Posted on 08/15/2009 7:34:58 PM PDT by RobinMasters
In his recent appearance on the Roger Hedgecock Show, Richard Botkin, author of "Ride the Thunder," shares the heroic and largely untold story of how South Vietnamese warriors and their American counterparts almost won the Vietnam War.
Hedgecock's nationally syndicated daily radio show can be heard in 75+ markets and on XM Satellite. His show streams live on WND from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Eastern.
Marine Capt. Botkin toured battlefields in Vietnam and has chronicled the Vietnamese military organization called TQLC, whose members, with their American advisers, "fought, bled, endured and triumphed against communism."
Botkin's book tells a new Vietnam history with a unique twist – a happy and inspiring ending. It has been an instant hit with booksellers and reviewers, Vietnam vets and the South Vietnamese community in the U.S.
In his interview with Hedgecock, Botkin said his goal in writing the book was to "honor and affirm the warrior" with a story about brave men facing tough times and overcoming in the face of extreme adversity.
(Excerpt) Read more at wnd.com ...
Bookmarking this one. Looking forward to reading the comments. Thanks for the post RobinMasters.
Lamh Foistenach Abu!
My research tells me that we should have won the Vietnam War in 1968 when the USA kicked their butts around and chased them back to the north during the TET offensive.
Our military was so much better than theirs. It was equal to a game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the TCU horned frogs,
but politicians wouldn’t let our guys win the war,
am I right ?
Amen bro
Click the 'Bump' Graphic
Great picture! It’s going on my Facebook page, if you don’t mind.
A Vietnam vet friend, who recently passed away, had a bumper sticker on his truck that said, “We Were Winning When I Left.”
Joe’s finances were a mess when he died. He owed everybody money and his Polish girlfriend didn’t want him to be buried at Lincoln National Cemetery near Joliet, IL (she can’t drive). Thankfully, Catholic Charities came through with a burial plot. I was able to contribute about 20% and an American flag from OIF Marines. I thought that was a nice touch - new veterans saluting a past veteran.
You are correct! When the VC were wiped out during the Tet, North Vietnam had no choice but to use their own army. If we had continued supporting South Vietnam especially with air power, the South would be free today.
Lamh Foistenach Abu!
Very nice on your part.
I think LBJ’s major interest was line his pockets with his fence company, his part ownersship in KBR that did all the construction and TX defense companies.
Nixon and Gen. Creighton Abrams almost turn the tide except the scum left with connections to the Viet Cong in Canada sabatoged the effort. That scum included Kerry, Teddy Kennedy, Jane Fonda, Cronkite and other vermin.
Vietnam was JFK/LBJ’s war but our guys were out to win and so was Nixon.
LBJ left office the second wealthiest President in history. H Washington was a billionaire adjusted for inflation. Nixon was broke when he left office. He never made nickel off the war.
Please feel free to do so. :-)
dead on the money LVR. I saw a history channel(?) program not to long ago with quite a few interviews/discussions with some of those brave pilots that made it back and what they described regarding quite a few of their orders and what they were allowed, (and not allowed) to do was nothing short of complete insanity imho. It made me furious to listen to what those men went thru, talk about your hands being tied is right. sure there were concerns of the USSR and escalation fears involved but DAMN...........your father has my thanks for his service those many years ago.
The loss of Vietnam came only later, after we had essentially left the field and ceased to support the RVN logistically. Given that support, it's entirely possible that the RVN might still exist. If only Watergate hadn't happened...
How many died because the media were helping them and the idiots in DC were preventing our military from getting the job done? UGH!
Always remember who was responsible that monumental betrayal of our soldiers and our allies, one of the worst in human history: the media-industrial complex and its political arm, the Democrat Party.
Never forget, never forgive.
Calling it a night. Will check back in the AM.
Since I am a USAF Colonel’s daughter, here is one of my favorite videos.
A tribute to the USAF:
http://www.media-magik.com/usaf.html
What is his view of "Thud Ridge" by Col. Jack Broughton? I think that book gave an excellent picture of the absurd restrictions under which the F-105s had to operate.
Thanks. Broughton also wrote a followup twenty years later titled “Going Downtown.” It’s worth reading as well.
The U.S. and the SVN were winning the VN war. The Democrat Congress lost it all when they chose to eliminate funding for continued supplies of ammo, etc. to the SVN AFTER they forced the withdrawal of U.S. force. We would have won it much earlier if the left had not forced an end to the bombing of the North.
