Posted on 12/19/2007 6:59:14 AM PST by april15Bendovr
I heard recently on the Rush Limbaugh show this quote.
"What we still don't understand is why you Americans stopped the bombing of Hanoi. You had us on the ropes. If you had pressed us a little harder, just for another day or two, we were ready to surrender! It was the same at the battles of TET. You defeated us! We knew it, and we thought you knew it.
But we were elated to notice your media was definitely helping us. They were causing more disruption in America than we could in the battlefields. We were ready to surrender. You had won!"
After I used this quote I have been informed that this memoir is listed as a Urban Legend.
http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_general_giap.htm
Can anyone help me prove that this "False status" in itself is an urban legend?
I attended college in those days and believe me; the hard left on campus made any Veteran unwilling to admit he was a “baby killer” and that the war was wrong....very VERY UNCOMFORTABLE on campus.
It was shameful that the so called Professors of the age were in on this disgusting treatment of veterans also.
Its like getting the facts reporting in the green zone.
Well, like Wiki, it probably depends on what the area you’re looking up is. I was surprised to find, when I started Grad school last summer, that my professor loves Wiki, uses it all the time, no problem with us citing it as a source. But that was in biology.
That would be Snopes and urban-legends reporting in the green zone just to make myself clear.
I agree. I was just addressing the specific question as to whether Giap (or ANY N. Viet leader) actually said this. It sounds too “Americanized,” but I know these sentiments were in play in Hanoi.
McCain’s or Giap’s?
Wrong. POW’s are always in a position to get an inkling on what is going on. Many times POW’s have been able to create relationships with one or two or several guards and information is gained. In addition, guard attitudes change, rations change, POW’s see more discussions between guards, tempers may flair, and they can hear the bombs falling.
PLEASE don’t think that when a US Soldier gets captured he considers his duty finished until his release. There are always de-briefings on information a POW’s may have gleaned after their release. POW’s continue their obligation to the best of their ability even during imprisonment by the enemy.
bookmarked
Get yourself a copy of the 3 August 1995 edition of the Wall Street Journal (your local library probably has it on microfilm) and read Col. Bui Tin's interview.
I did.
He also knew that he could get his ass kicked and still win politically and that's exactly what happened.
Whether he said these exact words or not is of little consequence. He knew he was a loser militarily and could only win politically, he just didn't expect to be so thouroughly beaten militarily while reaping such huge political rewards courtesy of the American media and left.
Thta's the truth of the matter and nothing John Kerry, Snopes or anybody else says will ever change it.
This is a link to one documented reference to this interview...
What did the North Vietnamese leadership think of the American antiwar movement? What was the purpose of the Tet Offensive? How could the U.S. have been more successful in fighting the Vietnam War? Bui Tin, a former colonel in the North Vietnamese army, answers these questions in the following excerpts from an interview conducted by Stephen Young, a Minnesota attorney and human-rights activist [in The Wall Street Journal, 3 August 1995]. Bui Tin, who served on the general staff of North Vietnam's army, received the unconditional surrender of South Vietnam on April 30, 1975. He later became editor of the People's Daily, the official newspaper of Vietnam. He now lives in Paris, where he immigrated after becoming disillusioned with the fruits of Vietnamese communism.
Obviously, Colonel Bui Tin was in a position to make those statements.
Snopes is run by Lefties who excuse their biases by saying that true or false or indeterminate can come down to the framing synopsis.
So if the quote was said by someone ELSE, it is considered false in total rather than saying “a prominent North Vietnamese military figure said...”.
But if you look at Snopes, pay close attention to the subsequent paragraphs. You’ll find all sorts of details that undercut their case. Again (as I say in another post), Snopes frames “true or false” on a carefully worded synopsis claim.
It all depends on what the meaning of the word “IS” is.
And I mean this about any Snopes topic, not specifically this listing.
To the Local Socialist, being a lowly colonel makes it not count.
It doesn't matter that Bui Tin worked in the North Vietnamese Army General Staff, and that he accepted the surrender of South Vietnam.
That doesn't make him a leader!
< /sarc >
Yep, they weren’t “anti-war” at all. They just thought we were fighting for the wrong side.
The sheer moxie and gall of liberals (in the light of the facts as you outlined them in your post) to trot out John F. Kennedy as a model Democrat, invoking his Inaugural Address:
"Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans—born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage—and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this Nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.
Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty."
To hear this, mouthed by people like Ted Kennedy or Nancy Pelosi, and other liberals who nod in approval, is simply maddening given the facts.
Don't forget the perfidy of the MSM ... Walter Cronkite, King of Liars, converted "disastrous defeat" to "stunning victory" for his heroes the Viet Cong.
Bui Tin that worked as a journalist for the Communist Army newspaper?
I just want to make sure this is the same person. I am going to use his name in a youtube video I am making.
No. He was a colonel on Gen. Giap's staff. Accepted the surrender of South Vietnam.
The article in the WSJ was an interview of him by someone else.
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