John Steinbeck’s MH17-Like Conspiracy Earlier in Vietnam War

Not much has changed over the centuries as national propaganda machines use “news” to account for what triggers provocative incidents that heighten warlike tensions.  Posturing and grandstanding are always one-sided, never giving the others the benefit of the doubt.

        Commonsense and simple logic would tell most that Vladimir Putin isn’t just a bad guy who shoots down planes just to be mean (anymore than Harry Truman dropped atomic bombs on Japan for purely egotistical reasons).  The same goes for the Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.  A negative backlash would have been certain, with nothing to gain.

      Of course, mistakes and bad judgments can easily happen in a country like Ukraine that is experiencing a civil war, especially with rebels being less trained and disciplined than a regular army.  All the more reason not to fly over such a war zone (now Malaysian airliners will apparently fly over Sunni-held parts of Syria).

       It also seems certain that if Putin wanted the Ukraine, he could easily have blitzkrieged his way to victory almost overnight.   The West would have done nothing without protracted deliberation.  Even the Dutch who lost 193 citizens seem only dazed by the incident, though trying to make it seem  that Putin is in charge of what the rebels are up to.  Any attempt by Putin to intervene would only confirm suspicions that he really is in charge, which he isn’t.

      The Washington Post has published “A comprehensive guide to the web’s many MH17 conspiracy theories,” but novelist John Steinbeck in Steinbeck in Vietnam  provides just as salient a refresher course about how terrorism can be deceptively attributed: 

      Cambodia wanted to be neutral but with an eye to China, and Thailand wanted to be real neutral, particularly from Mao Tse-Tung.  Cambodia and Thailand might have stayed edgy (but no more than that) indefinitely, but suddenly a Cambodian train was blown up with loss of life and the Kymers pointed the finger of blame at Thailand.  The Thais denied it, but the situation had got so bad that Cambodia broke off all relations with Thailand, South Vietnam and some others, which was not exactly bad news to Peking.

     Now comes the news that in some part of Vietnam, where the fighting is, documents have been captured which show that the train in question was blown up by Chinese terrorists, sent down from Peking for just that purpose and to the end of breaking relations between the two countries.  And in this the move was very successful.