“..am I right ?”
It was a larger war than just the Tet offensive but we did put a major hurt on them. The biggest blow of the Tet Offensive was Uncle Walter convincing the hippies and their lefty mommies that the U.S. had lost the Tet effort although we had a decisive win. Walter Cronkite did a complete spin job to the detriment of the U.S. troops.
I’ve never been able to find proof that Giap said that. I’d still like to find out if that came out of an interview with him. I didn’t find it in the book he wrote.
Hey, Doc! How are ya? This is an encouraging thread... Guess I’ll hafta find that book! But when I left, according to Uncle Wally, we had lost the year before!
I don’t know if he said it or not, but it’s nonetheless true. Linebacker II hurt the commies, badly. It was a full-on, World War II scale saturation attack, and even though the first part of the campaign was poorly planned, resulting in lost aircraft and needless death, the campaign as a whole was a body blow to North Vietnam. By the time the last raid occurred (99 B-52s, plus a large number of tactical aircraft), Hanoi was on the ropes. We had leveled pretty much every logistical and industrial site in North Vietnam, including electric power stations, POL and petroleum storage, marshaling yards, freight terminals, warehouses, munitions dumps, dockyards, and so forth. A week or two more bombing at that level would have finished off the commies.
My wife and I know people from South Vietnam who now live in our community. These are people who survived horrible carnage in refugee camps. They experienced hardship very few of us born in this country are capable of imagining. The friends we know who made it here from South Vietnam are some of the hardest working most patriotic conservative Americans we know.
We have another friend who was my hang glider instructor; he was a Green Beret and was deployed as an adviser early in the war. He told me of the tremendous courage and heroism of the young Vietnamese men that he trained and helped lead in battle. These were amazing stories. I will be looking for Richard Botkin’s book.
But Giap was a ruthless and brilliant General, and he would have been well aware that the reporting of the American media and the American domestic dissent it stoked was having an impact on American political decisions concerning the war, thus aiding his efforts.
With that in mind, even if Giap never uttered those exact words, or ever wrote them down somewhere, he would certainly see the truth in them, even if his own code of honor made it impossible for him to admit it.
I grew up watching the Vietnam War on the 7:00 pm News, with Cronkite and the like.
Our men didn't nearly win the war, they DID their part, but the politicians and the MSM undermined them and stole victory from their grasps.
The Politicians and the MSM of that era have the blood of Americas finest sons on their hands.
May they both suffer their portion of the fires of hell.
Unfortunately Obama still may do so.
AS we used to say : "It don't mean nuthin".
Words I live by...
We were paid to stop the communist aggression, which we did. Some paying the ultimate price...
Now they want us to lay down, do nothing, and allow that same communist organization to destroy Our Nation!
They have no idea what "Payback" truly means if they continue down this path of destruction...
I think there’s a possibility it came from an interview with Giap. There was one writer for whom I tried to find contact info. Never was able to find it.
thank you for your service. I will never forget what you and men such as yourself did for this country.
There are ALWAYS Rules of Engagement. Sometimes they are real simple (and I like simple), such as “Go there. Kill everything that moves. Do not use nukes. Come home.” Other times (like Vietnam), we have a braying jackass like LBJ who must PERSONALLY approve each day’s bombing lists and get LOTS of our brothers killed for no good reason!!!
DC Wright
USMC Phu Bai, 1969
NVA and VC won the war by simple fact:
Did not wanted to stop fighting. Period.
Your teacher is pretty wreong. You see, if US and allies could not have won the war in 50% of nowdays Vietnam, How would they have won the war if they captured 100% of nowdays Vietnam?
Just look at Afghanistan. Was it occupied? Yes. 100% occupied? Yes. Won? No.
Yes. NVA could have ben defeated, but VC would spread across entire nation.
There was a series of interviews, with Giap, that I vaguely remember seeing in either the late 80’s or early 90’s on one of the alphabets. The gist of one section of them was that very comment. I cannot remember if he said that precisely but he did allude to it. Since the interview was conducted by the alphabets, I am certain they would have edited that type of comment out. I do remember feeling a sense of vindication for what all the nam’ guys did and went through (I was too young). We discussed it on active duty quite a bit. A lot of anger towards the press monkeys at that time. We hated them with a flipping purple passion.
Lamh Foistenach Abu!
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