Instead, it was Congress – more specifically, the nearly 2-to-1 Democrat majority in the Senate (61 to 37) and the House (291 to 144) in 1975 – that voted to cut off all military funding to the Saigon government that was directly responsible for the defeat of South Vietnam.Congressional Democrats literally abandoned our South Vietnamese allies and it was they, not the U.S. military, who were responsible for the carnage that followed, the slaughter, imprisonment and forced "re-education" of millions of innocent civilians throughout Southeast Asia by an avenging North Vietnamese Army.
This was, IMHO, among the most invidious betrayals in America's otherwise proud history. It should also serve as a reminder never to trust the left, even it's more moderate elements. Although it was tacit rather than explicit, and excluded the most radical leftists who openly wanted the communists to triumph, there was effectively a "bargain" struck between hawks and doves with and after the election of Nixon. It's terms were that the hawks, and the Nixon administration, would extricate American forces from Vietnam, that is they would "bring the troops home," and in exchange the doves would agree to continued support for America's allies in Indochina and necessary enforcement of peace treaties.
Nixon and the hawks kept their side of the bargain, and the left, including the "moderate" left, reneged, slashing aid again and again and again -- viciously, vindictively, gratuitously -- far beyond anything explainable by mere political expediency. The South Vietnamese army, for instance, was forced to heavily ration artillery shells during the last year of their struggle, and at the end their forces literally ran out of bullets. For Cambodia the situation was even worse. Aid had been cut off entirely, and even reconnaissance flights over the country were prohibited by Congress.
Nixon almost managed to salvage a 'Rat debacle in South Vietnam (and even President Ford courageously continued to demand reasonable and necessary levels of aid for South Vietnam, even when there was no chance of Congressional acquiescence). Nixon fought far more effectively than LBJ even with a small fraction of the forces that the 'Rats had committed (in large part simply by doing the bleeding obvious -- bombing the hell out of the North and attacking North Vietnamese forces in Cambodia and Laos) and consequently achieved a peace agreement that the liberals, doves and radicals had all declared impossible.
It's almost as though the 'Rats were determined that the war be lost, and actively and energetically sabotaged both aid and treaty enforcement to acheive the end. We know that the radical left and much of the "peace" movement's leadership desired this, but what is truly shocking, and should be a caution to Americans even today, is the extent to which the behavior of moderate leftists and liberals coincided with the goal of America being shamed and defeated (no matter what the cost in lives to the Indochinese people).
I became a Republican while still in high school during the Kennedy vs Nixon campaign. I oppose almost everything the liberal Democrats have stood for since then. However, I think my dislike for everything Democrat is deeply rooted in their betrayal of the United States military in Vietnam. It was because of Democrat duplicity in conducting that war that I lost many friends. The government's attempt to micromanage the war hamstrung the military and eventually cost us many lives and eventually the war. Had the military leaders been allowed to conduct the war with victory as the goal it would not have lasted half as long as it did.