re: Vietnam. Was Hugh Thompson Jr a hero or traitor?

Yes, the cold warriors who led the U.S. into the quagmire in Vietnam were products of their time who had learned only too well the lessons of the appeasement at Munich. That is a valid point. However, there were definitely opposing viewpoints in the State Department. Men who clearly understood what was going on in Indochina right after WWII and after the French defeat in 1954. These voices were gradually purged from the State Department by the hardliners in the European division. There were many voices and plenty of information that should have made policymakers aware that we were getting involved in what was obviously a civil war. One of the real tragedies is the death of FDR in April of 1945. FDR was totally opposed to colonialism and opposed to allowing France to reclaim it's colony of Indochina. Additionally, American policymakers understood early on that the succession of governments we were backing in S. Vietnam were very corrupt and lacked widespread support of the people. Had the U.S. allowed the free elections that were supposed to take place in the 1950's according to the Geneva Accords ending the French Indochina War, they well knew that Ho Chi Minh would have won. A combination of hubris, lies and incompetence on the part of American policymakers over successive U.S. administrations is what led to the tragedy of the Vietnam War.