"The Fall of An Empire" to "The Lost Cruside" and "The Best and the Brightest"

A no work day. I continued to read "The Lost Crusade: America in Vietnam" by Chester Copper, published in 1970. Mentioned in "Embers of War: The Fall of An Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam" by Frederik Logeval, the book is another fountain of knowledge about the war. Now, LBJ announced his decision not to seek another term. Cooper tells me there were secret French (with Henry Kissinger as a principal actor)/Polish/Romanian channels for talks between the US and North Vietnam, all of which failed. Depending on the work volume I may have tomorrow, I should be able to finish this book and take up, after so many years, "The Best and the Brightest (1972)" by David Halberstam.
Where are you, Lessie? I'm looking for you. Shame on you.

Lies and Fabrications of Korean Claims

In 1939, the Japanese Government adopted a policy to "allow" its CITIZENS of Korean origin to change their names. And many adopted names which sounded more Japanese voluntarily, without questioning the policy. It was simply more convenient for them to have "Japanese" names. (See "Under the Black Umbrella: Voices from Colonial Korea" by Hildi Kang) Later, this policy started being denounced by many as they claim it was intended to destroy/erase/eliminate the Korean culture.
Now, we see so many Asians, including Koreans and, of course, Singaporeans, who, for their daily lives and business transactions, adopted "Western" names which are inseparably linked to Christianity, when many of them are not Christian.
The logic is the same. Those Koreans adopted Japanese names not because they were forced to but because doing so was convenient.
In the same vein, some say Japan tried to kill the Korean language. "In fact, from 1930 on, Koreans could vote in hangul (Korean script). Equally interesting, Koreans had the right to run for office in the Lower House in the 1930s and 1940s." (See "The Japanese Colonial Legacy in Korea 1910-1945: A New Perspective" by George Akita and Brandon Palmer) Though the Governor General of Korea "was constantly strapped for cash and operated with an ever-increasing debt,... [a] curious budgetary item was 48,000 yen for encouragement for the Korean language" out of the 1940 budget of 564,657,000 yen (id.).