Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., gestures during an interview in Richmond, Va., Monday, Feb. 12, 2007. McCain, a possible Presidential canidate, said he fears an offensive by Iraqi insurgents similar to the Tet Offensive by the Viet Cong. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
We won that one any who.
What is he wishing for?
Did the Maverick Senator also point out that the Tet Offensive was actually a staggering military loss for the VC and NVA, and from which it took them years to recover? The only reason it appeared a defeat for us was our dear old MSM, the same culprits this time around!
If Iran continues to supply 'insurgents' with tank destroying weapons, with horrific pictures replayed a dozen times on CNN every night, then we're in trouble. We have to stop them.
Good grief McCain, step away from the cameras. We are stomping butt there, and besides, we will not let Walter Cronkite monopolize & spin the news anymore.
It also pretty much ended the Viet Cong as a fighting force, and took out a part of the north's army.
It was a resounding victory for the US and the South Vietnamese, everywhere but in the media. They lied to us.
Looks like that tongue-lashing WaPo gave him got him back to bashing Bush.
"By the way, a lot of us are also very concerned about the possibility of a, quote, 'Tet Offensive.' You know, some large-scale tact that could then switch American public opinion the way that the Tet Offensive did," the Arizona senator said.
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If you look at the work of the dems and their hand puppets,the MSM, we have been experiencing a 'Tet Offensive' since Florida in 2000 and under occupation since.
Geee, maybe he'll remember that WE WON THAT FIGHT.
The attacking North Vietnamese army and the VC were annihilated by the US and South Vietnamese forces! I really hate the media.
We should be mad at the murderers, and instead we let the left make us hate our own president and troops. Sad and morally depraved.
CRONKITE: "I'm was just doing my part to tear down America...."
McCain was in Richmond to address about 40 Virginia Republicans who could potentially support his 2008 presidential bid.
The only 40 votes he should get from Virginia.
...and to this day they use it to engineer protests when the facts were, by any calculation, that the Tet offensive was a horrific disaster for the NVA and the VC. They got a few dramatic pictures...but were entirely and thoroughly whipped and destroyed by our and the SV forces.
We beat the NVA and the VC in Vietnam...thoroughly...again and again.
But, we had politicians and a complicit group of left wing sappers here in this nation who submarined our efforts there and who were compromised, infiltrated, and completely and willingly used by the enemy...just like todays ilk are being used by the enemy in the same way, and, again, willingly so.
Despite all of that, Nixon bombed the NV to the negotiation table where they signed a peace treaty in 1972 that by any casual observation admitted thier defeat. When they abjectly violated that treaty and invaded the South two years later...and when we DID NOTHING ABOUT IT except to keep drawing down...that is when South Vietnam was lost. It was a gutless, spineless, political decision that cost the lives of hundreds of thousands...maybe a million...of our good friends.
When we did not respond to that violation...that betrayal and withdrawal is something that has haunted our political and military decision making ever since, and impacted the way our own allies and our enemies view us ever since.
[/end rant] ...but it's the truth.
1. He THINKS it's STILL 1968.
2. He's forgotten (or he's as whacko as we think he is), that we actually KICKED NVA/Viet Cong ASS in the TET offensive.
Myth The Tet Offensive Was a Communist Victory
The 1968 Tet offensive was a total and complete miltary disaster for the North Vietnamese Communists no matter how you look at it. If you measure victory by territory gained or enemy killed, the North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong failed dismally in their attacks.
The NVA and VC had counted on a "People's Uprising" to carry them to victory, however there was no such uprising. They did exactly what the American military wanted them to do. They massed in large formations that were incredibly vulnerable to the awesome fire support the U.S. Military was able to bring to bear on them in a coordinated and devastating manner.
The NVA and VC attacked only ARVN installations with the exception of the US Embassy in Saigon. Despite reports to the contrary by all major television news networks and the print media, the VC sapper team of 15 men never entered the chancery building and all 15 VC were dead within 6 hours of the attack. They caused no damage to any property and managed to kill 4 US Army MPs, and one Marine guard. The South Vietnamese Police tasked with guarding the Embassy fled at the first sound of gunfire.
The NVA/VC launched major attacks on Saigon, Hue, Quang Tri City, Da Nang, Nha Trang, Qui Nhon, Kontum City, Ban Me Thout, My Tho, Can Tho, and Ben Tre. With the exception of the old imperial city of Hue, the NVA/VC were forced to retreat within 24 hours of the beginning of the offensive. In the process they suffered devastating losses among the southern VC cadres. Using the southern VC as the spearhead of these attacks was an intentional device on the part of the North Vietnamese politcal leadership. They did not want to share power with the southerners after the war, so they sent them out to what was inevitable slaughter. The NVA mainforce battalions were held in "reserve" according to Vo Nguyen Giap, in order to "exploit any breakthroughs".
In the first week of the attack the NVA/VC lost 32,204 confirmed killed, and 5,803 captured. US losses were 1,015 KHA, while ARVN losses were 2,819 killed. ARVN losses were higher because the NVA/VC, reluctant to enter into a set-piece battle with US forces, attacked targets defended almost exclusively by South Vietnamese troops.
Casualties among the people whom the NVA/VC claimed to be "liberating" were in excess of 7,000, with an additional 5,000 tortured and murdered by the NVA/VC in Hue and elsewhere. In Hue alone, allied forces discovered over 2,800 burial sites containing the mutilated bodies of local Vietnamese teachers, doctors, and political leaders.
Only the news media seemed to believe that in some way the Communists had achieved a "victory". To put this in perspective, the news media would have reported the Battle of the Bulge, Hitler's last ditch attempt to stop the allied forces in Europe, as a "disaster" for the Allies. They would have said that "despite Allied efforts, the enemy still has the means to mount a major offensive, and therefore the war in Europe is unwinable". Sound goofy? Well, that is exactly what Walter Cronkite said on national TV after the 1968 Tet offensive. He did not say this in WWII, mostly because the news media operated under strict war time secrecy laws that discouraged any negative reporting. For example, in WWII it was expressly forbidden to show the bodies of dead American soldiers in any newsreel footage or photograph. Any photos or film that did so were simply confiscated by military censors. When was the last time you saw a history book that had photos of dead GIs? Find a newspaper photo in the New York Times morgue that depicts a dead American soldier in WWII. Would there have been pressure on the home front to end our involvement in WWII had the media been permitted to show live pictures of GIs who had lost both legs to a German mine? Or photos of the thousands of Marines who were dying to capture islands no one could even find on a map? Islands which we gave back after the war.
In Vietnam however the media operated under no such restrictions and were free to go wherever they wanted and film and photograph whatever they wanted. Despite this the overwhelming majority of the media never left the comfort of Saigon. The film clips of Morley Safer, Charles Kuralt, and others which seem to depict raging firefights in the background are very likely staged events. If you look closely at these film clips you will notice that the people in the background are acting rather nonchalant for people in a firefight. Only the reporter seems to be crouching low to avoid being "hit". Keep in mind that by carefully composing a scene, a camerman can make a small crowd of people look like a mob of thousands. So too can a couple of people firing M-16s be made to appear as if a firefight is in progress.
McCain fears American victory in Iraq?
I went to public school, but even I knew tet was a victory for us. Jane Fonda be damned.