by Ted Sherman

Created on: February 12, 2007   Last Updated: August 07, 2008

I can't add any warnings to Mr. Fleming's excellent list, but I can give some historical perspective to the upcoming Beijing Olympics. In September 1945, my troop ship sailed into Shanghai harbor to pick up Allied POWs who had been in Japanese camps for more than three years. That was my first experience with China, and except for seeing the murderously brutal treatment the Japanese inflicted on POWs in China, the Shanghai government was cooperative with US forces who took over.

My next experience with China was in 1952-53, when Navy service took me to Korea. The UN (mostly US) forces were winning the war against the North Korean aggressors when China sent a million "volunteers" into combat and succeeded in turning the war into a stalemate. The Free World's problems with the aggressive North Korean government are still critical, thanks to the Chinese.

I was not involved in the war in Vietnam, but it is widely known that, as in the Korean conflict, the Chinese government provided funds, equipment and "advisors" to the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong enemies of the US. Their support in this war also prevented a US victory. Perhaps the worst statistic is that in the two wars, Chinese intervention cost the lives of a large percentage of the 100,000+ US deaths.

The Chinese government, after 50 years, finally woke up to the fact that their brutal Communist control over every aspect of the lives of their citizens was stupidly unproductive. As a result, China society and its economy are now becoming much more successful, but the government is still one of the most repressive in the world.

Question: Why would any American with any knowledge of recent history want to support the 2008 Beijing Olympics?

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