Fareed Zakaria, in a Newsweek column praising the late Sam ?Clash of Civilizations? Huntington, offers an interesting assessment of the types of communities immune from the evil spell of communism in Southeast Asia four decades ago.
The segments of South Vietnam’s population that had resisted the Viet Cong’s efforts had done so because they were secure within effective local communities structured around religious or ethnic ties. The United States, however, wanted to create a modern Vietnamese nation and so refused to reinforce these “backward” sources of authority.
?Backward? sources of authority, eh? Successful in fighting the enticements of totalitarian government? It sounds like a passage from Russell Kirk?s The Conservative Mind.
