[Chainmail]

Hey "Leaning Left" - you haven't answered me yet. The main mistakes LBJ did was to incrementalize our deployments and to micromanage targets on the mistaken belief that the NVA were rational - and the very real fear that if we directly invaded North Vietnam or attacked Soviet assets in North Vietnam, that they or the Chinese would enter the war directly.

But as far as the Vietnam War goes, it was necessary in that corner of the Cold War.

Trust me: I was there and invested some my own body in the process. The real shame for the American people and our Congress and eventually Gerald Ford was that we quit on the South Vietnamese.

[Leaning Right]

You have personal experience with this topic, so I would have enjoyed continuing this conversation with you. Perhaps I would have learned something. (And that’s one great thing about FR. You can learn a lot here.)

I have considerable experience in physics. But I have never insulted anyone here, even when they say something very wrong about physics. But for some reason you are continuing with the personal insults. So I will have to break off any further conversion. You can, of course, reply to me again if you wish. But I won’t respond.

[kearnyirish2]

Dems blocked additional funding and arms for South Vietnam; they were literally running out of ammo in 1975. Ford didn’t make the deal to take us out of the war; that was Nixon’s scheme (leaving while pretending we “won”).