The War We Could Have Won [Truth on 'Nam published in NY Times!]

The New York Times ^ | May 1, 2005 | By STEPHEN J. MORRIS

[international american]

The ultimate insult....

[bitt]

just in case you didn't see this ping...

[brazzaville]

Good evening.

I say the war was not lost until Nixon's burglars got caught.

After Tet of '68 the communists were badly damaged and ARVN was growing stronger. Even as the antiwar movement grew louder the military picture improved and Nixon had the courage to bomb the pee out of the communists so that it took them more time to recover.

When the communists launched an armor heavy attack in 1972 they were defeated, again, by ARVN and American air power but the attack was portrayed by the DemocRATs and the media as proof that the war could not be won. Was I being redundant there, saying DemocRATs and media in the same sentence?

Nixon launched the bombing campaign and Hanoi was very close to giving it all up. The pressure on Nixon was ratcheted up and Nixon's burglars were organized.

In my opinion that was when the war was lost.

Of course, we all know what opinions are like.

Michael Frazier

[longtermmemmory]

so now the left is admitting they were wrong and are just saying "oops, we appologize for the inconvenience"?

[international american]

BRAVO!!

One of the most intelligent posts I have seen all year.

[international american]

:)

[redrock]

Today...I was talking to a Vietnamese Refugee...one of the 'Boat People' who came to Utah.

We talked for hours about the times in Vietnam...the fighting...the death and destruction.

Of how his people had such hopes for the future. Of how his people believed in what we told them about how Nations SHOULD be run. Freedom...Rights....Responsiblility.

We talked about his parents who couldn't get out of Vietnam...and we're sent to some 'Labour Camp'...never to be heard from again.(even all these years later you could hear the pain when he talked about it.)

We can always dance around the truth (after all...it's a very human trait)....but the last thing he said to me will stick with me for a long time.

"America gave up on us too soon. With a little more help...we would have made it. All the dead....for nothing."

redrock

p.s. Tonk...he did tell me to pass on to every Vietnam Vet I know the following words....."Thank You."

[international american]

Must be "all you can drink night" at the local watering hole : )

[Travis McGee]

Not here, unless you mean reheated coffee.

[international american]

"The NYT editors must have been off this weekend."

I was inferring that the editorial staff was all drunk. I did not make myself clear, and I am paying the price for it. I happen to be a fan of yours.

[Travis McGee]

Oh no, I got that. I was just clumsily mentioning that my late night brew is caffeine.

[G.Mason]

"But those changes [in Vietnam] were not inevitable and would not necessarily have occurred had Mikhail Gorbachev not ascended to power in Moscow, and had the Soviet Union and its empire not collapsed."

All Hail ... Oh Conquering Russian Hero!

[garbanzo]

The Congressional Dems cutoff of financial aid to our allies was disgraceful and unforgivable.

In my view, a direct line can be drawn between the US pullout of Vietnam and 9/11. Once small-time despots and the like realized that you didn't need a big military force to defeat the major powers - you just needed to cause enough discomfort to get people to leave, I think you see the beginnings of the modern terrorist movement.

[hershey]

CNN and NPR celebrated our defeat all weekend.

[Allan]

bump

[sawdust]

"by ARVN and American air power"

The operative phrase here is AMERICAN AIR POWER. ARVN was never able to defeat large-scale conventional NVA attacks without US air power. Did it never occur to the Thieu government that, one day, the American people would insist ARVN fought its own battles?

[CGVet58]

hmmm; sounds dicey, and brings to mind an old adage;

"it's one thing to call the Devil; quite another to see him coming."

[CGVet58]

heartbreaking account - and motivation enough to stand against the left to my great gettin'-up day when the Good Lord issues me my final PCS orders.

And yet another reason to give thanks for the SWVTT - our heroes who may have shed the uniform they wore so proudly thirty years ago, but who never forgot their eternal oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic (got that, ketchup boy?).

[Reader of news]

The Vietnamese Communists owe thanks to the media, John Kerry, Ted Kennedy, Jane Fonda and so on. And to the Clintons, too: even though they weren't known then, they were leftist activists.

[quadrant]

I agree that for all intents and purposes the Viet Cong ceased to exits after Tet and that the military
proficiency of the ARVN increased during the early years of the first Nixon presidency.
However, the ARVN never developed the skill necessary to cope with the North Vietnamese army without a US help. Perhaps the ARVN could have developed this skill over time,
but by 1970-71, a significant percentage of the people of the US, especially those people who wielded great influence over public opinion, were war weary and wanted out of the conflict, regardless of the consequences.
This unwillingness to support the ARVN had tragic consequences for the US troops who were required to serve in Vietnam and especially for the Vietnamese who had put their trust in the word of the US.