Comment

To Troutbirder: I'll try this again after losing a previously penned response that disappeared somewhere between Vietnam and Google headquarters, wherever that may be. You mentioned that a relative had said that we could have won in Vietnam if we had just bombed more. Wars cannot be won by bombing, alone. We dropped more ordnance on Vietnam than we dropped on Japan and Germany combined during WWII. What did that accomplish? Not much, as we were still losing. There are vast forests in VN, easily hiding NVA forces. Bombing's effects are limited. There were regular army units of hardened North Vietnamese divisions having the run of the place all over the south, as well as popular front forces (Viet Cong) who could hit us at will. The ARVN (the Army of the Republic of Viet Nam), our allies, wouldn't fight with any effectiveness. They knew the so-called democratic government of South Vietnam was corrupt and didn't represent the the vast majority of the Vietnamese. I asked Mrs. Lam, the teacher across the hall from me who lived in Vietnam, if they ever thought the North would win. She said all the Vietnamese knew the North would win eventually, they just didn't know how soon. President Thieu of South Viet Nam had periodic elections to give the appearance of a democratically elected government, but they were bogus. I read where the U.S. ambassador suggested to Thieu that his elections would look more believable if he would just win by 65% or even 70%. But Thieu would have none of it - he always won by 99%. That war was unwinnable because it was started under false pretenses, we weren't backing the will of the people, and you can't make the people like us by killing them. We did some terrible things to this country. They just wanted peace and a unified country as any patriotic Vietnamese would. Your question alluded to betrayal. By whom, the press? They were just reporting the truth. Betrayal is oft used to explain losses, like Hitler often played that card saying Germany only lost WWI because they were betrayed by a panoply of conspiracies, none of which had any validity. Many Americans are humiliated by the picture of helicopters on the American Embassy roof in the ignominious withdrawal from Vietnam. We should be more humiliated by the choice made by our leaders to try and push Vietnam around under an ill-conceived, militaristic, colonial, can-do policy by the best and the brightest presidential advisors ever to grace the sacred halls of the White House.