Benjamin Franklin left behind a little pot of money with the instruction that it be used for the education of young people in Philadelphia and Boston…but not until 200 years after his death.

In peace time, sure. But once upon a time, when one was contemplating a full-scale war, one at least considered asking everyone to contribute.

"but the 1965-73 was was not about French imperialism."

"That was the 2nd time I gave Resident Smartass a break; don't ask for a 3rd."

"It was a policy meant to advance the interests of the United States, not those of the Vietnamese, obviously, but not those of the French either. "

Yeah, they were militarily superior because we'd withdrawn. What do you call a country like South Vietnam, which can't survive on its own, which has to rely on the support of a master to continue to exist? Hm…

"The South was no more an American puppet"

Hey, spoiler alert!

1. I wish this column weren't specifically dedicated to baseball. We just had a whole summer in which weekly sports columns devoted to baseball, the basketball playoffs, and the World Cup could have run.

Let's be candid: that driving-the-highway scene in "Solaris" was fucking pointless

VIetnam emerged from the war unified and independent. That's winning, even if the people who bet on the wrong horse lost.

You're free to get as mad as you want at as many people as you like.

Yes. And the whole withdrawal was planned very haphazardly. The South Vietnamese government and ARVN were both deeply corrupt and had shitty morale. They decided to withdraw from some of their exposed positions in the highlands and outlying areas, in order to concentrate their forces. But they didn't do things…

I think as an American it is perfectly possible to 1) realize that our intervention was a catastrophic error in judgment and 2) still at the same time be uncomfortable with the Vietnamese spiking the ball in the end zone. I know that episode of "The Amazing Race" where they stopped at the site of a downed B-52 really…

We didn't really try the colonialism thing in the 19th century, we were too busy taking the West away from the Indians and building railroads and such. Didn't get into colonialism or international affairs much at all until the Spanish-American War in 1898.

Well, I dunno, he did hire those people. The buck stops here and whatnot. But you are correct that he was a machine Democrat who was out of the loop as VP.

Oh goodness, I can't agree with that. Truman made a lot of good calls. The Marshall Plan, desegregating the army. Intervening in Korea, which in the long run proved to be an excellent decision, and is the reason why forty million South Koreans are not under the thumb of the Kims today, even if it did take…

Brenda Song is so very, very pretty.

I hope Frank Snepp is interviewed in this documentary. "Decent Interval" is all you need to read about the end of the war and the fall of Saigon. It is a masterwork, detailing not only the evacuation but also the galactically stupid mistakes that the South Vietnamese government and military made.

Didn't they quote the Declaration of Independence in their declaration of independence in 1945? Supporting the French instead of reaching out to Ho was so goddamn stupid.