill rightly predicted (Kerry cavalierly admitted that there may be several thousand "political assassinations" of South Vietnamese officials after we pulled out, but that that would be no big deal in his opinion in light of how oppressive he found the South Vietnamese to be).

...

We can no longer ignore the fact that Kerry and people of his anti-war ilk favored and articulated an approach to dealing with Vietnam (using virtually any means, however repugnant, available to them) that resulted in the death of millions of innocents, the spread of communism, the rise of self-doubt and self-loathing in our foreign policy and military institutions as well as the body politic, and a cultural decline in this country that endangers our greatness.'

-Jim Arabia, San Diego, California

Update: Powerline have a really good take on why Vietnam isn't put to rest in Kerry's candidacy (aside from the fact that Kerry lit the blue touchpaper himself).