That sort of thing coupled with the way the war was being prosecuted by our side pretty much killed any political support for the war in the US. A real war between the US and North Vietnam should last a year, tops. Moreover, there is no rational way anybody can ask draftees to fight in such a thing or draft the boy next door and tell him it's somehow or other his patriotic duty to go into harms way for something which clearly amounts to a geopolitical game with no semblence of a declaration of war or a real commitment.
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Well put. Nam was a disaster and a tragic waste of our soldiers lives, in monumental proportions, because it was a war that was NOT FOUGHT TO BE WON, just scripted by politicians and not to be fought and won by military commanders. Washington politics out of control.
A few words on "re-education."
For a loyal soldier of the Forces of South Vietnam, the standard trip to hell at the hands of the Communists was 13 years. If you lived.
My wife's brother Fong died in the prison. Rest his soul. My wife, thankfully, is a survivor. She persevered for eight long years.
I met, just the other day at the Jiffy Lube, one Mr. Nguyen Nguu. I think he was a Lieutenant Colonel because he was a graduate of the Command and Staff College at Da Lat.
He spent thirteen years as a "guest of the Communists."
It is never pretty.
Please go and read and ppost a comment at:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/1734005/posts?page=2