Posted on 09/29/2010 8:45:45 PM PDT by Abakumov
Since its generally acceptedbut wrongthat Tet drove the American people against the Vietnam war, you have a class of commentators, and people in government too, who keep anticipating this kind of eventsome grand event that will suddenly mark a sea change in the support of any military effort overseas, at which point people just turn against it, says James S. Robbins, author of the new book "This Time We Win: Revisiting the Tet Offensive."...
To Robbins, the Vietnam narrative must be reclaimed from the ruling class of hippies and leftists, who went from protests to the U.S. Senate in some cases and those who went from dope-smoking teach-ins to teaching from tenured positions on college campuses.
They set the agenda, they were the ones who put all this in place, Robbins says. And its really about time for all this to be untangled and Vietnam to be looked at objectively. Because what they have put in place, in terms of the lessons and the history and the morality of the war, its all very damaging to our national security right now.
(Excerpt) Read more at bigpeace.com ...
The lies fed to the public by Walter Crankcase and SeeBS about Tet was a bigger hoax and scam than Algore’s “global warming”.
That’s why the MSM during Bush’s years wanted their own trophy: the defeat of the US, their Vietnam. These so-called anti-war pukes didnt get theirs due to patriotic Americans who wont stand for that crap.
I will read this book.
I have my own theory - that the US could have established a Peace similar to Korea, at least - if we had remained committed to our S. Vietnam allies until 1976 or slightly beyond that. The death of Mao and the purge of the ultra-leftists in China after Mao’s death would have had dramatic effects on China’s outright support for North Vietnam.
Because there were different grown ups in 2004 versus 1968.
The 40 to 58 year old Americans were not going to stand for what their more liberal parents tolerated in 1968 from the mainstream media.
Well said. That is exactly how I saw their bitterness and disgusting behavior.
They were, and still are, trying to revisit what they saw as their greatest victory.
In 2009 American gets kicked in the groin again because of its blind trust in a single man..
It’s hard to sustain a war effort......
At first people want to fight the commies or Saddam Hussein...then, then as costs in lives and money add up, they question their support and turn against those who drummed up the support in the first place-—feeling they were manipulated......
At first people think “we’re against”........but then they wonder who they are sending others to fight FOR......seeing abstractions and gray areas....and wondering who the friends or enemies are.....
It hurt to have Saddam Hussein on ice for so long, because as long as he was alive, people feared he could come back again.....
If only the soldiers who found Saddam had tossed a grenade into the spider hole......
As far as Tet was concerned, it might have been a victory, but people were looking for an excuse to turn against the war———people lose their stomach after a while of watching other people getting killed on their behalf.. and at some point people feel immoral to support a war unless it’s against Hitler or a domestic invasion, etc....
Most Americans have still not learned that lesson, and never will. I bet Cronkite would still poll very high for objectivity among those old enough to remember his "reporting." He was an effective propagandist.
I was there during TET— hit with a lot of rockets, but we did much more damage to them. The North Vietnamese general (Giap?) wrote a book and said they were ready to surrender until they heard the liberal press over here.
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