Um artigozinho de nada pode ser uma armadilha para os menos precavidos.
Um exemplo: estava procurando informações sobre a famosa foto da menina vietnamita atingida pelo napalm lançado por "soldados americanos" na Guerra do Vietnam [volto a esse ponto depois] e encontrei um artigo na Wikipedia, em português, que falava sobre o conflito. Alguns trechos interessantes:
O envolvimento dos EUA no conflito teve como pretexto um ataque norte-vietnamita aos seus navios USS Maddox e USS C.Turney Joy enquanto patrulhavam o golfo de Tonquim, em Julho de 1964. Hoje em dia especula-se que o ataque tenha sido uma ação do governo norte-americano usada como pretexto de intervir no Vietnã.
Como é? "Especula-se"? Quem especula? Nem um link sequer apontando um site onde possamos ver os motivos dessa especulação?
Outro:
A URSS e a China forneceram ajuda material ao Vietnã do Norte e ao FLN, mas não tiveram participação militar activa no conflito.
Claro, tudo gente boa!
Vamos agora à Britannica:
On August 2 the destroyer USS Maddox was attacked by North Vietnamese torpedo boats while on electronic surveillance patrol in the Gulf of Tonkin. The preceding day, patrol boats of the South Vietnamese navy had carried out clandestine raids on the islands of Hon Me and Hon Nieu just off the coast of North Vietnam, and the North Vietnamese may have assumed that the Maddox was involved. In any case, the U.S. destroyer suffered no damage, and the North Vietnamese boats were driven off by gunfire from the Maddox and from aircraft based on a nearby carrier.
E sobre os camaradas:
Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong strongly supported the North Vietnamese offensive and promised to supply weapons and technical and logistical personnel. The Soviets, though now openly hostile to China, also decided to send aid to the North.
Ah, voltando ao que originou minha pesquisa, vi hoje um psicanalista falando sobre a tal foto da menina que - citando de cabeça - "mostrava o horror da ação dos soldados americanos". Aquilo ficou ricocheteando na minha cabeça porque eu já tinha lido algo sobre o assunto. Eis que encontrei a narrativa dos eventos daquele dia com essa conclusão:
The story of the heart wrenching "Napalm Girl" photograph was accurately and in detail reported in the immediate aftermath of the incident. The news agency and newspaper stories, including those of Peter Arnett and Fox Butterfield reported independently that the incident was involving only Vietnamese and happened during an all-Vietnamese fight. The only foreigners, among them also Americans, were the reporters on the scene.
The airstrike had been requested by a commander of the Vietnamese 25th Army Division and was provided by the exclusively Vietnamese co-ordinated and controlled 518th Vietnamese Airforce Squadron (VNAF), with
Vietnamese pilots in the cockpits. Unlike in previous years of the war both the ground units and the Airforce Squadron had no U.S. advisors attached to them anymore.
In June 1972 the "Vietnamization" of the war had been almost completed and most American fighting forces and men had been withdrawn. By March 1973 all US combat forces had left Vietnam and the Vietnamese fought on their own, until defeat in 1975.
Since the war ended in 1975 the Vietnam war myth was created that the air-strike was in fact ordered, co-ordinated or even flown by American commanders and pilots. In 1996 a former U.S. Army captain (John Plummer, now a Methodist minister) even claimed and "confessed" to have taken part in the air-strike, later only claiming to have ordered the attack. His claim was thoroughly investigated and discredited a year later. He had lacked authority to communicate with the Vietnamese Airforce at the time of the incident.
