The Kurtz Papers
JOURNAL OF SE ASIAN AFFAIRS, Vol V, June 7th 1965.
The Implications of Facing Resistance Movements
By Col Walter E. Kurtz
Contrary to uprisings or insurrections that can be tamed, resistance movements have proved to be harder if not impossible to suppress. Repeatedly in history, resistance movements have prevailed in the face of insurmountable odds, we need look no further than our own history.
What we are facing in Vietnam is not the will of a few but that of the many …not a cause but its embodiment… its intertwining with the people themselves who have ceased to be a people to become an ideal.
Military is ill equipped to deal with ideals …perhaps even it is one itself …that, an ideal… Which prevails in the end is always the greater ideal, not that of a few, but that of the many. Not that of an army but that of the people.
The hundreds of thousands of men we are sending to Vietnam are there to defend our ideals. The question is what are they? …Are they American ideals?... Deeply rooted in our history such as freedom and liberty?
If that be the case then that is worth dying for, yes even across the seas. If that not be the case then men are dying in vain while freedom and liberty ever so elusive have yet again joined the ranks of its people.
…One might ask to end with what good is it to defend arrogantly abroad what we have at home if we are in no immediate danger of losing it…
Or to quote Bonaparte, "A celebrated people loses dignity upon a closer view."
Or to quote Bonaparte, "A celebrated people loses dignity upon a closer view."
Cordially, etc, etc
