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"We Were Soldiers" was the most important movie I've ever seen.

The month of November 1965 when these gallant fighters made history, the Joint Chiefs tried in vain to convince LBJ to bomb Hanoi and mine Haiphong.

His obscene and humiliating rejection of their plan is recounted in "The Day It Became the Longest War" by Lt. Gen. Charles G. Cooper, U.S. Marine Corps (Ret.) the aide to the chiefs at that meeting.

The article appeared in the May 1996 Proceedings of the U.S. Naval Institute.

I would be happy to fax the four-page article to any of you who express interest by freepmailing me with your fax number.

LBJs "sanitizing" of target lists and obscene rules of engagement together with the odious crimes of Strange McNamara snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

Hats off to the unsurpassed heroism of the finest fighting men on earth;

Heads off for the fifth column quislings from Johnson to Cronkite; from McNamara to Kerry.

Joe Galloway in 1965

"We Were Soldiers" is the definitive Vietnam movie IMHO. In a different class than the sludge propaganda films Hollywood has pumped out to try to justify the actions of the Fonda faction, including Kerry.

McNamara's folly began even before the disastrous decision not to bomb Hanoi. McNamara was initially told we'd need about 600,000 troops to win a ground war but he browbeat the Chiefs into telling the President much less would do, to the eternal shame of all concerned. After toppling Diem and installing an unstable regime, Strange knew Vietnam could not hold out without U.S combat troops, but lied to the American people with his "hold until November" strategy that allowed LBJ to decieve the people and run as a "peace" candidate. Since they'd lied to the people all along about things being just ducky in Vietnam without ground troops, LBJ and Strange had to lie about the Tonkin Gulf incident to have a pretext to do what they knew they would have to do before the election.

When they finally sent the troops in, they hamstrung them with the stupidist rules of engagment ever - Cambodia and Laos off limits, most of Hanoi off limits, no stoppage of Haiphong cargo traffic. Stupid tactics - let's take the same ground two, three, four times and give it back so we can fight a war of attrition against a fertile Asian country more than capable of filling the ranks.

The d*mn thing is that despite the lies, stupidity and treachery, the American fighting man still defeated the enemy in the field by 1968, so the American press intervened to lie to the American people once again and snatch defeat from victory.

Rant over. CT out.

I'd love to get the FAX, but I'd have to be forewarned in order to switch over for it.

Also, don't know if you've ever read anything on this man or not, but his books are excellent. His name is Lt. Clebe McClary, USMC. He was from 1st Recon Platoon 1967-1968 Vietnam. If you do a quick search on him, you will learn what his sacrifices were for our country.

He is an amazing speaker and an amazing man. He speaks highly of "We were Soldiers". He says it is right on, or words to that effect.