I'm in love with John Foster Dulles

[pagerbear]

[mlawson]

1. Ooooooooo.....

I hardly know what to say.... Good luck to you both! :-)

[soleft]

2. Oh my God, this is the first time I've ever had a thread riffed

I'm so honored.

[Bertha Venation]

3. Did you make a fool of yourself?

I guess the first time you saw him it was at the UN . . . .

[Bertha Venation]

8. sigh . . . does nobody get this?

Carol Burnett?

The Blue Angel?

The Ed Sullivan Show?

Sigh.

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[pagerbear]

14. Dang! Wish I'd seen it before it was deleted!

[nostamj]

15. I do!!

Carol Burnett got her start in off-Broadway theatre, first achieved national attention with a novelty tune entitled "I Made A Fool Of Myself Over John Foster Dulles" (Eisenhower's prim Secretary of State - don't ask)

===========

knew the title was 'off' a bit...

[Kenneth ken]

4. mmm necrophilia! n/t

[rockymountaindem]

5. Don't make fun of pagerbear

Dulles is better looking than Kissenger.

[NNadir]

6. U-2?

I guess you had to be there.

[DemoTex]

7. Yep, had to be there.

Way up there. Flyin' and a spyin'. Been there, done that.

[papau]

9. Dulles = convinced he was always right - and was always wrong- "Bush-like"

Dulles = convinced he was always right - and was always wrong.

The fellow that stopped the election in South Vietnam that was agreed to because the wrong fellow was gonna win - namely Ho Chi Minh - in 54.

Transfered out atomic secrets to Pakistan in 58 under the Atoms for Peace cover because he was pissed with India not kissing his ass.

But he was the hero of Matsui and Quemoy - made those Chinese commies blink! Made the Tiger Lady happy.

FDR/Truman helped Vietnam/Ho beat back the Japanese, but Truman did not lock down the relationship as he tried to let the French have their way as they replaced Ho and his unity government with an elderly descendent of Vietnam's last ruling dynasty -Bao Dai. Ho's request for help never reached Truman's desk and the US ended up paying 75% of the French war cost. Ho went to ground, beat the French with their surrender in May 1954. US supported the convening of a conference on Indo-China in Geneva under UK/USSR chairmanship. The conference divided the French empire in Indo-China into four: independent kingdoms for Laos and Cambodia, and a division for regrouping of Vietnam at the 17th parallel, pending elections for re-unification - but the lover of elections - the US - did not like the idea of Ho winning..

So Dulles made it immediately clear that the USA would not sign the accords, and intended to set up the southern zone as a sovereign republic - the Republic of Viet Nam (RVN). This was a critical moment in Vietnam's history because it (a) undermined the settlement, (b) created, in US eyes, a bona fide state in SV, which could ask the international community for recognition and support, (c) RVN was essentially a US creation. Dulles had effectively set RVN up as the first domino in Ike's domino theory, with Ike sending the first couple thousand US troops over in 58 to 61, and JFK raising the ante to 16,000 advisors and Special Forces (Green Berets) by 1963.

So Dulles gave us Vietnam under the concept that US credibility as an ally was on the line if we did not stop the fellow the south and north wanted - Ho - from gaining power. The Dulles method of gaining US credibility - sort of like fighting terrorists by invading Iraq.

Of course the world was safer!

And we did name an airport after the man!

:-(

:-)

[NashVegas]

11. Switters

Tom Robbins - "Fierce Invalids..." In that book, everytime anyone mentioned a Dulles brother, the good guys spit on the ground.

[loftycity]

12. That was the funniest book..the pyramid head..the stilts..the nuns

Cowboys and Angels

[NashVegas]

13. Cowboys & Angels

I mentioned that aspect to a friend with security clearance. He said he thought it sounded about right.